The Annual Quality Rating, an airline customer service report researched by experts from Wichita State and Purdue University (News - Alert), uncovered some surprising information about the overall customer service experience of passengers from 2011: Airline customer service is at its best in 10 years. The study examined the fifteen largest airlines and used four categories to gauge their scores. The categories are as follows: customer complaints, baggage handling, timely arrival and involuntary denied boarding.
The report indicates that Southwest Airlines, AirTran Airways, Hawaiian Airlines and JetBlue are among the top airlines whose performance in each of the categories is superior to other major airlines. Southwest Airlines had the lowest customer complaint rate, 0.32 complaints per 100,000 passengers. Not bad.
Apparently, this is not the first year that Southwest Airlines has demonstrated improved customer service, so passengers who may have been scathed from the less than stellar experience from five years ago may want to give Southwest Airlines another chance.
AirTran Airways had the best baggage handling rate. Out of 1,000 passengers who boarded their flights last year, only 1.63 had baggage issues. Hawaiian Airlines did the best at ensuring that passengers arrived on time, boasting a 92.8 punctuality rate. Finally, JetBlue had the least amount of involuntary bumped passengers, only .01 per 10,000.
But although JetBlue shines when it comes to keeping passengers on board for the flight they signed up for, it also had the worst on-time performance. But can you really blame them for that? Perhaps their tardiness is the result of waiting on the stragglers before take-off.
Brent Bowen, one of the researchers from Purdue, told the press that, “The interesting thing about this year is that virtually all the airlines improved. I think we're finally starting to see the fact that airline management is really trying to make it better for the consumer. The low-cost carriers are outperforming legacy carriers quite considerably. So you see AirTran and Frontier and Southwest and JetBlue and Alaska, they're consistently doing better than the Deltas and the Americans and the other mega, combined carriers we have now.”
People who have recently flown will probably attest to the fact that service has indeed improved, although many will also agree that the flying experience is still less than perfect. Dean Headly, one of the researchers from Wichita, reveals that although airline customer service is showing signs of improvement, progress is slow. He states, “Airlines are finally catching up with what their promise is, which is getting you there on time 80 percent of the time with your bags.”
Edited by Jennifer Russell
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