Flight of fancy: Fly the airline of your dreams

— -- Frequent fliers love to gripe about airlines. And who can blame them? By almost any measure, service at U.S. carriers is at a low.

Just this past summer, the Federal Aviation Administration logged a record number of flight delays. And FlightStats, a firm that tracks planes worldwide, says outright cancellations at U.S. airlines soared to more than 30,000 flights — nearly twice the number of a year ago.

Fliers will tell you, moreover, that coach seats have gotten too cramped; first class no longer is what it used to be; the rollout of in-flight entertainment screens has been far too slow. And then, of course, there's the issue of customer service. Or lack thereof.

Even the U.S. Postal Service, once the poster child for poor customer service, now ranks higher than airlines in the University of Michigan's Customer Satisfaction Index.

Why can't the airlines get it right? Actually, a few carriers do, at least in some areas. Singapore Airlines is praised for everything from its roomier-than-normal seats to its customer service. Southwest wins applause for its upbeat flight attendants. And don't we all wish more airlines had the seat-back TV screens found on JetBlue?

Imagine if we could pick and choose from the best elements of all carriers and bundle them together. Call it piecing together the perfect airline.

USA TODAY asked three top travel experts —Wendy Perrin, consumer news editor of Condé Nast Traveler, Randy Petersen, founder of InsideFlyer magazine and FlyerTalk.com, and Tom Parsons, founder of Bestfares.com — to do just that in 10 categories.

The result: a blueprint for the ideal airline of the future.

As Petersen says, "We can all dream, can't we?"

Best flight attendants

It's not easy dealing with passengers, and flight attendants often get a bad rap. But despite the occasional horror story, Parsons says, the reality is "every airline has a large group of flight attendants who take their jobs seriously."

Still, if you have to pick one to copy, it'd be Southwest, he says. Its chipper attendants "try to keep it a fun ship and a fun trip," with goofy joking and an upbeat vibe.

Petersen favors another airline known for its upbeat attendants: Virgin Atlantic. "It could be the overwhelming British accent," he concedes. "But over 20 flights, I've yet to find a single flight attendant that did not make me feel welcome."