Which airlines do you love or hate? Here’s how Spirit, Southwest, Frontier all ranked

Broward County-based Spirit Airlines’ saw its woes continue as it notched one of the worst scores among North American carriers in a new study on customer satisfaction.

Spirit came in 10th among 11 airlines in the economy/basic category of the J.D. Power 2024 North America Airline Satisfaction Study. That was the only class in which it was judged.

Spirit has been headquartered in South Florida since 1999, first in Miramar before moving to Dania Beach. The airline has been trying to pick itself up since a federal judge blocked a proposed merger with JetBlue Airways earlier this year.

Only Frontier Airlines did worse, finishing No. 11, dead last. Frontier and Spirit had the two worst scores across all three categories in the study, released on May 8.

Frontier is also known in South Florida. In addition to flying out of Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, in 2022 it tried to acquire Spirit. But shareholders of the Broward airline rejected the offer.

How. J.D. Power does the airline survey

J.D. Power is a global business intelligence and advisory service firm. The study, redesigned this year, measured seven dimensions: airline staff, digital tools, ease of travel, level of trust, on-board experience, pre/post flight experience, and value for price paid. It assessed three classes of travel: first/business, premium economy, and economy/basic economy.

It received responses from 9,582 passengers. To participate, travelers must have flown on a major North American airline within the past month of completing the survey. It was conducted from March 2023 through March 2024.

In the economy/basic category, the one in which Spirit and Frontier were all the way in the back, Southwest Airlines won first place for the third consecutive year, with a score of 685. Delta came in second with 651. Low-cost Allegiant Air came in third with 633.

Spirit’s overall score was 507 and Frontier’s was 472, the two lowest among North American carriers in any of the three categories.

In the first class/business category, Delta Air Lines won first place with a score of 743. JetBlue took second at 736. United Airlines, Alaska Airlines and American Airlines finished third, fourth and fifth.

The Atlanta-based carrier also topped the premium economy category for the second straight year, notching a 716 score. Alaska Airlines came in second. JetBlue was fourth and United Airlines finished sixth.

Delta has been growing in South Florida. Last year it had a record number of flights from Miami International Airport. Its partnership with LATAM is also providing more ways to connect North and South America.

But their success in the J.D. Power rankings has a simpler explanation.

“Their people scores were significantly higher than the average in each of those categories and somewhat higher than the rest of the competition,”Michael Taylor, Practice Lead for Travel Intelligence and for the report, said in an interview with the Miami Herald.

“That’s how they distanced themselves in those two classes,” he said.

Making travelers happy

That is also one of the larger lessons from the report. With demand high and airplanes and gates more crowded, carriers have to battle to keep travelers’ content.

“Even with the advent of AI and all that kind of thing, it’s still a one-to-one relationship and feeling that a person can give you when you’re traveling,” Taylor said. “The people factor still remains high.”

In Southwest’s case, the carrier has built a loyal following.

“They are just hard to beat in economy class,” Taylor said. Travelers find they “get really good value for their money.”

How these rankings play into future salary negotiations and costs will be interesting to watch. Southwest flight attendants just became the highest paid in the industry. Will that affect ticket prices?

Meanwhile, those at Delta recently got 5% raises but that still puts them below Southwest. And a group of flight attendants at Delta is seeking to unionize and ask for more. Can they now point to their people skills?

What else did the satisfaction report say?

The J.D. Power report had broader findings, too:

▪ Passengers just want it to be easy and get there safely: “The two biggest factors driving overall airline customer satisfaction are ease of travel and trust. While things like value for price paid are important, it is more important to passengers just to have a seamless flight.”

▪ Media coverage has major influence on trust scores: “The level of trust airline passengers have in their airline is correlated to media coverage about the airline. Overall satisfaction scores for trust are 400 points lower (on a 1,000-point scale) among passengers who saw negative news coverage of an airline’s performance in the past year.”

▪ Investments in people pay off for top-performing carriers: “The top-performing carriers in this year’s study — Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines — have made substantial investments in the people side of their business. These efforts are paying off in the form of significantly higher scores in all areas where interpersonal interactions can make a difference.”