With the busy summer travel season making its approach, WalletHub today released its report on 2018’s Best & Worst Airlines to follow up its recent look at the Best Frequent Flyer Programs and help consumers save as much time, money and aggravation as possible.
Everyone can compare airlines based on price, but it’s much more difficult to weigh other aspects of the air travel experience. So WalletHub focused on quantifying those aspects, including how often there are delays, baggage issues, animal incidents, passenger complaints and more.
You can find a handful of highlights below:
• Best Overall – Alaska Airlines earned the highest overall WalletHub Score (74.18) for the second year in a row, followed by Delta Air Lines (72.57).
• Most Reliable – Delta Airlines has the lowest overall rate of cancelations, delays, mishandled luggage and denied boardings.
• Least Pet-Friendly – Nearly 1 in 10,000 animals died, got injured or were lost while transported by major U.S. airlines in 2017. None were incident-free, but United and American had the highest incident rates.
• Most Comfortable – JetBlue leads the pack in terms of in-flight experience, offering free amenities such as Wi-Fi, extra legroom, and complimentary snacks and beverages.
• Most Satisfactory Airline – Southwest Airlines had the industry’s lowest consumer-complaint rate in 2017, while Frontier and Spirit had the highest complaint rates by far.
