US Airline Ratings Combining Multiple Sources Into a Composite Score
- Adam Garrett
- Dec 14, 2023
- 12 min read
Updated: Feb 26
In this article, I'll be sharing about where to find airline ratings going over a wide variety of elements.
I'll be marking in red those options not viable from SE VA.
Composite US Rankings primarily from sources below & a bit of my opinion integrated when opinions from different parties vary:
Airline | Overall | Affordability | Bag Fees (Low = #1) | Seat Selection Freely Available at Check In w Basic Economy | Free snacks on domestic economy (1) | Reliabile | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Delta | 1 | 12 | 4-5 | 2 | 7 | 2 free for Skymiles members on most flights | Y | 3 | 2 | 5 | 10 | |
United | 2 | 10 | 7 (no carry on allowed in basic economy) | 6 | 4 | 7 free for some T Mobile Customers; $10 for others | Y | 1 | 3 | 3 | 9 | |
Alaska | 3 | 8 or 9 | 3 | 3 | 1 (tied) | 5. $8 on most flights | Y | 5 | 5 | 1 | 5 | |
JetBlue | 4 | 8 or 9 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 1 free | Y | 8 | 11 | 6-11 | 7 | |
Sun Country | 5 | 4 or 5 | 8 | 9 | ? | 10 | ? | 6-11 | 2 | |||
Southwest | 6 | 1 | 4 | 5 (unique model) | somewhat - boarding order impacted by time of check in or paid upgrade, but 1st come 1st serve seat selection upon boarding | 3 $8 | Y | 6 | 8 | 6-11 | 6 | |
American | 7 | 11 | 4-5 | 5 | 8 | N | 6 available on most flights for $10 or more | Y | 2 | 7 | 4 | 11 |
Hawaiian | 8 | 6 | 2 | 7-8 | 1 (tied) | Y | 12 | 1 | 2 | 8 | ||
Breeze | 9 | 4 or 5 | 9 (substantially better than 10) | 7-8 | 6 | N | available for a fee on some | no | 11 | ? | 6-11 | 2-5 |
Allegiant | 10 | 3 | 10 | 10 | ? | N? | 4 | 8-10 | 6-11 | 4 | ||
Spirit | 11 | 1 | 12 | 11 | 11 | N? | available $3.95-$26.95 | no | 9 | 8-10 | 3 | |
Frontier | 12 | 2 | 11 | 12 | 12 | N? | 12 none | no | 7 | 12 | 6-11 | 1 |
Forbes Rankings (not including their "best overall" due to me disagreeing with their algorithm). Notably, Allegiant & Breeze Airways, both viable options from SE VA, were not included in the rankings. That doesn't mean that they are below all of the others, simply that they were not part of the rankings.
Most Comfortable Airlines in the U.S.
JetBlue
Delta Air Lines
Alaska Airlines
Southwest Airlines
American Airlines
United Airlines
Hawaiian Airlines
Spirit Airlines
Frontier Airlines
"*Note that the regional carriers SkyWest and Envoy are not represented in this chart because they serve other major airlines, which may dictate what amenities are provided."
Note on SkyWest & Envoy
"SkyWest Airlines operates through partnerships with United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines."
Envoy Air "is a subsidiary of the American Airlines Group, and serves 150 cities witihin the USA, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean and is one of the seven carriers that operate under the 'American Eagle' name, with Piedmont Airlines, PSA Airlines, Compass Airlines, Mesa Airlines, Republic Airline and Skywest Airlines."
Most Reliable Airlines in the U.S.
Delta Air Lines
United Airlines
SkyWest Airlines (operating under AA, United, Delta, AA, & Alaska)
Hawaiian Airlines
Spirit Airlines
Alaska Airlines
JetBlue
American Airlines
Envoy Air (operating under AA)
Southwest Airlines
Frontier Airlines
Safest Airlines in the U.S.
Envoy Air (operating under AA)
Spirit Airlines
Frontier Airlines
JetBlue
Alaska Airlines
SkyWest Airlines (operating under AA, United, Delta, AA, & Alaska)
Hawaiian Airlines
American Airlines
Delta Air Lines
United Airlines
Southwest Airlines
Notably, Breeze Airways isn't included.
