With almost 83 million passengers flying on U.S. and foreign airlines serving the United States, it’s no wonder that sentiments toward airline customer service has declined. In fact, a new survey found that 56% of Americans who flew on an airplane in the past 12 months say airline customer service is declining.
Furthermore, millennial passengers are more likely than Generation Xers and baby boomers to complain about airline service issues and are twice as likely to issue a formal complaint about their flying experience.
According to the survey:
• Millennials complain the most: Airing a complaint on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and LinkedIn) is more common among this generation than other generations, and the lack of response or untimely responses by airlines only fuel millennial negativity regarding airline customer service.
• Customer satisfaction is going down: Even though more than 96% of respondents were at least somewhat satisfied by their most recent flight, nearly 56% of flyers said they think airline customer service is declining. Millennials and men felt the strongest about this.
• Flyers are speaking out: Almost 45% of Americans who flew in the past year said they issued a complaint against an airline.
• Some airlines are perceived worse than others: When discussing specific airlines’ customer service, respondents rated American Airlines and Southwest as the best and Spirit Airlines as the worst.
• Flyers expect the worst from budget airlines: The mantra “you get what you pay for” is something that travelers believe. Even still, 36% of millennials felt that budget airlines treat passengers poorly, and that they have a right to complain.
