There are a couple of airlines I really love to fly.

For domestic flights, there is nothing (in my not so humble opinion) better than Westjet in Canada. I’ve taken many flights from one end of the country to another and will fly longer and go to out of the way places just to fly with Westjet rather than the alternatives. In fact, I don’t think I’ve been on a domestic flight with any other airline in the past 7-8 years. From the customer service agents, ticketing agents, and flight stewards Westjet seems to staff their positions with the most helpful, generous and genuinely happy people.

For international flights, I love to fly Northwest. Sure, I know that other airlines are fancier, offer more food or cheaper alcohol, but I’ve really got a soft spot for Northwest. They always seem to take care of me. When I’ve had nasty colds, they’ve kept me in liquids and hard candies to sooth my throat. When I forgot to request a vegetarian (nut free) meal, they scrounged around and fed me fresh fruit. Even when I’ve done something stupid (like leaving my cell phone in the airport in Manila) they’ve gone out of their way to track it down, send it via purser from Manila to Tokyo to Minneapolis to Edmonton. Despite my bazillion calls to all of the different airport lost luggage offices, they didn’t lose their cool and did an amazing job finding and returning my cell phone. I was so impressed that I called a long distance customer care number (not an 800 number… I willingly paid for it) just to tell Northwest how much I appreciated the work that their employees had been doing on my behalf.

Airlines can be a pain point for many people but for me these two have gone above and beyond so often that it’s almost become expected.

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