Have Airline Passengers Given Up On Getting Good Customer Service?

Have airline passengers given up on getting good customer service?

You’ve got your horror stories, I’ve got mine. At this point, if I get where I’m going within a couple of hours of ETA without a fight with the airline or onboard, I’m good. How about you?

In The North America Airline Satisfaction Study, completed in March 2023, J.D. Power asked 7,774 passengers about their satisfaction with carriers. The study looked at airline performance in terms of aircraft; baggage; boarding; check-in; cost and fees; flight crew; in-flight services; and reservations. The study measures passenger satisfaction in first/business class, premium economy and economy/basic economy.

It’s not surprising that customer satisfaction dropped, according to the study. What is surprising is how little it fell. Using a 1,000-point scale, J.D. Power says that overall passenger satisfaction was at 791. That’s down just 7 points from last year, when passenger satisfaction dropped 22 points.

The big driver of dissatisfaction? It’s not delays and cancellations. According to J.D. Power, the culprit is cost and fees, satisfaction with which fell 17 points from 2022.

Some of the survey data suggests passengers are suffering from TV-movie-amnesia. Southwest Airlines cancelled over 15,000 flights in December. Yet passengers gave Southwest the benefit of many, many doubts and ranked it highest in customer satisfaction in the economy/basic economy segment for a second straight year.

Southwest had a score of 827, Delta Air Lines (801) ranked second and JetBlue Airways (800) ranked third. At the bottom of the economy/basic economy totem pole, American had a 764 rating, Spirit 727, and Frontier just 705.

“If the current pattern of price hikes, staffing shortages and reduced routes continues,” as the J.D. Power press release put it, airlines run the risk of “possible brand damage.”

The situation hasn’t been all bad for the carriers, with a combination of soaring demand, limited supply and rising airfares helping airlines achieve record revenues over the last two quarters. Michael Taylor, travel intelligence lead at J.D. Power, noted, “If yield management were the only metric airlines needed to be successful in the long term, this would be a banner year for the industry because they are operating at peak economic efficiency.”

That efficiency, plus the $50 billion taxpayers poured into the airline in 2000, have not resulted in record profits for the airlines. Southwest, for example, just set a 52-week stock market low of 28.77 on May 10.

Still, First and Business Class passengers apparently are happy with the service they’re getting. Passenger satisfaction scores in this segment rose 9 points.

J.D. Powers says ‘upper-class’ passengers gave higher food and beverage scores because better service returned post-pandemic. I’m not as convinced. There was mediocre food on a couple of First-Class flights I was on, and long lines to get into packed airline lounges.

The two best performers in “upper class” service were JetBlue and Delta. JetBlue Airways ranks highest in customer satisfaction in the first/business segment for a second consecutive year, with a score of 893. Delta Air Lines (865) ranks second and United Airlines (848) ranks third.

The two top airlines flipped in the premium economy segment, where Delta ranked highest in customer satisfaction with a score of 848. JetBlue Airways (840) ranked second and Alaska Airlines (823) third.

Such numbers seem on the high side, considering the level of delays, cancellations and general passenger frustration. As J.D. Power puts it, “the last few years have been taxing for airlines, and it’s showing. All of this, ahead of a summer travel season that may prove even more difficult, with industry infrastructure not having recovered from the pandemic, the pilot shortage, and incredibly high demand for air travel.”

North American passengers have long endured mediocre service compared to their international counterparts. No U.S. carriers airlines are among AirlineRatings.com World’s Best Airlines Top Ten list, and packed planes, delays and high prices are unlikely to improve customer satisfaction.

So have customers given up on demanding good customer service from airlines? Or have US airlines given up on providing good customer service?

Michael Taylor of J.D. Power takes a more sanguine view.

“Yes, there are operational issues with airlines, due to increased demand and not enough pilots to meet that demand. Yes, airplanes are more crowded and that makes individual service harder to achieve in the cabin. Passengers’ expectations have risen [since the pandemic] and so has the demand for travel. As a result, J. D. Power has seen a continued decline in overall satisfaction.”

“Hiring, training and deploying pilots is the constraining factor in the air travel world today,” Taylor says. “It may take some time to correct that, but we expect that airlines will regain their upward momentum in customer satisfaction and service.”