WSJ Best and Worst airline of 2018
 

https://www.wsj.com/video/the-best-a...6C4F699EA.html

1. Delta
2. Alaska
3. Southwest
4. Spirit
5. JetBlue
6. United
7. American
8. Frontier

Any list that doesn't have spirit dead last is one that can't be taken seriously.

Ok, buddy.

How often do you fly on Spirit?

What no Hawaiian? I'd bet we'd be first on a few of those lists.

They said they excluded Hawaiian due to the relatively few flights they operate on the mainland and thus not subject to the major weather issues at the same rate as these other carriers.

The seven categories and rankings that went into the overall ranking:

On-time arrivals
1. Delta
2. Alaska
3. Spirit
4. Southwest
5. United
6. American
7. JetBlue
8. Frontier

Tarmac Delays
1. Southwest
2. Alaska
3. Frontier
4. Spirit
5. Delta
6. JetBlue
7. United
8. American

Involuntary Bumps
1. Delta
2. JetBlue
3. United
4. American
5. Southwest
6. Alaska
7. Spirit
8. Frontier

Extreme Delays
1. Alaska
2. Delta
3. Southwest
4. Spirit
5. American
6. United
7. JetBlue
8. Frontier

Cancelled flights
1. Delta
2. Spirit
3. Alaska
4. Southwest
5. United
6. Frontier
7. JetBlue
8. American

Mishandled bags
1. Spirit
2. JetBlue
3. Delta
4. United
5. Alaska
6. Frontier
7. Southwest
8. American

Formal DOT complaints
1. Southwest
2. Alaska
3. Delta
4. JetBlue
5. United
6. American
7. Spirit
8. Frontier

I give the "Most Improved" award to Spirit.

As a Frontier pilot, its encouraging to see that a ULCC can do well.

And..... Frontier needs to get their sh*t together

That’s a good old fashioned pimp slappin’. Well done.

It's a combination of, increasing the block time, new contract, and most important, this:

"Spirit has turned to the Disney Institute, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, to help change its reputation and better train its employees for success."

https://www.travelandleisure.com/air...itute-training

And yet.........

Best airlines to be a pilot for:
1. Delta
2. United
3. American
4. Southwest
5. Alaska
6. JetBlue
7. Spirit
8. Frontier

Meaning?........

As pilots, who gives a ****

And again Hawaiian doesn’t make the list....

Spirit is fine. The problem is people book them expecting the same service as Delta/AA/UAL and then get angry when they get what they paid for.

We took them to Florida a couple months back because the tickets were cheap. Perfectly fine experience, except no gate upon arrival and I’ve had that happen on other big carriers a lot.

Well, my list looks different, but I get your point.

Fixed that for ya, but yup.

I care. A lot. I'm sure at one time Braniff, Eastern, TWA, or Pan Am were better places to work than NW, DL, US, US, AA, etc. I want my carrier to keep making money and for my checks to keep cashing.

Maybe best financially but it will cost you a bit on the longevity side...

Long term quality product might impact growth (or shrinkage). Probably worth a few seniority numbers.

I dunno. Don’t know if I can do FedEx or UPS backside flying. It’s not for everyone. But they are great companies and I have many friends at both of them.


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And what data did you take into account to form your theory? I'll bet a ton of folks would debate your thesis.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Can’t be for the crew meals.

IDK, I do about 50% Night and 50% Datime Flying and have only been on property 2 years. Never do any Night Hub turns either. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it is to avoid some of those brutal schedules everyone fears so much.

Honestly, I don't understand why people don't try harder to swap off the ugly stuff, often they just fly it when they could have swapped it. I guess one person's trash is another ones treasure. I fly mostly days, about 90/10, only fly nights if the leg is mixed in with a good trip or a convenient deadhead. But I'm having a hard time getting up early for some of those day flights. Getting old sucks, I want to sleep until 8am.

Didn’t realize this. I retract my statement then.


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Back to the original article... does this include regionals or is it just the mainline?

My brother and sister in law just flew Spirit. They couldn’t open the cargo door to retrieve their bags. They were told that they would have to wait 4 hrs at the airport to file a claim for their bags and that they wouldn’t deliver them because “we don’t do that.” What? Above these other airlines?

No other airline has had a mechanical issue that inconvenienced the passengers. Ever.

You’re kidding right? Sorry...airlines should deliver bags when they’re not on the belt. Not send them to email then say “we don’t deliver bags” when the cargo door is jammed closed. At DAL, AA, UAL, you’d go home, call later, talk to a human, and the next morning your bag would be on your doorstep. At Spirit they tell you your bag isn’t late til 4 hrs after and you cant make a claim online or even on the phone with an actual person. You have to stay at the airport and make a claim 4 hours later. Even then they won’t deliver it even though they know exactly where it is and that it was their fault. Your argument is ridiculous. It’s not that airlines dont have problems. It’s that Spirit doesn’t give a $hit. Top 4 airline though.

It’s that Spirit is a ULCC, and doesn’t send bags to houses. That super cheap ticket your family enjoyed is super cheap for a reason.

I think this is the second year in a row that NKS has finished number 1 in mishandled bags. Which tells me that your one off story is just that.

