Despite some eye-popping headlines in recent months regarding flight experiences, a new report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index claims passenger satisfaction is higher than ever!
What is the world coming to if doors flying off, passengers not making it to the restroom, and sitting on runways for hours on end boost flyer satisfaction?
Nonetheless, the proof is in the numbers, and they show Alaska Airlines is the clear-cut favorite overall, while there are 3 low-cost airlines travelers prefer most to score cheap flights.
They’re certainly not without their controversies and horror stories, but when your bottom line is spared, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get from A to B.
Spirit
Spirit has been around for decades but has never been in the same conversation as Delta, United, American, and others.
Flying Spirit is about as basic as it gets, but to their credit, they have made some major improvements like installing wifi so you don’t have to twiddle your thumbs or make small talk for hours with your neighbor about their cats.
Despite an endless list of horrendous stories online, travelers haven’t stopped taking Spirit where they need to go on a budget, all while nearly breaking their kneecaps in such tight Economy seats.
The Fort Lauderdale based airline does have an impressive route network.
If you can avoid connecting, there are some awesome nonstop routes often super cheap, such as Colombia, Costa Rica, and many Caribbean islands.
Satisfaction ratings have seen a slight increase, but more importantly, Spirit was recently named the safest U.S. airline despite their cheap, lackluster reputation.
Frontier
You gotta hand it to Frontier; they do fly to some pretty incredible places.
As an avid budget traveler myself, my belief is not wasting money on the shortest part of your trip when you can put your money to better use when you land.
That’s the beauty of budget carriers. When it comes to this Denver-based airline, some travelers have essentially said this is the final frontier as in, “I will never fly this airline again!”
Sifting through my random Instagram Reels algorithm of natural disasters, bucket-list destinations, and Liver King videos, comes some juicy travel horror stories and quite often the culprit is none other than Frontier.
Between alleged reports of horrible service and measuring Personal Items to the nearest millimeter to squeeze more cash out of you at the gate, there are really only 2 valid reasons to justify flying this airline.
The first being you catch one of their crazy flight sales, including their unlimited flight pass, where it’s just too good to pass up.
The second being they’re the only carrier with a nonstop flight to your destination. A mix of these factors has to be the case why Frontier saw an increase in customer satisfaction scoring higher than Spirit.
For what it’s worth, AirlineRatings does give perfect scores to Frontier in ‘Product’ and ‘Safety’ categories.
Allegiant
Allegiant is a small airline, but they have made significant upgrades ever since a scathing 60 Minutes report back in 2018, where serious safety concerns were put on blast.
Now, they are Americans’ favorite budget airline with the highest score among the category and third place overall. Pretty impressive.
The Las Vegas based airline doesn’t have nearly as impressive a route network as its competitors. Heck, even Sun Country flies to incredible islands like Roatan, while Allegiant has stuck to the mainland USA after discontinuing Hawaii and Alaska routes.
There has been chatter of a merger between Mexico’s VivaAerobus, which could exponentially expand their network, but for now, Allegiant’s customers can leave their passports at home.
While also a no-frills airline, Allegiant is a bit more flexible with their baggage policy for fee-avoiding bag stuffers.
Although, the real beauty of flying with Allegiant is all their routes are nonstop. Unlike Frontier and Spirit, you won’t have any dreadful layovers.
You can fly to some of America’s coolest cities like Chicago, New York, and Austin, as well as underrated ones like Boise, El Paso, and Providence.
If you’re really allegiant to Allegiant, you can even stay at their newly opened Sunseeker Resort in Florida.
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