A. Best US Airlines of 2022 1. Delta 2. United 3. Alaska 4. American 5. Southwest 6. Hawaiian 7. JetBlue 8. Spirit 9. Allegiant 10. Frontier
Best Economy Class: 1. JetBlue 2. Delta 3. Southwest
In a solid article on the best economy seats on domestic flights (in 2019, so some newer carriers like Breeze weren't included) TPG had the following rankings:
"JetBlue: The most spacious seats easily make JetBlue the winner.
Delta: Seats might not be larger than competitors, but a more consistent fleet with IFE screens and in-seat power options bump this airline up the list.
Southwest: Decent seat dimensions and inexpensive Wi-Fi make up for a lack of seatback entertainment, though there's no power on board.
Alaska:* Relatively roomy seat footprints, power at each seat and consistency throughout the fleet, but no seatback entertainment.
American:* A fairly standard experience boosted by excellent fleetwide Wi-Fi.
United:* Some of the narrowest seats around and spotty inflight power.
Hawaiian:* The seats themselves are nice enough, but there are no AC outlets, and only paid entertainment on many flights.
Spirit: Tiny seats and few amenities, though inflight Wi-Fi should be coming soon. Ish.
Frontier: Seat pitch is between 28 and 29 inches, and Wi-Fi isn't even on the horizon. Need we say more?"
It goes into further detail about the rankings in the article, i.e. entertainment details such as the free wifi available on JetBlue that helped it earn the top spot.
In a separate vote-based ranking in December 2022, JetBlue scored the top economy class.
"In addition to its signature leather seats in economy, JetBlue offers a handful of other valuable perks for "core" flyers, as it calls the economy cabin. This includes free gate-to-gate high-speed Viasat Wi-Fi; personal entertainment screens loaded with free live TV, movies and TV shows; and power outlets and USB ports at most seats.
JetBlue also offers a selection of free snacks and drinks for every passenger, regardless of what fare is booked.
While the domestic economy experience is already ahead of its competitors, the cabin gets even better on the airline's transatlantic flights. Each economy passenger can create a custom tapas-style meal using the seat-back entertainment system, and the airline even offers comfortable pillows, blankets and amenity kits at each coach seat. Snacks are available throughout the flight at a walk-up bar, and all of JetBlue's signature amenities — free TVs, Wi-Fi and power outlets — are available on these longer missions, too. "
B. TPG Analysis of Overall Ratings
"Here are some overall takeaways from this year's analysis.
Delta retained its title for the fifth straight year: Once again, the Atlanta-based carrier performed solidly across multiple categories — only taking low marks for its affordability (or lack thereof).
Southwest's holiday meltdown took a toll: The carrier's operational performance caused it to drop from second last year to fifth this year. Across just four criteria that would've been impacted by those issues — timeliness, cancellations, baggage handling and customer satisfaction — Southwest scored a combined 4.63 points lower than last year. If you erase that drop, it would've retained the second spot.
Alaska and Spirit both jumped multiple spots: Alaska improved its affordability (in both airfare and ancillary fees), while Spirit saw notable improvements in customer satisfaction.
Most airlines scored lower than last year: Spirit (+8.1) and Alaska (+2.57 points) were joined by United (+1.93) and American (+1.34) as the only airlines scoring higher than last year. The other six all had lower scores, including Delta, which dropped by more than four points.
As a whole, airlines did a worse job in 2022 than 2021: Many elements show overall drops in performance when you combine data across all 10 airlines. Customer complaints were up 87.6% year over year, while prices per 1,000 passenger miles rose 22.67%. Meanwhile, the data showed increases in involuntary bumps (up 87.45%), cancellations (up 54%) and mishandled bags (up 25%) — all of which demonstrate the ongoing struggle to meet the high demand for air travel."
C. Most Reliable Airlines 1. Hawaiian 2. Delta
Hawaiian
Delta ("close 2nd")
Details:
"For the third year in a row, Hawaiian Airlines scored the top spot as the most reliable U.S. carrier across these metrics. It had the lowest cancellation rate (fewer than 1% of its scheduled flights were canceled) and bumped just four passengers out of the nearly 10 million people it carried in 2022.
Delta was a close second here, as it earned the top score for timeliness (with nearly 84% of its flights arriving on time) and bumped just two flyers out of almost 161 million Delta passengers.
But for the second year in a row, Allegiant put up numbers that tell two very different tales of reliability.
For starters, the carrier batted a perfect 1.000 in the involuntary bumps category, as zero of the 16.8 million Allegiant flyers were bumped from their flights in 2022. It also mishandled the fewest bags (just 1.55 per 1,000 checked) and the fewest mobility devices (0.39 per 100).
