The American Customer Service Index has been released and, surprise, the worst is not United. Not surprisingly, the worst is Spirit Airlines.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/25/pf/best ... index.html

The rankings (score out of 100)

JetBlue: 82, +2%
Southwest: 80, 0%
Alaska: 78, +1%
American: 76, +6%
Delta: 76, +7%
All Others: 74, 0%
Allegiant: 71, +9%
United: 70, 3%
Frontier: 63, -5%
Spirit: 61, -2%

Frontier and Spirit have policies that trigger a lot of complaints. You have to spot them 10 points for the business they are in.

capitalflyer wrote:

The American Customer Service Index has been released and, surprise, the worst is not United. Not surprisingly, the worst is Spirit Airlines.

But United is the worst of the Big 3, 6 points behind American and Delta.

I read the article, and I wish they could describe their scoring system in more detail. I tend to be wary of anything that only reports the summary, but doesn't bother with the details.

G4 beats UA?......that's embarrassing

Wow Allegiant outscores United!!

Southwest doesn't surprise me, just seemed to be very friendly and helpful, clean aircraft on-time and reasonable legroom. As a tourist free bags are a plus as it's difficult to travel 9000miles without bags. Their fares are also good but I would choose them over AA/UA/DL even if the fare was more.

Depending on how recent this is, gotta wonder how much the Dao incident and others impacted UA's rating. I'm an AA fanboy, but gotta think it had a big impact.

727LOVER wrote:

G4 beats UA?......that's embarrassing

What is really embarrassing is that DL/AA are only 5 pts better than G4 .......it's a virtual tie all the airlines got a "C" and B6/SW got a B-.

So - if I am reading this right - did Frontier beat out United LAST year?

Flighty wrote:

Frontier and Spirit have policies that trigger a lot of complaints. You have to spot them 10 points for the business they are in.

Even with +10 for each, both would still be behind "all others." That said, I think it's telling that UA is 6 points behind both AA and DL.

cv990Coronado wrote:

Southwest doesn't surprise me, just seemed to be very friendly and helpful, clean aircraft on-time and reasonable legroom. As a tourist free bags are a plus as it's difficult to travel 9000miles without bags. Their fares are also good but I would choose them over AA/UA/DL even if the fare was more.

I agree. We flew them again last week and the staff was friendly and accommodating. Once again, they really gave the impression they were happy to have you as a customer. During the boarding process for one of our flights, my wife and I struck up a conversation with an FA. My wife asked her how long she had been an FA for SWA and if they were a good company to work for. She said 10 years, and yes.

Adipocere wrote:

Wow Allegiant outscores United!!

I say kudos to Allegiant for having the best year-over-year increase of the bunch. There have been noticably fewer threads about G4 incidents lately.

It's nice to see an unbiased list for once at least Delta is where they belong on this list.

On the bright side, aside from NK and F9, the trend for the rest of the airlines is positive. Most of the scores increased from the last ranking which I'll take as a good sign for the industry in the US
AA, DL and G4 all had impressive increases too

redzeppelin wrote:

Adipocere wrote:

Wow Allegiant outscores United!!

I say kudos to Allegiant for having the best year-over-year increase of the bunch. There have been noticably fewer threads about G4 incidents lately.

Yeah they seem to be making some improvement. I swore them off altogether, but just last weekend I purchased a one-way ticket on them for this summer. Never thought I'd see the day...

As someone put it, they are all average. WN and their friendliness still won't do it for me. I can't stand not being able to reserve my seat ahead of time or having to be separated from my family.

Here is the actual report from the ACSI:

http://marketing.theacsi.org/acton/atta ... 202017.pdf

Is there really no difference between DL and AA?

capitalflyer wrote:

The American Customer Service Index has been released and, surprise, the worst is not United. Not surprisingly, the worst is Spirit.

Why is it a surprise the worst is not United? In your mind is the list generated by the airline with the single biggest overreaction snafu somehow the worst by this measure? Does that make any sense?

