Airlines Survey: Customers Still Hate Extra Fees

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The latest airline customer satisfaction report from J.D. Power and Associates is out.

The winners: both Alaska Airlines and JetBlue, which scored the highest points in customer satisfaction.

The losers: Just about any airline that levies high costs and fees on passengers. Which is many of them.

Overall customer satisfaction with airlines improved slightly �� an average of 683 on a 1,000-point scale, up by 10 points from 2010, marking the second consecutive year of improvement.

But customer satisfaction with traditional legacy airlines came in 16 points lower than it did in in 2007.

The annual survey is based on responses from more than 13,500 passengers who flew on a major North America airline between July 2010 and April 2011, measuring satisfaction with fares and fees, flight crew, in-flight services, aircraft, boarding, deplaning, baggage, check-in and reservations.

What Customers Hate: Add on Fees, Rising Airfares

Satisfaction with the base airfares quotes by airlines declined among passengers across the board.

In fact, customer dissatisfaction in this area was noticeably high, with complaints focusing on base airfares having no relation to the actual fare passengers paid, after ancillary fees, fuel surcharges and taxes.

The only airlines that didn’t take the heat in this area: Southwest, Air Canada, JetBlue, and Canadian carrier WestJet. These four were the only carriers that did not charge a fee to check in the first bag. (Southwest lets you check in two bags free of charge)

In terms of costs and fees, the traditional network carriers hit a new low mark for 2011. Only Air Canada and Southwest improved in this category in 2011 and that’s also not a surprise, since Southwest has virtually branded its entire airline around its refusal to charge for checked bags. In fact, Southwest improved dramatically over the 2010 results to rank second.

It’s not exactly a news bulletin that there’s an inverse relationship between customer satisfaction and an increase in air fares. Or an increase in the number and amount of ancillary fees.

It’s also not earth shattering that when you operate a younger fleet of aircraft that passengers just might like their experience better.

What Passengers Like: Printing Up Boarding Passes at Home

Passengers also were increasingly satisfied in the check-in and reservation processes. In fact the survey recorded the highest satisfaction levels in this area since 2006. For most business travelers, anytime you can shortcut another line (print up boarding passes at home), it’s a plus. The airlines that have provided really useful phone apps that alert passengers to gate changes, delays and arrival times (and even baggage carousel numbers) score high with passengers.

But don’t ask passengers their satisfaction levels when something goes wrong and a kiosk or phone app won’t help them!

Overall Customer Satisfaction Rankings (maximum score 1,000):

JetBlue - 773
Southwest - 769
WestJet - 729
Airtran - 690
Frontier - 688
Alaska - 680
Air Canada - 678
Continental - 661
American - 656
Delta - 650
United - 640
US Airways - 625