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Worst U.S. Airline Is United According to New Poll
Worst U.S. Airline Is United According to New Poll
An annual report into customer satisfaction with the 14 largest U.S. airlines has shown United Airlines to be the worst airline based on passenger complaints, lost baggage, overbooking of flights and arrival times. The best overall U.S. airline according to the report by Wichita State University and the University of Nebraska was Virgin America. Overall the report, which has been published annually for more than 20 years stated that 2012 was the second best year for customer satisfaction since the report began. Despite the improvement in customer satisfaction customer complaints rose by around one fifth compared to the previous year.
The authors of the report state United Airlines, which recently merged with Continental has a complaint rate of 4.24 complaints per 100,000 passengers; compared to United, which ha the highest rate of complaints Southwest Airlines has the lowest with just0.25 complaints per 100,000 passengers.
Best and Worst Airlines in Each Category:
On-Time Performance:
Best: Hawaiian Air came out of top with an on-time performance rate of 93.4 percent.
Worst: American Airlines was the worst when it came to on-time performance at 76.9 percent.
Involuntary Denied Boarding:
Best: JetBlue. Just 0.01 per 10,000 passengers in 2012 were denied boarding. This was consistent with denied boarding in 2011.
Worst: SkyWest Airlines: 2.32 per 10,000 passengers in 2012, a dramatic increase compared to 2011, when the rate was 0.68.
Mishandled Bags:
Best: Virgin America had a mishandled baggage rate of 0.87 per 1,000 passengers.
Worst: American Eagle mishandled bags at a rate 7.32 per 1,000 passengers.
Customer Complaints:
Best: Southwest Airlines had a customer complaint rate of 0.25 per 100,000 passengers in 2012. The report noted “Southwest Airlines is consistently the airline with the lowest customer complaint rate in the industry.”
Worst: United had an average of 4.24 per 100,000 passengers.
On The Web:
Virgin America Ranks Best U.S. Airline, United Ranks Worst
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/08/virgin-america-best-airline_n_3038556.html?utm_hp_ref=business
