These were the best U.S. airlines in 2024 according to Americans

One company might surprise you

Which airline did Americans like the most in 2024? It’s a weird question but it’s one that data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index can answer. So who was the best? Let’s take a look.

Diving into the data

Before diving into the data, it's important to know how airlines were ranked. It was done using three questions: 1) How satisfied are you with the service?, 2) How well did the service meet your expectations?, and 3) How did it compare to an ideal service?

Three important questions

With those three questions, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) was able to cut through all the complaints about modern airlines cutting services or not being at gates on time and look at what mattered most to American fliers.

Ranking the best

Airline brands received a score between 0 and 100, and you may be surprised by which airlines took the top spots and which performed poorly. Sitting in last place in 2024 was Spirit Airlines, which shouldn’t really be a surprise.

Looking at Spirit Airlines

Spirit has been beset by issues for years and 2024 saw the company's second merger with a major American airline—this time it was JetBlue—fail.

A bad year for Spirit

This forced the company to declare bankruptcy in November according to Bloomberg. Let’s look at just how bad Spirit performed compared to its major American competitors based on how Visual Capitalist presented the data.

Spirit Airlines

2024 Score: 67

Change from 2023: 5

Frontier Airlines

2024 Score: 69

% Change from 2023: 3

United Airlines

2024 Score: 75

% Change from 2023: -3

Delta

2024 Score: 77

% Change from 2023: 1

JetBlue

2024 Score: 77

% Change from 2023: 1

Allegiant

2024 Score: 78

% Change from 2023: 8

Southwest Airlines

2024 Score: 78

% Change from 2023: 0

American Airlines

2024 Score: 79

% Change from 2023: 1

Alaska Airlines

2024 Score: 82

% Change from 2023: 1

A note on the data

It is interesting to see Allegiant Airlines, a low-cost carrier that hasn’t been known for its stellar customer satisfaction in the past, take off and reach near the top of ACSI’s list. It is surprising to see United Airlines tumble in satisfaction compared to its 2023 score.

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