Best U.S. Airlines: 2014 Edition

This is the third year that the Airfarewatchdog team has put U.S. airlines head-to-head in search of the Best U.S. Airline. You can see last year’s rankings here, and the ones from 2012 here. As usual, we ranked the airlines based on their performance in five key areas—canceled flights, on-time arrivals, mishandled bags, denied boardings, and customer satisfaction—to give you 2014’s best of the best.

As you can see from our carefully laid-out charts below, there were some interesting findings this year. As far as we’re concerned, Delta is this year’s unsung hero. For the past two years, Delta has been stuck on the wrong side of the rankings, but this year, the airline moved from sixth up to the top spot! Delta ranks higher this year in canceled flights, on-time arrivals, and mishandled bags, but its most-improved area is customer service. The other legacy carriers—US Airways, American, and United—maintain their usual spots at the bottom. When it comes to the airlines involved in major mergers—Southwest with AirTran and American with US Airways—business is as usual. JetBlue continues to be a leader in customer service but is falling behind in a few other areas. Without further ado, we bring you the Best U.S. Airlines of 2014!

Top Airlines for Overall Performance*

Delta	1 ^st Place
Virgin America	2 ^nd Place
Alaska	3 ^rd Place
JetBlue	4 ^th Place
Frontier	5 ^th Place
Southwest Southwest AirTran	6 ^th Place
American American US Airways	7 ^th Place
United	8 ^th Place

*Rankings determined by combining the airlines’ scores in all categories

Individual Categories

Fewest Canceled Flights*
Delta	0.11% Canceled
Alaska	0.13% Canceled
Virgin America	0.18% Canceled
Frontier	0.63% Canceled
Southwest Southwest AirTran	0.71% Canceled 0.75% Canceled 0.22% Canceled
United	1.31% Canceled
American American US Airways	1.76% Canceled 2.33% Canceled 1.01% Canceled
JetBlue	2.42% Canceled

*Based on Department of Transportation (DOT) report on May 2014 flight cancellations at all reportable airports

On-Time Arrivals*
Alaska	89.67% On-Time
Delta	84.41% On-Time
Virgin America	81.77% On-Time
American American US Airways	79.10% On-Time 76.78% On-Time 82.11% On-Time
JetBlue	77.32% On-Time
United	76.39% On-Time
Frontier	73.42% On-Time
Southwest Southwest AirTran	72.68% On-Time 71.82% On-Time 83.86% On-Time

*Based on DOT report on May 2014 on-time arrivals at all reportable airports

Fewest Mishandled Bags*
Virgin America	1.04 Mishandled
Frontier	1.65 Mishandled
JetBlue	1.79 Mishandled
Delta	1.93 Mishandled
Alaska	2.42 Mishandled
United	3.37 Mishandled
American American US Airways	3.73 Mishandled 3.74 Mishandled 3.72 Mishandled
Southwest Southwest AirTran	3.89 Mishandled 3.83 Mishandled 4.91 Mishandled

*Based on DOT report on May 2014 mishandled baggage reports per 1K passengers

Amount of Denied Boardings*
JetBlue	3.58 Denied
Virgin America	17.13 Denied
Alaska	56.56 Denied
American American US Airways	73.58 Denied 68.63 Denied 80.06 Denied
Delta	74.06 Denied
Frontier	119.07 Denied
Southwest Southwest AirTran	135.96 Denied 120.45 Denied 293.37 Denied
United	245.61 Denied

*Based on DOT report on January to March 2014 involuntary denied boardings per 1MM passengers

Customer Satisfaction Score*
JetBlue	79
Southwest Southwest AirTran	74 78 70
Delta	71
Alaska	70 (tie)
Frontier	70 (tie)
Virgin America	70 (tie)
American American US Airways	66 66 66
United	60

*Based on 2014 American Customer Satisfaction Index scores

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