Thoughts on flying on the cheap vs. on a reputable airline?

I flew Aeroflot once from Washington DC to India. The Russian passengers cheered when we landed successfully. No joke. The worst part of it, actually, was that Aeroflot still had a smoking section at the back of the plane (this was in 2002) and our seats were 1 row ahead of that section. Half the plane must have come to the smoking section and stood in the aisle satisfying their urge during the flight. On the bright side, it was cheap!

i mean if you can save 600 bucks by satisfying a few luxury features by being on a cheap plane for like 24 hours. From personal experience, the only problem that cheap airlines have are that the seats arent comfortable enough (etihad), they lack a personal tv/monitor in front and the food sucks. But remember all this is for a day only. SO once you land you can spend that $ 600 on alot of other thin gs

For Ukranian Air to be allowed to fly into the US, it must meet certain FAA safety standards. It might be uncomfortable, but it shouldn't be any more dangerous than any other airline.

Ukrainian Air flies Amsterdam to Ukraine, not into the U.S. Whaddya think?

I would think that any airline that a European country would allow to fly into their country would be OK. International airlines usually are. It's domestic airlines, that are regulated only internally, that I would be more nervous about.

I'll second the advice by sjg.. I think that you should be pretty safe on any international flight in or between the US/Europe and any other location... The thing about flying long distance is that even though you may think that discomfort is manageable - if you haven't done it before on a long long flight, then I'd be at least a little wary.. just because you might get off the plane wishing more than anything that you'd just spent the 600, and had a decent flight. that's been my experience, anyway. good luck!

To add to my previous answer, I'd third(?) the advice by sjg102379 regarding int'l -vs- domestic. The Aeroflot flight I took, being international, was on a relatively new 767. I wasn't worried about the viability of the plane itself. But, if I were flying Aeroflot within Russia, I'd probably pack my own parachute.

You might want to check websites like Flyertalk, SeatExpert, or SeatGuru to see if people on the message boards at FlyerTalk have previous experience with those airlines, or if the Seat sites tell you anything about the comfort of them.

I do echo the previous comments—the US and EU (as well as most countries, period) both have strict flight laws; I have no reason to think the Ukranian airline is any less safe than any other you’re used to flying.