US Airline Quality Rating

The "Airline Quality Rating" for 2008 was just released. It is a joint study between a few universities. Maybe some members with more knowledge of the airline industry would comment about these rankings.

http://aqr.aero/pressreleases/2008pressrelease.htm

The AQR scores for the largest airlines for 2007 resulted in the following ranking:
1. Air Tran
2. Jet Blue
3. Southwest
4. Northwest
5. Frontier
6. Continental
7. Alaska
8. United
9. American
10. Delta
11. US Airways
12. Mesa
13. SkyWest
14. Comair
15. American Eagle
16. Atlantic Southeast

By ColombianoGringo on Apr 7, 20:58 in Travel tips.

ColombianoGringo says on Apr 7, 20:58:

This is a link to the full 60 page PDF report.

http://aqr.aero/aqrreports/2008aqr.pdf

Mononoke28 says on Apr 8, 09:36:

I totally agree. I haven't had my luggage misplaced, thank God but the attention you get from the flight attendants is really bad. Not to mention all the "freebies" you used to get back in the day. I'm lucky if I get a freaking glass of water on some of these flights.

Diana

ColombianoGringo says on Apr 8, 09:51:

True. I love how American Airlines now has "Food available for purchase" on many of their domestic flights. Of course, that food is a small can of Pringles or a Three Musketeers bar for $5 :-(

One of the nice things about Avianca is the nice, courteous service I always get. I know other complain about them, but I love 'em. There must be a reason they are doing so well financially this last year.

BTW Diana, I just sent you an email with yet another visa question.

Mononoke28 says on Apr 8, 11:39:

I've started buying food to get on the plane. Last time I got me a nice meal from Panda Express and it smelled oh so good. Wait until they start banning passengers from bringing their own food on board. It's just a matter of time.

(I'll go check out my e-mail now CG)

Diana

Mr. Hollywood says on Apr 8, 11:44:

My favorite US airline is now Virgin America. Beautiful planes, good service, good prices. Hard to beat.

It's interesting that on-time arrivals are one of the criteria because I suspect it's the one thing that is not the fault of the airline most of the time but, rather, the fault of our screwed up air traffic control system or weather. What they should really judge is the airlines' response to delays, which can vary dramatically.

I flew the other week on American. I was in First and, despite that, the seat in front of me was broken and wouldn't even sit up all the way. And the bottom of the seat kept falling down every time I pulled out my briefcase. I swear this airplane looked like it was last refurbished in the 1970's. Compare that to First Class on BA or Virgin or Luftansa and it's just ridiculous.

sloopskipper says on Apr 8, 14:18:

Error, self deleted.