At least as of this week, and I don't care about the polls, United wins hands down! Flying Spirit at least for the moment would be a much more sensible choice than anything United would have to offer.

georgiaame wrote:

At least as of this week, and I don't care about the polls, United wins hands down! Flying Spirit at least for the moment would be a much more sensible choice than anything United would have to offer.

So do you make all your decisions in life based off a single moment in time? Are all of your opinions of a business based off of a single incident?

Seems like an AME would have more sense than that.

klm617 wrote:

It's nice to see an unbiased list for once at least Delta is where they belong on this list.

LOL!!! Unbiased is what you are NOT. Nice to see you in another DL conversation

Any chance the thread title could be changed to reflect that this is a survey result for one country, title makes it sound global, there is a world outside the US...

sw733 wrote:

redzeppelin wrote:

Adipocere wrote:

Wow Allegiant outscores United!!

I say kudos to Allegiant for having the best year-over-year increase of the bunch. There have been noticably fewer threads about G4 incidents lately.

Yeah they seem to be making some improvement. I swore them off altogether, but just last weekend I purchased a one-way ticket on them for this summer. Never thought I'd see the day...

You may not see the day after your flight

georgiaame wrote:

At least as of this week, and I don't care about the polls, United wins hands down! Flying Spirit at least for the moment would be a much more sensible choice than anything United would have to offer.

You must not have ever flown Spirit before.

The actual report at the link above says "The ACSI results are based on thousands of customer interviews conducted over a 12-month period ending in March 2017".

The Dao incident on UA was April 9 so should not have impacted this year's survey results.

FATFlyer wrote:

The actual report at the link above says "The ACSI results are based on thousands of customer interviews conducted over a 12-month period ending in March 2017".

The Dao incident on UA was April 9 so should not have impacted this year's survey results.

It also misses the DL meltdown. Two big events that can sway next years numbers........or be completely forgotten.

mikegigs wrote:

On the bright side, aside from NK and F9, the trend for the rest of the airlines is positive. Most of the scores increased from the last ranking which I'll take as a good sign for the industry in the US
AA, DL and G4 all had impressive increases too

The question remains, have the airlines improved or have travelers expectations been lowered by decades of reduced offerings? Like meals becoming BOB, free baggage allowances being eliminated, increasingly less legroom, thinner "slimline" seats offering a loss of comfort, multi tiered frequent flyer programs with partial mileage accrual & much more.

Even 20 years ago, it was still nice to fly, not as good as 30 years ago, but still good. Now, even in F, it's tolerable & comfortable, but rarely enjoyable.

OSUk1d wrote:

georgiaame wrote:

At least as of this week, and I don't care about the polls, United wins hands down! Flying Spirit at least for the moment would be a much more sensible choice than anything United would have to offer.

You must not have ever flown Spirit before.

You said it all right there. Just do it once, I encourage everyone to try it, once. That's all one needs to know if they can stand it or not. I suggest a short hop 1 hour or so. We chose a 4 hour flight (each way) to try NK, I regretted that decision. I got my moneys worth, paid $56.00 r/t for 2 people PDX-DFW-PDX, it was worth it, but not a cent more. We went for one night & had 2 big long days in Dallas.

No checked bags, we decided to just put our carry on under the seat in front to save the fee, our overnight bag was small & we had our laptop as our other carry on. Once those with paid carry on bags got on & we cheap peons were allowed to board, there was many open spots in the overhead & the F/A told us to use up the overhead space if it wasn't claimed, so no bags in front of our feet, not that you can stretch your legs out anyway.

Both flights were on-time, but both flights smelled like a Turkish prison (don't ask how I know what a Turkish prison smells like)! We landed early both ways, well in all fairness on the outbound leg, someone had a heart event & we were priority one once we got into the Dallas area, we circled not at all, straight in from our descent. That's all the good stuff.

Worst airline where?
C'mon guys. It's only the US you are talking about. As usual.
There is a whole wide world beyond your borders. And it's a magnificent world full of good airlines!
Expand your vision...