For the fourth year in a row, Delta Airlines has topped The Points Guy’s annual Best Airlines Report. The report, released on August 17, ranked airlines in the United States from best to worst, based on criteria that include customer satisfaction, cabin comfort, on-time records, lost luggage data, and lounge quality, to name a few. The rankings also reflect a deliberate metholodogy that assesses every step of a customer’s journey, from booking tickets to receiving checked bags to even using incentives for subsequent journeys.
“As travel restrictions were lifted around the world and more people returned to traveling, airlines faced a mountain of challenges this year from labor shortages to unfortunate delays making it a difficult year for air travel,” acknowledged Brian Kelly, Founder of The Points Guy. “In the face of these challenges, our team has worked tirelessly to create this invaluable resource that will help travelers make educated decisions when booking their next domestic getaway.”
United, American, and Alaska completed the top five rankings, with Southwest Airlines taking the second slot. The three airlines with the lowest rankings were Spirit, Allegiant, and Frontier over the past year, with Spirit falling from eighth to tenth position.
Delta was named the champion for the fourth consecutive year, owing to its a large network of lounges, a high customer satisfaction rating, and less unavoidable bumps than its rivals. With just 1.25 complaints for every 100,000 passengers, Delta saw the fewest customer complaints this year. Considering the situation of the airline industry as a whole, they also only bumped two travelers in 2021 out of more than 127 million Delta passengers, which was outstanding.
Although second ranked overall, Southwest Airlines won the cost & reach category, which compares the size of a carrier’s route network to the cost of its flights for passengers. Even while Southwest doesn’t fly to as many places as some other American airlines, its tickets were noticeably less than those of the three legacy airlines (American, Delta, and United), and Southwest also imposed the fewest ancillary costs for checked bags and ticket modifications or cancellations.
Due to its wide range of cobranded credit cards and its many airline partners for earning and using MileagePlus points, United achieved the top rating in the frequent flyer category. Meanwhile, Hawaiian Airlines won the reliability award for the second year in a row for having the lowest rate of cancellations and delays. Only 264 of Hawaiian’s 60,000+ flights were cancelled, while more than 90% of its flights landed on time (within 15 minutes of the stated arrival time).
The Best Airlines Report 2022 rankings are as follows:
- Delta Air Lines
- Southwest Airlines
- United Airlines
- American Airlines
- Alaska Airlines
- Hawaiian Airlines
- JetBlue Airways
- Frontier Airlines
- Allegiant Air
- Spirit Airlines