Alaska Ranks As The Top American Airline For The Second Year In A Row

As the US travel industry sees a record number of tourists, it’s also crucial to know how satisfied they are with their overall traveling experience. The American Customer Satisfaction Index has now released its results for the industry, and customers seem to be happier overall with various benchmarks as things return to normal following the tough pandemic years.

About the study

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI®) Travel Study 2023-2024 has revealed customer satisfaction benchmarks for five travel industries: airlines, car rentals, lodging, online travel agencies, and rideshare.

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It is based on interviews with 16,352 customers randomly chosen and contacted via email between April 2023 and March 2024. The overall trend in satisfaction levels is encouraging, with passengers apparently happy with how things are shaping up as travel bounces back.

The ACSI says that “customers are asked to evaluate their recent experiences with the largest companies in terms of market share, plus an aggregate category consisting of “all other”—and thus smaller— companies in each industry.” For the sake of this article, we will focus more on how US airlines performed.

Airline ranking

After taking a severe hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline industry has bounced back with full force, and this is also shown in the customers’ reactions. The study reveals that the sector reached an all-time customer satisfaction high of 77 following its second consecutive 1% year-on-year improvement.

Alaska Airlines led the pack for the second consecutive year with a score of 82, a 1% improvement compared to 2023. American Airlines was next on the list with 79, and Allegiant Air and Southwest rounded out the top three with a score of 78. Delta Air Lines (77), JetBlue (77), United Airlines (75), all others (73), Frontier (69) and Spirit (67) made the top ten in that order.

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An interesting observation from the study and rankings was that low-cost carriers like Allegiant, Frontier, and Spirit made the biggest ACSI gains, but Allegiant was the only one that did not feature at the bottom of the list and even outperformed legacy carriers like Delta and United to be in the top three. United was the only airline to see a dip in its score compared to 2023 when it finished with 77.

When it comes to various other customer experience benchmarks, most have either improved or stayed where they were last year. Some of those that saw an improvement in their score include ease of making a reservation, reliability of mobile app, ease of check-in, boarding experience, and range of flight schedules, among many others.

Going strong

Alaska Airlines came out on top despite almost becoming the face of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 crisis earlier this year when one of its planes was involved in a midair blowout incident. Travelers, it seems, have been discerning enough to see it as a Boeing issue and not associate the airline with it.

Photo: Michael Gordon | Shutterstock

Alaska’s frequent flier program – Alaska Mileage Plan – was also ranked best among the various programs offered by US airlines. To find out more about that, check out the article below.

Related

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Ranked Among Best Frequent Flyer Program Of 2024

Last year’s top program was United’s MileagePlus. 

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