Travel ranking: Flying
Well, I travel too much... actually way too much. Therefore, I decided I'm entitled as anyone else to elect the best airlines I've travelled in. I'll keep it simple and just divide it into First/Business and Economy Plus/Economy. I've also decided to talk about airports.

So here we go:

First/Business
1. Virgin Atlantic (Upper Class) - I thought a lot about who should be on top and ultimately went for the only airline that I really look forward to travelling in. Best lounge I've ever been in at Heathrow with Spa, Hairdresser, Delicatessen counter, Dining area, Games room and everything is very, very cool... courtesy of the SoHo House crowd. The overall service outside the flight is indeed completed by the limo service which is absolutely great and extremely useful. When onboard the product is great: great swanky seats, nice pjs, massage on board, great inflight entertainment (VOD, etc) and last but definitely not the least lovely flight attendants - very nice (unlike the "matron style" British Airways in-flight service), informal yet professional and yes, cute. Overall, and for the London-bound traveller, the price of BA's Business for a clear First class product. It's a shame they don't fly to more places.

2. Singapore Airlines (First and Business) - Ok, they almost came first right? An extremely good product - seat, great inflight entertainment (VOD, fabulous choice of movies) with some of the nicest flight attendants - really professional, beautiful and nice (maybe too nice sometimes). The rest is vintage Singaporean: good service at good rates with extreme efficiency and a smiley face (albeit a bit artificial at times). Not particularly overwhelmed by the quality of the lounges, but then again nothing compares to Virgin's lounges in Heathrow and in New York... ok, ok, BA's Concorde lounge in New York is quite impressive. Well, back to Singapore Airlines... very good, but not the best. Just not sufficiently exciting.

3. British Airways (First and Business) - I hesitated a lot on this one. Really a lot. Cathay is very good, Asiana is surprisingly good and Qantas is cool. BA is the "devil you know". Always very proficient, always good, extremely good product onboard - the inflight entertainment is not that good in Business... in First they sort of make up for it, but the seats really compensate for it - and ok on the ground - the lounges can be some of the best around, which doesn't say much given the current low quality of almost all lounges, and the lack of the limo service as fellow VA provides is indeed a bit embarrassing. Flight attendants are rarely nice, but always professional. All and all, it's still the great BA... very expensive, but the quality is always there... and you always know what you are getting.

Economy/Economy Plus
1. Singapore Airlines - service much brisker than in First or Business, but quite exceptional on everything else - food, inflight entertainment, in-flight service. For me the best in Economy hands down. The only one that doesn't make you feel that you are loser just because you are in the back of the plane.

2. Virgin Atlantic - good service, good in-flight entertainment. Overall, a good experience, just not tremendously special and you do feel strong "Upper Class envy" in the back... maybe because Upper Class is so damn good.

3. Southwest Airlines - if you are going in Economy, go in style. Southwest is just tremendously fun and that's about it. All the rest is low-cost carrier at its best (worst?), but it's fun, fun, fun.

THE BAD (for every class): Not one comes to mind has being totally impossible to travel in, but some are genuinely not very good. The ones that come to mind: Iberia - it's a pet hate... I admit it, but you can have one of two experiences - great or really bad - and that simply doesn't work when you need to choose an airline to travel with; America West - they are now merged with some other airline, but really, really bad... low cost at its worse... only good thing was the Brazilian flight attendant based in Phoenix (long story... 6 hours of flight to be more accurate). Air China - ok, it's not that bad, but the service is so all over the shop... could definitely learn from DrangonAir or even China Eastern;

Airports
1. Singapore International Airport, Singapore - great stores, a lot of nice spaces that actually make you feel alright, hiper-efficient security and immigration; all this makes a great airport. I never hesitate to go through it if it makes sense. The lounges are good: Singapore Airlines lounges are not exceptional, but very good nonetheless; the BA / Qantas lounges are quite exceptional; the Air France, etc, etc lounges are cool... a lesson in how to do something with high quality that is really not that expensive or overwhelming... minimalism at its best. A shame other airports are simply not that good.

2. Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia - everything is upper-spec - stores, open spaces, it actually makes you feel good. The Malaysia Airlines lounges are great, really great. It is a very efficient place that works really well. Finally, the idea of having an hotel literally in the airport is fantastic. Really enjoy it.

3. Carlsbad Airport, USA - Ok, I'm kidding... it's a shed. If you want to go to the toilet, you have to leave the "airport" and go to the shed next door. Anyway, it's very cool: a VCR (an old one) with videos on and you see the whole ground crew from check-in to security to going on-board... how cool is that. In America, I feel uncomfortable going through airports these days... a clear sign of lost freedom that I believe most people feel over there... a sign of the times we live in. Carlsbad rocks... it is small-time, sub-scale, but works. If I hadn't gone with Carlsbad and had gone with a more "scalable" Airport, it would have been Oslo... absolutely great. Munich would get a special mention for sheer efficiency and for "the airport I have spent most time in, where I've had my best on the ground and my worst on the ground experiences - summer 2005 rings a bell? - I would have to go with Heathrow, the airport I love to hate.

THE BAD: Bangalore airport... it's chaos, absolute chaos. Avoid it if you can; Atlanta - big, big and awful experiences. Difficult to leave from... but strangely enough, difficult to arrive at as well; Mumbai also comes to mind.

SAMPLE AIRLINES: Air France, Sabena, Swiss, TAP Air Portugal, Iberia, Czech Airlines, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Aer Lingus, Virgin Atlantic, Delta Airlines, America West, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Continental Airlines, American Airlines, PGA Portugalia, SAS, Lufthansa, Asiana Airlines, Air China, China Eastern Airlines, DragonAir, Cathay Pacific, ANA, Qantas, Finnair, Air Volare, Alitalia, El Al, BMI, TWA (now extinct).

SAMPLE AIRPORTS: Lisbon, Porto, Bonn, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Barcelona, Ibiza, Madrid, Palma Mallorca, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Paris Orly, Dubai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Shanghai PuDong, Hong Kong, Manila, Denpasar-Bali, Rome, Venice, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, Prague, Zurich, London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Copenhagen, Newark, New York La Guardia, New York JFK, LAX, San Francisco, Chicago, New Orleans, Seattle, San Diego, Carlsbad, San Jose, Tokyo Narita, Seoul, Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Lima, Tel Aviv, Antigua, Barbados, Bangkok, Mumbai, Bangalore, Cape Town, Dublin, Miami.