WalletHub released its report on 2017’s Best and Worst Airlines to help consumers save time and money while preparing for summer travel. WalletHub focused on quantifying difficult aspects of air travel experience overlooking price, but includes frequency of delays, baggage issues, animal incidents, passenger complaints and more.
WalletHub compared the 10 largest U.S. carriers plus two regional carriers in 13 categories ranging from cancelation and delay rates to in-flight comfort. While the report focuses on non-price aspects of the flying experience, costs were considered in relation to in-flight amenities.
The best airline overall is awarded to Alaska Airlines, scoring 81.02, followed by Delta Air Lines at 73.08.
Alaska Airlines is also the most reliable airline as it has the lowest overall rate of cancelations, delays, mishandled luggage and denied boardings.
JetBlue leads as the most comfortable airline in terms of in-flight experience, offering free amenities such as WiFi, extra legroom and complimentary snacks and beverages.
Spirit and Frontier Airlines are neck-in-neck for the best budget flyers, but Spirit is slightly cheaper.
Alaska Airlines is the best for pets. Granted 1.3 animals died, were injured or lost for every 10,000 transported by major U.S. airlines in 2016 — no airline was incident-free.
Southwest Airlines had the lowest consumer-complaint rate in the industry in 2016 and are the most satisfactory airline. Frontier and Spirit had the highest complaint rates by far.
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