2010 Airline Report Card
 

Airline Scores
(Overall satisfaction score based on a 1,000-point scale)

Traditional Carriers
1. Alaska Airlines (3rd year in a row)
2. Continental Airlines
3. American Airlines
4. Delta Airlines
5. Air Canada
6. United Airlines
7. US Airways

Low-Cost Carriers
1. JetBlue Airways
2. Southwest Airlines
3. WestJet
4. AirTran Airways
5. Frontier Airlines

Source: J.D. Power and Associates 2010 North America Airline Satisfaction Study

Somewhat surprising Delta is middle of the pack while month after month they lead the same carriers in complaints. I think J.D. Power is not getting a true reading.

One of the reasons for that could be methodology. Because they keep low cost separate from the "traditional" carriers, it is hard to tell the true picture. It is perfectly possible that if combined, the top 5 low costs could occupy the top of the combined table. The division between traditional and low cost is no longer relevant. The experience of people flying say JetBlue or Virgin America compared to those flying US Airways or Delta would I am sure be far superior.

It's only a matter of time until this happens?
"The Great Airline Price Increase"
http://www.voicesnet.org/displayonep...?poemid=138046

Thanks for posting this list. Not that there are a lot of choices betweeen any two cities when one flies, but at least I am comforted by the fact that I would have rated the traditional airlines in the same order. My experience with Alaska Airlines has been almost surreal I was treated so well. At the bottom of the list, United and US Scare, reminds me of the time I told my admin never, ever, book me on an airline that starts with a "U".

I have no experience with the low cost carriers, but that TV show featuring Southwest convinced me to avoid the low cost airlines.

we should have a comparison between US carriers and European carriers, and Asian carriers, and see how low the US carriers rank

if i have/had the time i would make up a chart and/or graph with table showincg customer satisfaction, on-time success, complaints and whatnot

mars..

skytrax makes this comparison. Here is the link

http://www.airlinequality.com/

The 2010 World Airline Award winners include:

Air Arabia, Air Asia, Air Berlin, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Asiana Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Finnair, Garuda Indonesia, GOL, Hainan Airlines, IndiGo, Kingfisher Airlines, Kulula, LAN Airlines, Lufthansa, Malaysia Airlines, Malev Hungarian Airlines, Oneworld, Qantas Airways, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Swiss Int'l Airlines, TACA Airlines, Thai Airways, Thomson Airways, Turkish Airlines, Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Blue, WestJet

Notice anything about this list? Which US carriers made the list... Virgin America!! Get the message?

Jim I am familiar with that website, I was talking about posting it on this site at the same time as US carriers so the full picture is seen and maybe people will act and try and make changes and make the airlines create a choicce of how they will opperate business hopefully toward a foreign airline level

I agree, but the format is difficult to carry over. The ranking is based on a 5 Star ranking, and takes account of literally millions of customer reviews. The 5 Star top ranking is hard to achieve and only 6 airlines achieved it in the 2010 list. The 4 star is also pretty hard to achieve and 27 airlines achieved that.

Of the top 33 airlines in the ranking only one US airline made the grade. It was a low cost, jetBlue. It was inconceivable 20 years ago that US airlines would not be amongst the highest ranked airlines in the world. They are now mostly in the 3 Star category. That places Delta, AA, Continental, et al.. sitting alongside the likes of Aeroflot!!

For those geeks who interested, the rankings of the top 33 are as follows:

5 Star
Asiana (South Korea)
Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong)
Kingfisher (India)
Malaysia
Qatar
Singapore

4 Star
Air NZ, Air Berlin, Air France, All Nippon, Austrian, Bangkok, BA, China Air, Dragonair, Emirates, Etihad, EVA, Finnair, Garuda, Hainan, Japan, jetBlue, Korean, Lufthansa, Porter, Qantas, Silk Air, SAA, Swiss, Thai, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Blue.

That highlights just how far and fast they have fallen. Wake up people! Your airlines are crap, uncompetitive and abusing their monopoly and protection from regulation. The same complacency cost thousands their jobs in the car industry until they woke and began to compete. By then, many factories had closed and had gone to the wall. The US airlines can rely on their legislators to keep their home market free of competition, but they cannot stop competition on international routes. Even the mega airlines will fail if they continue to lose market share on international routes. At that point, you will feel the effects domestically.

As an employee for American, we have a ton of passengers who make their international connection on Cathay Pacific (We're part of the One World Alliance) and I have heard nothing but good things from all those people. I hear more compliments about Cathay Pacific than any other airline.

There you go, and that is from the horse's mouth!! Any AA customer who chooses to go on the international leg of their journey on an actual AA aircraft is bonkers. Cathay Pacific are 5 star and Qantas, BA and JAL are all 4 star airlines and are all One World Alliance. For the international leg, avoid AA.

Likewise, who would choose United over Singapore Airlines?

AA doesn't fly to the same international destinations. Not until recently did AA fly anywhere in China.

I would re-route to avoid flying US based airlines.. there service standards are terrible

J D Power awards have not been accurate
 

No surprise here, JDP awards seem to be for sale to the highest bidder based on ALL of my true experiences with the actual products. They MUST warn that the evaluations are coming ahead of time as the results are quite biased.

I have to agree with you. If I can book any foreign airline for any segment of my trip, I do. Even if I have to pay more, it is worth it. Our domestic airlines just are not a pleasant experience to fly these days.