We {Heart} Airlines More This Year
I’m writing this blog post from the LAX airport en route to Hawaii for a wedding. This morning en route to the Denver International Airport, I received a phone call from United informing me that my 8:30 AM flight to LAX had been canceled due to mechanical problems and I had been re-booked on the same flight tomorrow. The wedding, coincidentally, is tomorrow, so this was NOT AN OPTION. A series of phone calls later, United customer service provided the general consensus that every flight to LAX was booked until tomorrow. At that point my fate seemed sealed and it appeared as though I would have to teleconference into the wedding. In the flash of a 747 jumbo jet, an airline agent finagled me onto a full waitlist and I was hustled onto an earlier flight seconds before the doors closed. THANK YOU UNITED.
Before my gratitude wears off, I thought I would use this opportunity to share some good news with you regarding the airlines’ ability to service their customers. Apparently I am not the only one who feels satisfied with the airlines’ service from time to time (like today). New data provided by the American Customer Satisfaction Index indicates that passenger satisfaction with the airlines went up this year for the first time in SIX YEARS. The study, developed at the University of Michigan, reported a gain of 3.2% to 64 (on a scale of 1-100), “ending a downward slide that, with few interruptions, began in 1994,” the report concluded. Here are the cliff notes from the findings:
- American wins the award for the least progress with a drop of 3% to 60.
- Southwest, the darling of the airline industry, leads the charge for the sixteenth straight year, with a gain of 3% to 81. They also hold the record for being able to get passengers from A to B with their luggage intact (SIDE NOTE: Southwest lost my luggage in April on a flight from DEN>SFO. They did, however, apologize profusely and issued me a $50 voucher so all ill wills were forgiven).
- Continental improved 10% to 68, Delta is up 7% to 64 and US Airways crawled over the halfway mark with a gain of 9% to 59.
- United reported no gains or losses, which secured them a solid LAST PLACE FINISH at 56 (and to think I tried to throw them a bone just several sentences ago! ;)
Arguably these gains may be due in part to shrinking passenger loads, which naturally results in shorter lines, fewer pissed off patrons, less grumpy staff, and an overall better experience. Airlines as an indsutry still placed at the bottom of the totem pole, beneath full-service restaurants, which secured the high score of 84, or hotels at 75. But honestly, improvements in airline customer service are always worth a blog post. Keep it up!
