Which is the best airline I have flown in 2021?

I have flown on various airlines to several destinations, let it be domestic or international. However, there are several airlines I found to deserve the merit, so I’ll separate them into various categories:

Business-class: KLM

KLM’s business class may not be as fancy as other carriers and I only had the chance to try non-LCC business class 3 times, but I believe they still deserved the merit.

Seats-wise they are quite comfortable to work and rest on, the food acceptable (they collaborated with an Indonesian celebrity chef for flights to/from Indonesia), and the Delft Blue gift were highly appreciated (think of world’s longest marketing campaign, perhaps?) The crew members were quite straightforward, although that makes the Dutch feel onboard even stronger.

On the ground, their off-station lounges at Denpasar (where I got access to Garuda’s lounge) and Singapore was also quite fine, check-in was reasonably fast, and their luggage allowance considered decent for flights not going to/from the US.

Economy class: Singapore Airlines

On my shuttle flight from Indonesia to Singapore, I have been using Garuda Indonesia for quite a lot of time as Singapore Airlines is usually very expensive yet at the same time despise LCCs (especially if I don’t pay the fare on my own). Several weeks ago, I, fortunately, had the chance to fly them thanks to their promotional fare and despite my high expectation they still managed to deliver them quite well.

Onboard, they still managed to provide an 18″ wide, 32″ pitch economy class which is wider than Garuda’s Boeing 737 economy class, while also offering an extensive array of in-flight entertainment. The kosher meal I ordered also looked and actually tasted proper, a significant upgrade from the previous kosher special meal I ordered on Garuda. While service was slightly rushed and felt a bit robotic at times, they really lived up to my expectation such as when I waited for quite a couple of minutes for my Singapore Sling or when my IFE got some temporary issues.

Services on the ground were nothing to shout about in economy class except that the check-in and luggage collection was fast despite the load of the day.

Read the full review here: Singapore Airlines Dhaka Office

Economy class (runner-up): Qatar Airways

I almost wanted to put Qatar Airways on the top as they are quite a much equivalent to Singapore Airlines which I had the chance to fly on from Jakarta to Rome and Milan to Jakarta, both via Doha as usual but decided otherwise as:

• I got squeezed in their Boeing 787 plane on my way to Rome (let’s hope Singapore won’t put that abysmal 9-abreast seating on their upcoming Boeing 787–10), and
• I got an expired package of condiments (I wonder how they could get away with it, though at least the flight attendants profusely apologized to me several times throughout the flight)

Nonetheless, for the rest of the flights, it was quite a pleasure to fly with them with decent meals and seats, plus they have quite a full bar service in economy class (if only I tried their champagne — they brought Jacquart Brut Mosaique in economy class).

Related Post: Qatar Airways Dhaka Office

Value for money: Malindo Air

Malindo Air is a Malaysia-based hybrid LCC, which is also under the Lion Air group. While they may not deserve to be mentioned the best, at least after my several encounters with them I found them to offer one of the best value for money, even without any special promo running.

My first flight with them was on Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru route where they managed to only charge me US$15 one-way for the 250 km route and also included several perks typically associated with a full-service carrier such as free checked luggage, drink service, acceptable seat pitch (even bigger than Malaysia Airlines), and IFE.

On a longer international flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta, I flew with them on business class simply because it’s cheaper than the full-service economy class from Singapore (after factoring in additional costs to go to Kuala Lumpur; Eric Valega Prawirodidjojo’s answer to Why do people buy first-class flights?). While their lounge was mediocre to abysmal and the offerings onboard felt cheap, they still provided regional business class seats, delivered my meal on real plates, 40 kg checked luggage, and still somehow managed to give me lounge access with only US$70 one-way — the value for money was simply phenomenal.

Related Post: Malindo Air Dhaka Office

Verdict

It very challenging to simply pick one airline as the best one since how one values the service of an airline differ from person to person.