In the latest Airline Quality Rankings, the airlines seem to be doing a good job. But, statistics don’t tell the whole story. The airlines are flying fewer flights than a decade ago, so on-time arrivals should be better; and lost luggage statistics are dropping, but only because passengers are checking fewer bags.
When it comes to denied boarding compensation or, bumping, as many know it, the stats are not so good with an increase in passengers denied boarding shooting up by almost 25 percent and consumer complaints growing by around 20 percent.
This is how U.S. airlines ranked according to the report.
1. Virgin America
2. JetBlue
3. Air Tran
4. Delta
5. Hawaiian
6. Alaska
7. Frontier
8. Southwest
9. US Airways
10. American
11. American Eagle
12. SkyWest
13. ExpressJet
14. United
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to these figures. The report is based on four main sectors of customer service — on-time performance, lost luggage, denied boarding and consumer complaints.
As noted above, airlines are flying fewer flights than they did in 2000. Fewer bags are being checked since the implementation of checked baggage fees. Complaints are easier today than ever with online forms now provided by DOT. Denied boarding has increased by almost 25 percent this past year.
On-time performance
One has to give airlines credit for running one of the best on-time records since statistics have been being kept. On-time flights reached almost 82 percent in 2012.
However, that record is influenced by the fact that airlines have cut back flights in their drive to reduce capacity to fewer departures than back in 2000 (2012 departures=8,872; 2000 departures=8,952). When the growth of the economy is factored in, having the airline industry shrink rather than grow over the past decade is amazing.
Airlines are flying fewer flights. Air traffic control is not being challenged except in the New York City area on a regular basis. Plus, the number of major airlines has been reduced from 10 back in 2000 to only five today, so there is less competition for choice take-off and landing slots between airlines.
Mishandled Baggage
Though airlines claim that this metric shows better customer service, the real reason the number of mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers has been reduced is because fewer bags are being checked per 1,000 passengers. This has been caused by the broad introduction of baggage fees back in 2008. Any decrease in checked baggage will make the mishandled baggage statistic drop because they are based on total passengers flown rather than on total number of bags checked.
Of the majors Southwest/AirTran comes first in at 2.64 bags mishandled per 1,000 passengers. Delta is second at 2.66 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers. US Airways is next on the list with 2.7. Merged United/Continental comes is at 3.50. finally, American ranks last among the majors at 3.55 misplaced bags per 1,000 passengers. (A Boeing 737 holds about 150 passengers on average. That means a bag would be lost on about every six flights if everyone were flying 737s.)
Consumer complaints
Here is the kicker. With such good service — on-time arrivals and fewer lost bags — why are passengers complaining more than ever? There are several theories.
• More passengers than ever are being crammed into planes, something like 84 percent load factors.
• Passengers are being charged fees for almost every transaction
• The cost of travel is difficult to figure out and frustrating.
• Bargains and exceptions to fees abound that irritate passengers who pay significantly more than others.
• It is easier than ever to complain using the DOT online airline complaint form.
Perhaps the most important of these is the fact that complaints can be collected online and with great accuracy. In the past, consumers had to call DOT and leave a message that was often incomplete or they had to send a letter to DOT that did not contain all the information necessary to deal with a complaint. Today by filling out the online form, consumers can get action.
Here are the main complaint areas. Note that flight problems lead the list.
Flight Problems 32.7 percent
Reservations, Ticketing, and Boarding 14.6 percent
Customer Service 14.3 percent
Baggage 12.4 percent
Refunds 7.5 percent
Disability 5.8 percent
Fares 4.4 percent
Oversales 3.5 percent
Other 3 percent
Advertising 1.2 percent
Discrimination 0.7 percent
Animals 0 percent
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