One off story. There’s a reason my brother (CLE) called me and said he’s done with Spirit. It s not that they mishandle bags. It’s that when they do it’s ridiculous. You get what you pay for. But by all means, keep defending horrible customer service. My “one off story” happened to be within days of a post about how great Spirit is. Spirit is what it is. It’s a super cheap ticket to get somewhere if you need to get there with no bags and no problems. Just don’t confuse it with being a top airline.

Just out of curiosity, were they non revving on spirit?

No, sir. Bought tix CLE-MCO round trip.

You seem to have real trouble understanding that “you get what you pay for” means that an ULCC isn’t going to send your bags to your house.

If you want “customer service” that does that kind of thing then you have to pay legacy fares to a legacy carrier.

I understand that this model is a shock to those who still don’t understand it, but airlines of all stripes have pax swearing off them for similar incidents every day. This one effected a family member, so you’re here venting when the criteria of the study indicates that NKS actually gets it right by and large. And that’s with being near the worst in customer complaints for folks like you who don’t understand what they’re buying.

Let me ask this. Did your brother and his family not get mad about paying for water, selecting seats, checking an extra bag etc? Because you can’t have it both ways. Legacy “service” results in legacy pricing.

Absolutely. I get whet you’re saying. They knew they were paying for water. What they didn’t know is that when they got to CLE and their bags were locked in the hold that it’d be their own fault. But let’s not pretend Spirit is a good airline based on what normal people think is good. I find it mildly amusing that due to a mechanical issue my brother’s bag was locked into your company’s airplane but he was required to stay at the airport for 4 HOURS to even file a claim. Like what I’m saying is he couldn’t go home and file a claim online. He had to stay there, at the airport, for for 4 hours after blocking in to even file it. He couldnt call and talk to a person or file it online. Then afterward, when everyone knew knew it was their fault, they don’t deliver. I’m not saying that you don’t get what you pay for. You do. Obviously. All I’m saying is that Spirit is about as far as you get from a top airlne. They’re ridiculous. Buyer beware. Shouldn’t even be considered.

Frontier Airlines is no bargain either. My wife’s bag didn’t make the flight from DEN to destination. She travelled on Frontier, full fare too. Checked in about 2 hours before departure. No bag delivery service either. Luckily our hotel was across the way from the airport. No apology... and had to fight for the baggage check fee... a disgrace of an airline as far as ground personnel are concerned.

..............

Well, I mean, we’re not dragging fare paying, screaming people off airplanes or anything....

I get it, you’re offended that NKS rated better in this study than United. And then you throw in your family horror story to say “See, see, they’re not a real airline like...United”.

And I’m sure no one has ever had any issues with United whatsoever. And certainly never sworn off of them for their real service.

Perhaps if there were a “my bags were locked in the belly and I had to wait an unreasonable amount of time to claim them” metric you’d have a leg to stand on in the matter. But there isn’t. There are only these metrics to go by for this one study.

As a matter of course no ULCC is going to send your bags to you their fault or not. That’s something you still can’t wrap your head around.

So did your family reach out to NKS to try and make it right? I suspect not. Or that would have made it into your sob story. It’s unfortunate what happened to your brother. I can’t speak to what happened at CLE. But trying to use that is an indicator of the whole is about as silly as painting United with the broad brush for what happened on a regional in your colors.

Did I even once mention United? You made it about that. All I said is that Spirit is all of the sudden it’s about Dr Dao...which was Republic, which was about ORD cops. Nice try. This is all youve got. Your argument about “bags locked in the belly with an unreasonable amount of time to claim them” is utterly ridiculous. It’s that you find it reasonable that someone should have to wait 4 hours at the airport to have to file an e claim without the ability to talk ro an actual person amazing. You’re equally proud of Spirit yet equally offended about how awful they are. Funny stuff. I’ve never said legacies don’t have issues. What I find amusing is that you have an utter inability to an admit that you can’t actually deal with customers amazing. All I’m asking is focus on the issue. Bags in hold not pax fault: f u come get them tomorrow regardless of how far away you live. But we’re all Dr Dao 2017. It’s amazing this even exists.

It's not amazing at all if you can connect the dots. Contract employees at a NKS station had a service failure, and you're trying to paint all of Spirit with the simple minded brush of "they simply don't care" as the proof of your thesis that Spirit isn't a "quality airline". Much like United was painted with a broad brush for someone it contracts to.

Clearer now Captain?

At no point did I argue that it was reasonable to have to wait that long to claim bags, nor did I argue that it was acceptable for have no employees there for the claim for 4 hours. Don't put words in my mouth please. What I did argue was that it was unreasonable for a passenger to expect a ULCC to send their bags to them after such a service failure given that it falls outside of the model.

Does that suck? Yup. But for some reason they rode on us instead of a legacy for that trip. Probably for the price point and direct flight convenience that comes with the lack of frills.

I am pleased with our standings in the WSJ findings, but I'm not embarrassed at all about "how awful" we are. Mainly because I know what we are, and what we offer. I'm sure the list of passengers who are truly ****ed off at United for their service failures is long and distinguished. But I'm not trying to pass one off experiences as proof of the failure of the company here.

And really, the underlying message is that your panties are in a snit because NKS rated better than your employer in one study during one year, and you're here to throw shade at them.