No-surprises Readers’ Poll: Southwest Great, USAir Blows
October 29th, 2008 Posted in Cheap North America Travel, Travel industry, Vacation deals
Smarter Travel just published the results of their readers’ poll on air travel and it’s mostly a Southwest Airlines luv-a-thon, with a few cabin-related scraps thrown to JetBlue as well.
What’s really amusing is that Southwest won for best frequent flyer program, even though they have no cabin besides coach and no 
“elite” level that supposedly gives you better treatment. In these times, we’ll take simplicity and a clear pay-off over the constantly changing rules and cutbacks at the legacy carriers’ programs. If I’m loyal, I get a free ticket. Done.
No surprise that O’Hare got rated the worst airport, but it’s funny that the Las Vegas airport got rated the highest, even though they were rated #6 most miserable in this report on delays and load factors. They used to also be known as the unhealthiest airport in terms of food choices, but they pulled out of last place a year ago. My vote for the best is Tampa’s: a nice cell phone parking area that shows all arriving flight times and free Wi-Fi!
Alas, there’s clear agreement that US Airways is the worst: they came out on top for “least favorite domestic airline” and “dirtiest cabins.” If there had been a “worst frequent flyer program,” they probably would have handily taken that one too. (Plus the Charlotte airport bars close early, which makes everyone even grumpier.)
There was only one international category, with British Air, Lufthansa, and Singapore Air coming out on top. See the full survey.
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2 Responses to “No-surprises Readers’ Poll: Southwest Great, USAir Blows”
By Wendy Perrin on Oct 29, 2008
Hi Tim,
I understand Southwest’s popularity, but I have to say I find it odd that Virgin America didn’t score higher. 33,000 readers of Conde Nast Traveler voted Virgin America their favorite domestic airline this year, followed by JetBlue and Midwest. Interesting. Almost makes me want to go test them all out and see for myself. Almost.
By tim on Oct 30, 2008
Wendy–thanks for chiming in. I, like many other frequent travelers, have never even seen a Virgin America plane on a tarmac, much less flown on one. (Though I’d like to try it.) They’re just not in enough markets yet. I am guessing that a huge percentage of CNT’s readers are urban, in major markets, skewed highly to gateway markets like New York. SmarterTravel, on the other hand, is probably more representative of the traveling public at large, including those who live outside the top-10 markets and make less than six figures.