Delta: Merely incompetent, or Plain Evil?

"Clearly you don't many." What does that mean?
I assume you meant to include the word "know." I would ask you, dear Bill, how many Americans do you know? I know quite a number, and very few can be called "provincial." Most are cultured, well-travelled, and well-educated. And that includes people I suspect you would look down upon as typical Americans.
And please don't lecture me about rudeness. It's hypocritical.

The American public is, generally speaking, geographically niave. The transatlantic route you refer to is by no means a "big hop". It is, in fact, the most populated route (by aircraft AND passenger numbers) in the world. More flights are operated on this route than any other.

I wasn't discussing American public naivete, and the fact that a lot of people fly from London to San Francisco does not impose brevity on that flight. The whole world could fly it every day and it would still be a "big hop."

From the East Coast of the US it is actually less than a 7 hour flight.

Nice. It is. But I live in San Francisco. Flying to New York would be worse than useless. Except NYC is fun of course, but it's still a long way from home.

"If you're trying to make your connection ....I certainly hope you left 3+ hours transfer time." What connection time do you estimate you'd need if a passenger were flying London to New York to Dallas? Would three days be adequate?

So....that New York can't assist in transfers either makes Heathrow a model airport? Gack. Anyone who flies into or out of Heathrow - and wants to go somewhere besides London - will tell you how horrible that airport is. What's it with you, do you run the thing?

Not all international flights are nirvana either. Three years ago I was on a Swiss Air flight from Zurich to Mumbai. When we arrived my new $200 Samsonite hard shell suitcase came down the conveyor in pieces with the contents scattered everywhere. It was broken at both the hinges and latches. The Swiss Air reps there responded with shrugged shoulders. I begged them for some tape or string to hold the thing together for my connecting flight to Bangalore but they wouldn't even help me out with that. I finally got help from some Mumbai airport employees and had to buy a new suitcase in Bangalore. The people at Swiss Air wouldn't even apologize.

Back in February I was on a Lufthansa flight from Mumbai to Frankfurt. I fell asleep as soon as I hit the seat and woke up during the meal service. I didn't ask for a meal or even open my mouth but a flight attendant got really angry and lectured me for messing up her service routine. I told her I didn't want a meal and she yelled "It's too late - I've prepared it". She snapped at several other passengers too and another attendant apologized to us as we deboarded.

I was on a Northwest flight to Europe about a year ago that was hitting some mild turbulance and we were told to stay in our seats. After a couple of hours a few people began trying to get up to use the restroom and were threatened with being arrested on arrival if they didn't immediately return to their seats. Nobody ordered any drinks for the last 5 hours and was a mad scramble for the door when we hit Amsterdam.

All of these problems happened in First or Business Class so I can only imagine how bad Economy customers get treated. I've experienced rude, angry, and threatening employees on just about every international airline I've dealt with except for American Airlines flights to Europe. (And I've seen similar stuff on American's domestic flights). I think this is just common with all big carriers. The only airlines where I've had consistently friendly service are Southwest in the U.S. and Jet Airways in India.