From: sks@athena.mit.edu (Soonkyu Shin)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asean,soc.culture.thai,soc.culture.korean,soc.culture.china,soc.culture.taiwan,rec.travel
Subject: Re: Cheap airfares to Asia
Date: 20 Aug 92 06:26:02 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In article <0095F557.D91B69A0@uinpla.npl.uiuc.edu> rhodes@uinpla.npl.uiuc.edu (Michael Rhodes) writes:
>In article <1992Aug18.154614.20797@macc.wisc.edu>, nmrdb@vms.macc.wisc.edu (BEVERLY SEAVEY) writes:
>>In article <1992Aug18.075412.516@news.acns.nwu.edu>, staggers@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Ken Staggers) writes...
>>
>>>In article <16q8o9INN1o3@agate.berkeley.edu> chriskim@ocf.berkeley.edu (Chris M. Kim) writes:
>>>>	Stay away from Northwest or "Northworst" as I have learned from my 
>>>>	horrid experience I had a year ago in going to Seoul.  The flight 
>>>>	was actually quite pleasant.  However, everything that was not 
>>>>
>>>>	The moral of this post is STAY AWAY FROM NORTHWORST!
>>> 
>>>Gee...I am doing NYC-Tokyo, the Tokyp-Beijing, then Hong Kong-Tokyo
>>>starting tomorrow.  First class with FF miles.  I'll let you know how
>>>good or bad it was when I get back.
>>> 
>>>--Ken
>>I recently traveled to Hong Kong via Tokyo, then back via Seoul  on Northwest.
>>No problems, whatsoever.
>
>I too have traveled NW several times across the Pacific, LAX-NRT-SIN,
>SIN-NRT-LAX, LAX-NRT-BKK etc.  and have settled in to specifically requesting
>NW because it has been zero hassles and fine service both air and ground. The
>only airline I would prefer over it is Singapore Airlines but they are too
>expensive.  All airlines can be problematic at different times.
>
>--Mike


As all experienced travelers know, one can travel on any airline going
anywhere and have a miserable time.  It really depends on the specific
crew personnel, the flight attendant, and/or the ground support
personnel one just happens to deal with.  There are some statistical
differences, of course, such as the fact that JAL or other Asian
carriers put on more and younger flight attendants than most U.S.
carriers but this does not necessarily mean that Asian carriers are
better in service than U.S. carriers.  For example, I would never fly
Korean Air again.  In my opinion, their service is consistently lousy.
I am blind and these flight attendants are so inexperienced (Korean Air
flight attendants usually are taken off in their late twenties and so
none of them onboard are experienced, compared to those of U.S.
carriers) that they have no idea how to handle disabled passengers.  I
have had a flight attendant pushing me around by the back.  One time,
when I pressed the call button, a flight attendant came along and told
me that I shouldn't play with that.  Jee, it never occurred to this
woman that i was actually using the button to call an attendant.

The moral of this posting is that all airlines are about the same,
except for those carriers whose flight service personnel are
inexperienced and poorly trained.  I don't believe this is the case for
Northwest or any other U.S. carrier.

=========================================
Soonkyu (SK) Shin
Information Technologies Doctoral Program
MIT Sloan School of Management
Building E53, Room 416
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
Phone: (617) 253-7808
Email: sks@athena.mit.edu
=========================================
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asean