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Before you book with a certain airline, you may want to read reviews about that airline if you’re hesitant or unsure about booking with that carrier. While passengers will be more likely to write comments about an airline if something goes wrong, these can often be the best ones to read, because they're a telltale sign of whether an airline can handle problems correctly. Reviews can also inform you if you’re unsure what meal or entertainment options are offered on the flight. The three sites below contain an array of flight reviews and passenger comments that can help you make an informed decision about whom to book with.
If possible, read reviews on multiple sites to gauge an accurate picture of the airline. A perfect example is Ryanair, Europe's most popular low-fare airline. The reviews on Skytrax are primarily negative, full of Ryanair horror stories. But the reviews on Carsurvey.org are mostly positive, with passengers discussing cheap, comfortable flights. Reading either site by itself could leave you with an unfair bias about a carrier. To help other passengers make an educated decision about air carriers, consider writing a review of your own.
Skytrax: Skytrax (their domain is www.airlinequality.com) offers the best reviews and a diverse set of opinions about nearly every airline worldwide. The site offers a number of ways passengers can comment about their trip. Flight Reviews are long, detailed reviews by passengers that detail various elements of their experience, from check-in to meals to baggage. The reviews are relatively lengthy, some reviewers going so far as to list the menu of meal options they had. Flight Checks are truncated versions of Flight Reviews, with passengers noting the various elements of their experience, but not going in-depth on each point. Finally, Skytrax’s Airline Forums feature passenger comments that range from essentially a flight review with lengthy paragraphs to a couple sentences doting on one point, such as an airline’s checked baggage limits.
Epinions: Epinions.com offers reviews on everything from movies to baseball bats, as well as travel. Epinions doesn’t have reviews on nearly as many airlines as Skytrax, but does offer a good selection of reviews for airlines in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and has reviews for some airlines elsewhere. Reviews on Epinions range from very short, just a couple sentences, to long multi-paragraph tirades about a carrier. After many reviews, readers leave comments, to point out flaws or add to the reviewer’s point.
Carsurvey: Carsurvey.org primarily offers a wide variety of flight reviews for airlines in North America and Europe, though you can find a limited number of reviews about select airlines on other continents. The reviews range from a couple sentences to several paragraphs, and at the end of each one is a scorecard that includes among other things, whether you would fly with that airline again and what score out of 10 you would give the airline on several key points.