Posted on 07/24/2018 9:06:45 AM PDT by Simon Green
Everyone wants to know the best and worst airlines to fly this summer, but only one man has the answer. His name is Brent Bowen, and he's the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University professor who publishes the definitive Airline Quality Rating (AQR).
Bowen has tracked the ups and downs of the domestic airline industry since 1993, using data collected from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Although he and his co-researcher, Dean Headley, release the AQR in April, they monitor airline performance year round but don't report it publicly.
DOT releases numbers on complaints, lost luggage, on-time departures, and oversales, at regular intervals, but the information is delayed by several months. Also, the numbers can be a little difficult to access, although I've provided citations in this story if you want to see for yourself. I decided to check in with Bowen to find out how airlines were faring this summer, based on the government's Air Travel Consumer Reports from March to June, which measure airline performance through late spring.
I wanted to know if any of the rankings had changed significantly since the beginning of the year. The short answer is that the list of best and worst airlines will look familiar for this summer. I met Bowen at the Raven Cafe in Prescott, Ariz., where he shared the top three -- and bottom three -- airlines to fly this summer.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Delta
Alaska
JetBlue
Bottom 3:
Spirit
Frontier
ExpressJet
No surprises.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5982513/Female-passenger-disgusts-aircrew-urinates-floor-Whizzair-flight.html
Frontier is trash. Cost me a day of my life and got a 25 dollar voucher in return. I would crawl across broken glass to my destination before I ever fly them again.
Alaska airlines is great. I did not know Delta Airlines still exists. I thought they folded years ago.
Wow. That is some kind of awful.
I’d avoid Gremlin Air...
“Frontier is trash. Cost me a day of my life and got a 25 dollar voucher in return. I would crawl across broken glass to my destination before I ever fly them again.”
I flew Frontier from San Antonio to Philly. Direct flight and no problems.
Thanks.
I’m surprised Southwest isn’t in the Top 3. Actually, I’m very surprised to see Delta up there, too.
“The Best And Worst Airlines To Fly This Summer”
It’s really between the worst and whatever is below that.
Really, it's the second largest airline in the world....
I’ll just say this. We have been flying Spirt a lot over the last couple of years. The rates are cheap, then they do everything they can to nickle and dime you to death. But they do a good job and at a cheap price, if you avoid the extras.
From the article:
"Every airline merger results in decreased performance for the first three years," he explains. After that, performance slowly rebounds. Delta is well past the point where the merger is dragging it down (it merged with Northwest Airlines in 2008). I asked Bowen if he's ever seen an airline with bad performance turn itself around. "Yes," he said. "Delta is a good example."
I'm with you on this. Delta does not belong anywhere near the top. And my experiences with Southwest have been very good.
I worked in Alpharetta, GA for most of 1999 and flew Delta regularly then. They were ok. Haven’t really flown them post-merger. Now we use Alaska, Southwest and (only when we have to) United.
The last JetBlue flight I was on from Denver to Puerto Rico had a stop in JFK. In mid flight to JFK, they canceled the JFK to Puerto Rico flight. Cost me a fortune and we missed two days of a cruse. Never, and I mean never again.
Yep, made me start looking into travel insurance.
My faves this summer have been...
Air Zimbabwe
Syrian Air
Air Koryo
I’m still trying to book a flight on Ariana Afghan Airlines...
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