The BEST and WORST U.S. Airlines, Ranked by Customer Complaints

Disney4me · August 19, 2023

One of the biggest travel decisions you’ll have to make when planning your next vacation is how you’re going to get to your destination. Will you drive? Fly? Take a Doom Buggy? (We wish that last option were more practical.)

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Let’s fly to Disney World

If you do choose to fly, that opens up an entirely new question — which airline will you choose? To help with that dilemma, we’ve found a ranking of the BEST and WORST airlines in the United States, ranked by the number of customer complaints each one receives.

The Office of Aviation Consumer Protection (part of the DOT) recently released an updated Air Travel Consumer Report with details about how the industry as a whole is doing. This report contains data for many different aspects of airlines’ relationships with consumers, including how often luggage is mishandled, how many flights arrive on time, and how many incidents were reported by each company.

American Airlines Plane

This report looked at statistics from February 2023. Although more reports have come out since then, this one gave more detailed statistics, including one report that we were looking for in particular: customer complaints.

One of the most interesting stats displayed was the number of customer complaints that U.S. airlines received as a whole. In February 2022, the total number of complaints was 1,889. In February 2023, however, the total was much higher: 4,405. That means that that the number of customer complaints more than DOUBLED over the last year.

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©The Office of Aviation Consumer Protection

Most of these complaints had to do with flight cancelations and delays, and some were about luggage problems and refunds.

©The Office of Aviation Consumer Protection

Let’s break down that statistic by which airlines received the MOST complaints and which received the LEAST. This might help you decide which airline to choose for your next vacation.

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Traveling soon?

Southwest Airlines had the most complaints, with 843 total. Coming in second was Frontier Airlines, and American Airlines was third. Filling out the fourth, fifth, and sixth spots were United Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and Delta Air Lines, respectively. Here’s the complete list:

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES — 843
FRONTIER AIRLINES — 724
AMERICAN AIRLINES — 672
UNITED AIRLINES — 604
SPIRIT AIRLINES — 426
DELTA AIR LINES — 314
JETBLUE AIRWAYS — 279
ALASKA AIRLINES — 98
ALLEGIANT AIR — 84
SKYWEST AIRLINES — 57
HAWAIIAN AIRLINES — 45
ENVOY AIR — 43
ENDEAVOR AIR — 32
PSA AIRLINES — 25
BREEZE AIRWAYS — 23
REPUBLIC AIRWAYS — 23
SUN COUNTRY AIRLINES — 21
SILVER AIRWAYS — 20
PIEDMONT AIRLINES — 17
AVELO AIRLINES — 16
OTHER U.S. AIRLINES — 15
MESA AIRLINES — 10
CONTOUR AIRLINES — 9
MOKULELE AIRLINES — 5

Most airlines saw an increase in customer complaints between February 2022 and February 2023, but Southwest Airlines experienced one of the most significant increase, from 94 in 2022 to 843 in 2023.

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Southwest Airplane

Frontier Airlines also had a significant uptick in complaints, from 170 in 2022 to 724 in 2023.

©The Office of Aviation Consumer Protection

However, you may have noticed that some of these airlines are a LOT more popular than others. Southwest Airlines is one of the most popular airlines in the country — with more flights and customers, it makes sense that it also gets more complaints.

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Inside a plane

So let’s now take a look at the rankings for Complaints Per 100,000 Enplanements. An “enplanement” means a passenger that boarded a plane (1 enplanement = 1 passenger). This statistic accounts for the differences in customer numbers so that the data is not skewed by how many flights an airline has.

©The Office of Aviation Consumer Protection

From this data, it looks like some of the worst airlines for complaints include Frontier Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and JetBlue Airways. Southwest is still in the top five, with 7.31 complaints per 100,000 enplanements.

Spirit Airlines Safety Documents

The airlines with the fewest number of complaints were Skywest Airlines, Republic Airways, and Delta Air Lines, all of which had fewer than 3 complaints per 100,000 enplanements.

Keep in mind that there may be other factors that impact your decision on which airline to choose. For example, Southwest Airlines may have more complaints per 100,000 enplanements, but they also allow every passenger to bring 2 checked bags for free, and they have a more flexible cancelation policy.

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Southwest Airlines

Frontier and Spirit were some of the worst for complaints, but they also generally have very cheap tickets. Depending on what your priorities are, your choice may be more complex than just going with the least-complained-about airline.