Last week the Consumer Travel Alliance completed an extensive survey of the readers of this blog and other blogs to determine which airlines ranked as our favorites. We also asked, “Why do you like your favorite airline?” Here are the results.
The real meat of the study comes in why passengers like particular airlines. We found that Southwest was ranked high because of price and customer service. American ranked highest in the love of their frequent flier program. United had a surprisingly high percentage who liked the economy plus seating. Continental was all about customer service. JetBlue was all about great seats and customer service. Here are charts of each of the airlines that reveal why we fly them.
Overall “Why we fly” results
Why we fly Southwest Airlines
Why we fly Continental Airlines
Obviously, Continental has a great customer service reputation
Why we fly American Airlines
American Airlines is making their money and keeping their customers because of their frequent flier program. From this study’s results even higher prices wouldn’t deter AA’s frequent fliers.
Why we fly Delta Air Lines
Delta’s strong suits are their frequent flier program and their destinations.
Why we fly JetBlue
JetBlue enjoys the highest ranking in seat comfort, with strong customer service and price satisfaction.
Why we fly United Airlines
United has loyal frequent fliers but next on the list is destinations followed by seat comfort (because of economy plus).
Why we fly Alaska Airlines
Customer service is Alaska’s strongest conponent followed by their frequent flier program.
Why we fly AirTran
AirTran keeps their customers happy by selling at the best prices. They also have good schedules and service.
Why we fly Virgin America
Virgin clearly is making their money by keeping customers happy and comfortable.
Why we fly USAirways
USAirways keeps their customers because of destinations, schedule and frequent flier program. Interestingly, they didn’t get one vote for comfortable seats in either coach or first class.
For Frontier and Spirit, the sample was not statistically valid.
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.
