10 Most-Complained-About Airlines

Skywest Airlines

Lost luggage and rude attendants may make you want to scream. Here are the U.S. airlines people complained about the most.


When Andrew Shrage discovered that his seatback TV wasn’t working on his JetBlue flight from Chicago to Boston, he didn’t wait until he landed to complain to the airline. Shrage, an editor at the website MoneyCrashers.com, tweeted @JetBlue before the plane took off, and the airline responded—with a $50 voucher.

Twitter may be changing how we complain to the airlines, but there’s still a lot to complain about. According to the latest Department of Transportation (DOT) report, the agency received nearly 3,600 complaints about airlines from January to June, 2011.

That's a lot of complaints, even if it is an improvement from the nearly 4,000 received over the same period last year. Not surprisingly, complaints about flight delays and cancellations, rude or incompetent service, and baggage handling led the list.

But what these stats don’t tell you is that legions of consumers are now voicing their complaints directly with the airlines via Twitter. And the airlines—or at least some of them—are listening, responding, and in some cases being proactive and fixing the issues.

Of course, anyone can tweet anything; lodging an official complaint with the DOT means you have a serious gripe. Here are the U.S. airlines the DOT says have had the most—and least—complaints.

#10 Skywest Airlines
.77 complaints per 100,000 passengers

The largest independently owned regional airline boasts a low complaint rate even though it flew almost 12 million passengers over the first six months of 2011.

Atlantic Southeast Airlines

#9 Atlantic Southeast Airlines
.96 complaints per 100,000 passengers

Atlantic Southeast will merge with ExpressJet later this year. Ideally, the newly formed airline will have a Twitter presence, because this airline, which operates close to 1,000 flights every day in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean, does not.

ExpressJet Airlines

#8 ExpressJet Airlines
1.01 complaints per 100,000 passengers

Express Jet has slipped from a rate of .70 last year, and its Twitter presence is an anemic placeholder. Let’s hope that when it merges with Atlantic Southeast later this year, a more dynamic social media presence will be part of the business plan.

JetBlue Airways

#7 JetBlue Airways
1.07 complaints per 100,000 passengers

When JetBlue got on the Twitter bandwagon in the spring of 2007—one of the first big brands to jump in—its business plan was that it wanted to help customers. And according to the DOT, there are enough complaints to keep its customer-service folks busy.

Delta Airlines

#6 Delta Airlines
1.27 complaints per 100,000 passengers

Hands down, Delta holds the title of most improved. A year ago, it was ranked the worst airline for complaints in virtually every category. Now that the bumpy merger with Northwest has emerged from the turbulence, Delta has cut its complaint rate nearly in half.

American Airlines

#5 American Airlines
1.50 complaints per 100,000 passengers

American logged 636 complaints from January to June, 2011. With nearly a quarter of a million Twitter followers, though, the airline has upped its game to try and handle problems before they become complaints.

American Eagle Airlines

#4 American Eagle Airlines
1.67 complaints per 100,000 passengers

The country’s largest regional carrier reported the highest rates of flight cancellations and mishandled baggage in June, 2011, which certainly played a part in its shocking jump from a respectable complaint rate of .87 over the same period in 2010 to a whopping 1.67 this year.

Continental Airlines

#3 Continental Airlines
1.70 complaints per 100,000 passengers

Flight problems and customer service issues are the bane of Continental, and its complaint rate edged up from 2010.

US Airways

#2 US Airways
1.73 complaints per 100,000 passengers

Flight issues and customer service remain major problems for this carrier. It’s routinely at the top of the barrel when it comes to complaints, despite the fact that it carries less than half the passengers that Southwest does.

United Airlines

#1 United Airlines
2.01 complaints per 100,000 passengers

United didn’t fare well last year either—coming in at No. 2—but this year it grabs the title of worst airline for passenger complaints.

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