This Guide Might Make Your Next Flight A Little More Bearable

Security checks, pre-boarding hassles, crowded seats, layovers, and countless other annoyances can make commercial flight a chore. But it’s still the fastest — and often most economical — way to travel long distances.

So if you’re planning a flight, you might want to know which carriers are likeliest to provide the best experience … and now there’s a handy guide to help you make your choice.

An array of options

Passengers have an abundance of choices these days, with some airlines prioritizing price, others promising comfort and convenience, and a few that seem to offer it all.

Depending on your priorities, there might not be a perfect carrier, but a review of complaints filed with the Department of Transportation resulted in a list of the best (and worst) airlines currently taking off from U.S. airports.

But first, let’s take a look at all the data:

• U.S. airlines received a combined 61,233 complaints during 2023
• That’s nearly 29% more than the 47,600 complaints filed the previous year
• The number of passengers rose by less than half that percentage

So it seems that things are getting worse, and we’ve all seen reports of delays, cancellations, and midair mishaps recently. Some carriers, however, have managed to keep complaints to a minimum.

The best of the bunch

Based on the number of complaints per 100,000 passengers, one airline came out on top. Alaska Airlines registered just 2.34 last year.

Some larger carriers also fared pretty well, including Delta (3.64 per 100,000) and Southwest (3.61 per 100,000).

On the other end of the scale is Frontier, which came in at just under 33 complaints per 100,000 passengers — far more than others near the bottom of the list, like Spirit Airlines (14.76) and JetBlue (13.32).

Chris Agee July 12th, 2024

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