Delays, missed connections, lost or damaged luggage, boarding bottlenecks… The list of things airline passengers grumble about could go on for days—especially since air travelers lodged more complaints in the first half of 2015, according to a new study released last week from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
In total, 9,542 passengers made their voices heard about issues with flight experiences from January through June, up just over 20 percent compared to the same period in 2014, when 7,935 people complained). Conversely, 13 passengers contacted airlines to compliment their services during the first six months of 2015.
Air travel complaints were broken down by category, with flight problems (delays, cancellations and misconnections) leading the charge at 33 percent (3,107 complaints—405 more than in 2014). Baggage issues came next, with 1,417 complaints (15 percent) about lost or damaged luggage.
Other issues included:
-Reservations/ticketing/boarding (1,282 complaints)
-Customer service (1,121 complaints)
-Airfares (870 complaints)
-Refunds (751 complaints)
-Disability issues (364 complaints)
-Overbooking (290 complaints)
-Frequent flyer problems (130 complaints)
-Advertising (92 complaints)
-Other (88 complaints)
-Discriminations (29 complaints)
-Animals (1 complaint)
Looking at air travel complaints by carrier in the United States, Southwest Airlines came out looking the best, with only 0.52 complaints per 100,000 passengers (meaning just 0.0005 percent of passengers felt strongly enough to voice disapproval). Spirit Airlines was on the other end of the spectrum, with .01 percent of flyers registering complaints (11.2 out of every 100,000—still not too bad in the grand scheme of things). Spirit supplanted Frontier Airlines at the bottom of the list, though Frontier’s rate of complaints went up from 3.53 to 10.17 out of every 100,000 passengers.
While this report focuses on number of air travel complaints, it’s important to look at the numbers in greater context. Keep in mind that, among U.S.-based carriers, only 6,412 out of 339,583,826 passengers lodged complaints. At that rate of just 0.002 percent of passengers with complaints, the airlines appear to be doing a pretty good job overall.