However, it was abysmal with on-time arrivals, as fewer than two-thirds of its departures arrived within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time. Allegiant also canceled 3.52% of its scheduled flights — beating only JetBlue, which canceled 3.74%.
Meanwhile, the worst carrier for checked baggage was once again American Airlines, which misplaced bags at a rate of 1 out of every 114 it accepted. In other words, you were more than five-and-a-half times more likely to deal with lost or delayed bags on American than Allegiant.
Spirit was last in handling mobility devices, misplacing roughly 1 out of every 17 it accepted (a rate nearly 15 times worse than Allegiant).
Finally, Frontier once again brought up the rear in terms of involuntary bumps. The carrier reported that a total of over 6,000 passengers were involuntarily denied boarding, which translates to more than 16 every day and an average of roughly 1 out of every 3,752 travelers. This was more than two-and-a-half times the airline's 2022 figures."
Ratings based on the following:
"Timeliness: How frequently a flight on the airline was delayed.
Cancellations: How frequently a flight on the airline was canceled.
Bumps/involuntarily denied boardings: How frequently an airline bumped a traveler against their will on an oversold flight.
Baggage: How frequently an airline mishandled a piece of checked luggage.
Wheelchairs/scooters: How frequently an airline mishandled a mobility device."
D. Travel Experience: 1 JetBlue
JetBlue
Details:
"Once again, JetBlue was the top airline for cabin features, with complimentary Wi-Fi across its entire fleet plus seatback TVs and the largest economy seats in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Alaska scored top marks for lounge access (members not only enjoy the nine Alaska Lounge locations but 40-plus American Airlines Admirals Clubs and even three United Clubs) and customer satisfaction, with just 2.54 complaints per every 100,000 passengers.
On the other end of the spectrum, Allegiant was at the bottom of the list for cabin features, with minimal amenities and the narrowest seats among the 10 carriers.
The airline with the highest rate of complaints was Frontier, with 22.6 per every 100,000 travelers in 2022. That's more than twice the numbers for the second-to-last carrier in this category (Spirit) and almost nine times higher than Alaska's.
There's one final note on customer satisfaction: As a whole, U.S. airlines saw a notable increase in complaints compared to 2021. This statistic rose from 3.14 complaints per 100,000 passengers to 5.89 per 100,000. That's a jump of 87.6% year over year."
Score Make Up:
"The travel experience category made up 25% of our analysis across these four factors:
Cabin features: What you'll experience on board, including Wi-Fi, seat pitch/width and inflight entertainment.
Lounges: How widespread (and numerous) an airline's lounges are, and how affordable it is to access them.
Family: How well an airline caters to families traveling with children.
Customer satisfaction: How frequently customers complain to the U.S. Department of Transportation about the carrier."
E. Highest Reach: 1. United 2. American 3. Delta
"United, American and Delta served the highest number of destinations during the year — an average of 235, 228 and 210, respectively."
You can check specific airline reach with a world map 1 airline at a time at FlightConnections with the free version (all images below). Keep in mind that you will be delayed at times by ads for 5 seconds at a time before you can close the ad.
Here are some examples of what you can do:
Select a single airline to show its full route map (Delta below):
Show direct routes from a specific airport with all carriers:
Show indirect routes from a specific airport with all carriers:
Show routes from a specific airport with a specific carrier:
F. Most Affordable: 1. Spirit 2. Frontier 3. Allegiant
Most affordable (without factoring in baggage fees)
"Spirit Airlines was once again the most affordable U.S. airline, taking in just $126.15 for every 1,000 miles flown per passenger. Frontier was just behind, at $131.24, and Allegiant was third at $150.32."
When factoring in baggage fees, Allegiant can be similar to or lower than Frontier & Spirit, since Frontier & Spirit average unusually high baggage fees (see baggage fee section below). While Allegiant's baggage fees can also be high, Spirit's & Frontier's baggage fees are typically higher.
"The major U.S. airlines were the least affordable out there, with Delta coming in last followed by American in ninth and United in eighth."
Skytrax Basics
While Skytrax doesn't analyze all airlines, it analyzes many around the globe. Unlike the analysis by TPG & Forbes, with Skytrax, many additional carriers are intentionally avoided due to being ranked worse than those within their lists of 10, 20, or 100 airlines per data set.
