Southwest Provides Best Airline Customer Experience
February 24, 2012 1 Comment
This post examines the nine airlines included in the 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings.
Southwest Airlines earned the top spot in the industry and received the only “good” rating. AirTran Airways was ranked second in the industry and earned a rating of “okay” along with JetBlue Airlines and Alaska Airlines. The remaining five airlines earned poor ratings, with US Airways and American Airlines at the bottom.
The overall airline industry, on average, earned the 12th spot out of 18 industries. The industry made a modest improvement in its overall customer experience ratings between 2011 and 2012. Led by AirTran Airways, Southwest Airlines, and United Airways, five of the eight airlines that were included in both studies showed some improvement. Continental Airlines and American Airlines had the largest declines since last year.
Do you want to see the data? Go to the Temkin Ratings website where you can sort through all of the results for free. You can even purchase the underlying data if you want to get more access.
The bottom line: There’s a long way to go across the airline industry
About Bruce Temkin
These results are consistent with my experience. Several of these companies do themselves harm by creating/enforcing anti-customer policies. Here’s an example of a policy that prohibited me from paying a change fee to take the earlier flight. http://bit.ly/hMyG3n
And here’s a misguided example of service differentiation. Did 1st class flyers really flock to the airline with the carpet? http://bit.ly/bgroKh Is this the best the airlines can come up with?