ion
TOP
G•
etting there isn’thalfthefun,butgettingthere incomfortandstylecanbethedifferencebetween a good trip and a sorry one. no one understands that better than Singapore Airlines, which once againearnsthetopscoreamonginternationalcarriers (89.5).Emirates is the only other airline to achieve a score above 80.0 in thisdemandingcategory. emergingonthedomesticscene,VirginAmerica overtakesthecompetitionwithease,thankstoaparticularlyhighscore(83.7) for entertainment Options.Among carriers with no U.S.routes,Asia’s SilkAir claims the top score (54.1). two cruise lines each earn ratings above 90: perennial favorites Crystal Cruises (93.1) and Regent Seven Seas, whose largeships(SevenSeasMarinerandSevenSeasVoyager)combinetoscore90.2.
25
Top
AIRLInES
IntERnAtIonAL RoUtES
•
MeTHOdOLOGy
Every year since 1988, a select sample of Condé Nast Traveler readers have taken the Readers’ Choice Survey. In 2008, the questionnaire was available to all readers through a secure Web site. The final tabulations of 32,633 responses were done by Mediamark Research, Inc., of New York City. Organization Poll categories (Cities, Hotels, etc.), and the criteria for each, appear at the bottom of the first page in every category. Questionnaires contained lists of candidates (individual cities, hotels, etc.), and write-ins were allowed. Only candidates that received a required minimum number of responses were deemed eligible for an award. Evaluation Each candidate was rated, criterion by criterion, on a fivepoint scale: excellent, very good, good, fair, poor. Criterion scores, which represent the percentage of respondents rating a candidate excellent or very good, were averaged to determine the final score— e.g., in the category of Islands, Maui’s 89.5 is the average of its scores for Activities, Atmosphere/ Ambience, Beaches, Friendliness, Lodging, Restaurants, and Scenery.
CAR RENTAL AgENCIES RATEd ON
20
Top
cRUISE L I n E S
LARGE SHIPS*
1 Singapore Airlines 89.5 2 Emirates 82.5 3 Virgin Atlantic 76.4 4 Cathay Pacific 76.0 5 JAL (Japan Airlines) 72.7 6 Air New Zealand 72.1 7 Thai Airways 71.6 8 ANA (All Nippon
Airways) 70.2
9 Qantas Airways 69.7 0 Korean Air 69.4
DoMEStIc RoUtES
1 Crystal 93.1 2 Regent Seven Seas 90.2 3 Disney 87.1 4 Oceania 85.8 5 Holland America 80.7 6 Celebrity 79.9 7 Cunard 78.1 8 Princess 76.8 9 Peter Deilmann 73.3 0 Royal Caribbean 73.0
SMALL SHIPS
1 Virgin America 75.0 2 JetBlue Airways 62.0 3 Midwest Airlines 60.5 4 Hawaiian Airlines 48.6 5 Sun Country Airlines 45.0 6 Frontier Airlines 44.7 7 Alaska Airlines 44.0 8 Continental Airlines 40.8 9 USA 3000 Airlines 40.4 0 ExpressJet 37.1
foREIGn-onLy RoUtES
Red eye
Serving only seven cities in the United States, Virgin America emerges as the top-rated domestic airline this year, besting previous winners JetBlue and Midwest for the first time.
1 Seabourn 88.8 2 Regent Seven Seas 87.9 3 SeaDream Yacht
Club 87.5
1 SilkAir 54.1 2 Jet Airways 53.1 3 Air Iceland 51.3 4 SriLankan Airlines 47.2 5 Dragonair 45.5
4 Grand Circle Small Ship
Cruises 86.5
5 Silversea 85.7 6 Windstar 82.4 7 Abercrombie &
Rates u Reliability of Fleet u Rental Locations u Service u Staff Efficiency u Vehicle Selection
CRUISE LINES RATEd ON
Kent 81.6 8 Uniworld 81.2 9 Lindblad Expeditions 81.0 0 Avalon Waterways 80.1
*At least 500 passengers
c A R R E n tA L A G E n c I E S
10
Top
Activities/Facilities u Cabins u Crew/ Service u design/Layout u Food/dining u Itineraries/Schedule u Shore Excursions
1 Hertz 64.9 2 Enterprise 62.2 3 Avis 60.9 4 Sixt 59.4 5 National 59.2 6 Alamo 54.7 7 Budget 53.6 7 Europcar 53.6 9 Dollar 50.4 0 Thrifty 49.9
P H oto G R A P H by
V I n c E n t L A fo R E t
225