US-Based & Canadian-Based Airlines as Scored in Top 100 Airlines Overall 1. Delta 2. United 3. Alaska 4. Jetblue 5. Sun Country 6. Southwest 7. American 8. Hawaiian 9. Breeze
US Based Airlines:
#20 Delta Airlines
#49 United Airlines
#52 Alaska Airlines
#55 JetBlue Airways
#59 Sun Country Airlines (only SE VA flight from Richmond to Minneapolis)
#60 Southwest Airlines
#82 American Airlines
#85 Hawaiian Airlines
#97 Breeze Airways
Canadian Based airlines:
#38 Air Canada
#62 Air Transat
#64 WestJet
#93 Air Canada Rouge
#99 Porter Airlines
Additional Skytrax Awards for US-Based & Canadian-Based Airlines (Including Best By Class of Service)
Top 20 Economy Carriers:
Top 20 Premium Economy Carriers:
#5 Delta
#12 United
Top 20 Premium Economy Airline Seat:
#7 Delta
Top 20 Business Class:
#5 Delta
#19 JetBlue Airways
Top 10 Business Class Airline Seats:
#4 Delta
#9 JetBlue
Best Business Class Airline Lounge:
#4 United IAH
#8 Air Canada YYZ
Best Business Class Airline Lounge Catering
#5 Air Canada
#6 United Airlines
Best Business Class Airline Comfort Amenities
#7 Delta
Top 20 Best First Class Airlines overall in 2023
#19 Hawaiian Airlines
Baggage Fee Differences
All US carriers that I'm aware of (& all included in Airfare Watch Dog's list on the subject) include a free personal item, like a purse or small backpack.
Here are avarege baggage fee costs typical by airline, with seat selection included, per NerdWallet:
Here are the rankings except with a checked bag and a carry-on listed separately:
Allegiant is notably absent above, but per Airfare watchdog, their typical fees are:
carry on $15-$25, 1st Checked Bag $20-$35, 2nd Checked Bag $20-$35
Basic economy varies here. With Delta & American, basic economy comes with a free checked bag. That's not the case with Allegiant, United, JetBlue, and a number of other carriers. Interestingly with United, you can't even take a carry-on for an additional fee in basic economy.
Additional Sources Used
Affordability:
Baggage Fees
Pet Friendly:
Reliability:
Safety:
I intentionally avoided using this source due to the small dataset it uses & other issues.
Avelo
Here's how Avelo stacks up:
On time performance is relatively good
Seat comfort is similar to Spirit & Frontier (bad)
Affordability is good
Reach is a bit better than Hawaiian (bad)
Bag fees are maybe a 6 on the above scale
Other Potential Criteria: Sustainability
In terms of the environment and sustainability the following are notable:
American Airlines might have bad fuel economy, but they're doing a lot to be more sustainable
Alaska Airlines
Frontier Airlines (that said, One Mile at a Time points out how Frontier cuts your legroom and baggage weight limit to help accomplish this task)
Other Potential Criteria: Human Rights
I haven't seen a good holistic human rights score yet, but please let me know if you find one. The only one I've seen thus far is limited to LGBTQ, & they give 100's too easily to distinguish between what they consider to be top-tier airlines readily, i.e.
American - 100/100
United - 100/100
Conversely, they heavily punish airlines that don't fit their mold, i.e.
Delta - 35/100
Two prime examples of things that hurt Delta's score is that Delta doesn't "Provide... an LGBTQ+ Benefits Guide for its employees" & they don't provide "At least five distinct LGBTQ+ efforts of Outreach or Engagement to Broader LGBTQ+ Community."
Also, while I commend their desire to prevent LGBTQ people from being discriminated against, looking at their site (i.e. inclusion of "pride" language), and their scoring metrics such as the above 2 examples, I disagree with at least some of their ethical standards where they are looking for more than acceptance, but indeed celebration. Notably absent from those scoring models are comparable inclusions of heterosexual benefits (because they punish companies for not having an LGBTQ benefits guide), etc.
Other Potential Criteria: Upgradeable Options
As One Mile at a Time points out, one of the reasons why he likes Spirit more than Frontier is that Spirit, unlike Frontier, has the option to book the "Big Front Seat".
It (Typically) Doesn't Hurt to Ask...
As reported by Business Insider flying Breeze on a Nice fare without paying any seat fees, "When flying from Charleston to Hartford, I kindly asked the gate agent if any full rows were available and I was moved to one, free of charge."
Seats Note
I've seen where a free seat became a paid seat on Jetblue over time. You may find that can happen over time with some carriers.
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