Some airlines are really taking off with customers — and others should be grounded, flyers say.
J.D. Power released its 2024 North America Airline Satisfaction Study, which broke down how travelers graded their carriers from top to bottom.
Close to 1,000 passengers were surveyed on how they experienced a flight just as the industry sees a surge in customers heading into the summer travel season.
The soup-to-nuts evaluation included check-in, boarding, how the flight crew was, entertainment services, food and how their bags were handled. Airport lounges by carrier were also taken into consideration.
Despite coming off a historic spat of chaotic delays and cancellations in late 2022 and 2023, customers said their biggest priority wasn’t solely getting somewhere on time at a reasonable rate. Instead, they cared as much, if not more, about how employees treated them.
“The big takeaway from this year’s study is the power of people to positively influence the overall flight experience,” said J.D. Power’s Michael Taylor, senior managing director of travel, hospitality, retail and customer service.
“Airlines that are investing in staff training and recruitment are finding ways to overcome the negative effects of crowded gates and planes simply by being nice to their customers.”
For that reason, Southwest — the main culprit from the 2022 holiday travel meltdown that left 2 million passengers on nearly 17,000 flights stranded — ranked highest in economy customer satisfaction with a score of 685 out of 1,000.
Southwest has won that category for three years running now.
“There are many aspects to the overall air travel experience that airlines cannot control, but one area in which they can profoundly influence is the positive effect that airline staff has on passengers,” Taylor added.
Following close behind was Delta at 651 and then Allegiant Air at 633.
At the bottom of overall economy customer satisfaction, meanwhile, was Frontier Airlines, which scored a measly 472 and was barely pushed into the lowest spot by Spirit Airlines with 507 and Air Canada with 542.
As for first and business-class customers, Delta was No. 1 with a score of 743, while delay-ridden JetBlue was second with 736. Air Canada was the bottom-feeder with 629 points.
For premium economy seating, Delta was first at 716 — the second year in a row the carrier brought home gold in that category with Air Canada again settled in last place at 628.
Delta was also crowned the US’ best airline in 2023 by the Wall Street Journal.
Embattled Alaska Airlines came in second with 687, and American Airlines narrowly trailed at 684 in the category.
