Airline Customer Satisfaction

Yippee! Another fun, mindless survey of the airline industry is just out!

Readers of this blog know of our fondness for surveys that purport to be gauges of customer experiences, quality, favorites, or just silly lists. The latest is the annual “American Customer Satisfaction Index.” The ACSI rates or ranks many industries, and businesses within those industries. Here’s how the airlines scored:

• Southwest 81
• All Others 77
• Continental 68
• Airlines (as an industry) 64
• Delta 64
• American 60
• US Airways 59
• Northwest 57
• United 56

A couple of observations. No matter what the scale, the difference between the bottom four airlines is essentially insignificant. (Although, from our personal consumer perspective, United deserves its bottom rating.) Secondly, the “all others” category contains, we assume, JetBlue, Alaska, AirTran, and others. The average of 77 for these mystery carriers compares to the average of 60.7 for the six legacy carriers – that is a significant difference.

See kids, numbers can be fun!

How many, uh... airlines, yea airlines... can you see in this picture?