Recent prices increases have made it more difficult to find cheap fares, particularly cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages. Good news have now arrived in the form of an annual Airline Quality Rating study that found that domestic US airline service in 2010 improved, bumping fewer passengers, with the airlines losing less bags, and flying more flights on time.
2010s rate of 3.5 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers on domestic flights was the lowest number in the two decades that the study has been produced. The involuntarily denied boarding rate fell to 1.08 per 10,000 passengers, down slightly from 2009. 80 percent of flights arrived on time in 2010 which was a small improvement from the prior year.
AirTran came in first among all U.S. airlines in the latest annual Airline Quality Rating study. American Eagle, a regional affiliate of American Airlines, came in last (ranked 16th) based on customer service metrics compiled by the Department of Transportation.
Strangely, fliers say there are increasingly unhappy with the airlines despite the airlines improved performance last year. Complaints to the Transportation Department concerning airline performance increased 28 percent in 2010. Experts attribute increased passenger dissatisfaction to primarily two factors: reduced airline capacity and increased fees.
Since airlines have reduced capacity, it is more difficult, and often requires a longer wait, to secure a seat on a later flight if your original flight is cancelled. Even though fees have no direct impact on service, passengers may be more inclined to complain if they believe that they are not getting something they paid for.
There were 1.22 complaints per 100,000 passengers in 2010 vs. less than 1 per 100,000 the prior year. Delta ranked worst of the complaint list, generating 2 complaints per 100,000 passengers flows, followed by United at 1.64 and US Airways at 1.53. www.cheapfares.com