The Best and Worst Airlines for Holiday Travel

How US Airlines Rank for Holiday Headaches
Flying during the hectic holiday travel season can be challenging but some airlines give travelers a better shot at reaching their final destinations without issue. Forbes Advisor recently analyzed the eight largest national airlines based on available data across nine metrics including the number of bags mishandled per 1,000 enplaned; percent of air carrier delays; total customer complaints; percent of canceled flights; percent of on-time flights; percent of diverted flights; percent of extreme weather delays; percent of late arriving aircraft delays and percent of national aviation system delays. The data examined comes from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics Air Travel Consumer Reports and is based on a five-year average from 2017 to 2021 for the holiday travel season, which is defined as November through January.

Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines is the best U.S. airline you can fly to avoid potential hiccups this holiday season. Alaska’s percentage of self-inflicted flight delays (4.17 percent) was the second-lowest of any carrier examined during the holiday period and the airline also fared well for cancellations, coming in at just under 2 percent. Despite being the worst for mishandled bags (8.95 per 1,000 suitcases), it’s also one of the best carriers in terms of complaints this time of year.

United Airlines
United Airlines ranks the best in terms of the Big Four U.S. carriers in large part due to a decent performance in terms of flight delays and cancellations. However, its performance when it comes to customer complaints (183) and mishandled baggage (6.39 per 1,000) during the holiday travel period won’t do a whole lot to inspire travelers.

American Airlines
American Airlines’ total customer complaints (218) are the most of any airline analyzed and its mishandled baggage rate of 7.92 per 1,000 suitcases is second-worst to only Alaska Airlines. Still, during the holidays, American is far from the worst airlines that travelers that can get.

Frontier Airlines
Frontier Airlines’ mishandled baggage rate of 3.57 per 1,000 suitcases during the holiday travel period is the best among the eight airlines analyzed, as is its 1.03 percent of canceled flights. The budget-friendly airline also fares quite well in terms of complaints (77) but its rate of self-induced flight delays could be a cause for concern at 5.61 percent.

Southwest Airlines
Flight disruptions appear to be the one thing holding back Southwest Airlines this time of year as the low-cost carrier fares pretty well when it comes to consumer complaints (61) and keeping passengers’ bags on their scheduled path (4.23 per 1,000 suitcases mishandled).

Spirit Airlines
Despite being the butt of plenty of jokes among frequent travelers, ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines only scores 71.43 out of 100, which ranks just third-worst nationwide. Nonetheless, Spirit had an average of 104 customer complaints during the holiday travel season—third highest for this metric—and the highest percentage of national aviation system delays among the major air carriers considered at 6.82 percent.

SkyWest Airlines
North America’s largest regional airline, SkyWest Airlines, is contracted by a handful of major carriers, including Alaska Airlines (Alaska SkyWest), American Airlines (American Eagle), Delta Air Lines (Delta Connection) and United Airlines (United Express). That may not be good news for travelers flying out of smaller airports though as SkyWest had the highest percentage of flight cancellations (2.12 percent), flight diversions (0.31 percent) and extreme weather delays (1.22 percent) among the national airlines analyzed. It also reported the second-highest percentage of air carrier delays (6.63 percent) and the third-highest number of mishandled bags (7.27 mishandled bags per 1,000 suitcases) around the holidays.

JetBlue
JetBlue unfortunately rounds out the list as the worst U.S. carrier for holiday travel as it has the lowest percentage of on-time flights among national airlines (69.61 percent) and the highest percentage of air carrier delays (8.25 percent), according to Forbes Advisor’s research. JetBlue also possesses the second-highest rate of late arriving aircraft delays (5.92 percent) and the third highest percentage of flight cancellations (1.73 percent) among the carriers analyzed.