The busy summer travel season is here, and airlines are working hard to keep their planes and people moving without much headache to the customer.
However, some are better than others.
Travel website The Points Guy published its annual list of the 10 best airlines in the US on Wednesday. It used 2023 data from airlines and the federal government to analyze four broad categories: reliability, experience, cost and reach, and loyalty.
Delta Air Lines took the top spot for the sixth year in a row, followed by Alaska Airlines and United Airlines. This year, Delta carrier also earned titles from The Wall Street Journal, JD Power, and Cirium.
While Delta ranked first overall for its consistency across the four categories, TPG noted it lost points for affordability and loyalty — the latter likely resulted from its unpopular SkyMiles program changes.
Further, Delta only won in one area: timeliness. This was one of five factors under the reliability umbrella.
Interestingly, ultra-low-cost carrier Allegiant Air won for reliability thanks to its low rate of cancellations and mishandled baggage and wheelchairs. It also tied with Delta for zero involuntary bumps.
Allegiant ranked seven out of 10 in the overall rankings due to its no-frills business model and poor delay rate. Still, it beat ULCC competitors Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines, which ranked last and second-to-last, respectively.
To their credit, the ULCCs have recently moved in a more premium direction, with Frontier offering "business" class-like seats and Spirit dropping all change and cancel fees.
Sitting in the middle of the pack are American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and Hawaiian Airlines, which didn't see much movement to their rank from 2022.
"Overall, 2023 was a year of relative stability and continued recovery from the last of the post-coronavirus lockdown hiccups," TPG said.
Here's a closer look at TPG's airline rankings for 2024. It noted customer satisfaction data only reflects the first five months of the year due to reporting delays from the Department of Transportation.
10. Frontier Airlines
2022 Rank: 10
Best areas: Affordability
Worst areas: Timeliness, cancellations, involuntary bumps, customer satisfaction, and bag and change fees
9. Spirit Airlines
2022 Rank: 8
Best areas: Affordability
Worst areas: Mishandled baggage and mobility devices, family travel, and route network
8. Allegiant Air
2022 Rank: 8
Best areas: Involuntary bumps and mishandled baggage and mobility devices
Worst areas: Timeliness, cabin features, and family travel
7. Hawaiian Airlines
2022 Rank: 6
Best areas: Involuntary bumps
Worst areas: Route network
6. JetBlue Airways
2022 Rank: 7
Best areas: Cabin features
Worst areas: Timeliness, cancellations
5. Southwest Airlines
2022 Rank: 5
Best areas: Bags and change fees
Worst areas: Lounges
4. American Airlines
2022 Rank: 4
Best areas: Route network, award availability (flights that can be booked with points or miles)
Worst areas: Mishandled baggage and affordability
3. United Airlines
2022 Rank: 2
Best areas: Frequent flyer program, route network, involuntary bumps
Worst areas: Cancellations, affordability
2. Alaska Airlines
2022 Rank: 3
Best areas: Timeliness, cancellations, lounges, family travel, customer satisfaction
Worst areas: Mishandled baggage and mobility devices
1. Delta Air Lines
2022 Rank: 1
Best areas: Timeliness and involuntary bumps
Worst areas: Affordability
