We fly a lot. We haven’t always, but whether through business, seeing family or traveling, Tracy and I have spent a lot of time in the air over the past few years. New travelers have a hard time telling the difference between good and poor carriers, as they should, but it doesn’t take long before you can start to separate the wheat from the chaff. What are the best airlines in America, and which are the worst in the U.S.? We have a few ideas.

Everyone has their own bugaboos when it comes to air travel that makes for either a great or not-so-great experience, and Tracy and I consider ourselves fairly low-maintenance. Get us where we’re looking to go generally on-time (if you can help it – weather and maintenance are things that just tend to happen), reasonably comfortably at a price that doesn’t break the bank and we’re happy campers. Little things like not losing bags is quite a boon. Being able to make a decent drink doesn’t hurt either, but that’s not a determining factor.

To others, there are a lot of other reasons to fall in love with an airline or have them on your personal no-fly list. A personal issue for me, as someone who is 6’3″, is having a little leg-space. For others, especially on long-haul flights, food is a big factor. Maybe you have another reason why you frequent your favorite carriers, but whatever the case may be, we believe that what people generally want is fairness and reliability.

There are some great carriers, out there, many of whom we’ll discuss in just a moment. What’s more important, however, is avoiding the bad ones. The ones that ruin your trip because you never take off. The ones that suck you in with a cheap price to only eviscerate you with petty charges (up to $80 for a carry-on?) You know, the ones that have you in a bad mood before you ever land at your destination.

It’s amazing to see people get fooled by bad airlines so frequently, either through slick marketing, perceived cost (which is far different than actual cost) or presumed accessibility. We’d like to put a stop to that, so, for those looking for the best (and worst) the U.S. has to offer, we’ve broken down the list.

As a disclaimer, this is based on our experience. Maybe yours differs, and if so, that’s great. If it works for you? Don’t change a thing until you have to. Ultimately the goal of this post, and this blog, is to help people travel more often and enjoy better experiences. We hope this helps you accomplish just that.

The Ones We Love

JetBlue

You really have to start with JetBlue if you want to talk about the best carriers in the U.S., as they have a 12-year streak of being voted #1 by J.D. Power. It’s with good reason, too, as JetBlue place outstanding emphasis on service. The entire process, from check-in, to boarding, to comfort on the plan and baggage claim, is generally flawless.

We’ve flown JetBlue countless times, especially to Boston and New York, and the flights are comfortable, with ample entertainment, decent food, reasonable drink prices and an overall inviting and welcoming environment. Those that work on JetBlue flights are always pros, warm and kind to even passengers that might not deserve the patience.

The differentiator for JetBlue really is the on-board experience, which you have a hard time believing for the overall cost. In fact, while some airlines tout lower fares, we’ve found that JetBlue is consistent with their pricing – maybe a little more for the shorter trips, but much less for flights in the 90 minute to three hour range. Another plus? All those miles you gather flying frequently on JetBlue keep storing up for you – even after the calendar year ends.

You get more than what you pay for, and I say this as someone who isn’t being compensated for writing it. I’m saying it because, if you aren’t flying JetBlue, you should be.

American Airlines

I hear some people with mixed emotions about American, but we love it. AA is our go-to carrier between the U.S. and London because it’s extremely comfortable, their rewards program is excellent and we’ve never had a delayed flight by more than 15 or 20 minutes. The food on the long-hauls are always fair (sometimes, actually, they’re quite good) and the entertainment, even in coach, is enough to help you peel back 7 or 8 hours pretty easily.

In recent years, American has lurched ahead of some of it’s established competitors by upping their rewards program, making it more rewarding to fly frequently. To be frank, the major draw of American is the reliability. If we’re booked for a flight, the flight takes off close to that time. It’s a fair to enjoyable experience where we get our points, a decent meal, some good entertainment and enjoy the transit. In addition, as an old-guard, behemoth carrier, they’re route network simply cannot be beaten. You can fly nearly anywhere on AA.

Their reviews? Not great, admittedly. But, when is the last time anyone you knew actually left a good review? For anything? It’s not in human nature to talk about the “awesome experience they had flying” because they expect greatness in whatever they pay money for. From our experience, AA does the job and they do it well. That’s all we ask.

Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines is another “AA” that’s doing something right, as they were named #1 by Wall Street Journal in 2015 and have continued to rank highly in 2016 and beyond.

Alaska is almost devoid of customer complaints, continually rank high in on-time arrivals and are one of the least-likely to lost your luggage. I can’t say they’re the best, but it’s nothing to do with them. Honestly, it’s mostly on the part of familiarity. Alaska Airlines is an airline we’ve seldomly flown, but what we have experienced has been excellent – clean environment, comfortable, great staff, timely, and that old word that keeps coming up – reliable. 

A great thing about Alaska is that they truly innovate, having pioneered Required Navigation Performance (RNP) in the mid-1990s to give them a competitive advantage in flying accurately through low-visibility weather and into airports within difficult terrain. That’s beyond reliability – that’s taking a great airline and making it game-changing.

Southwest

I can hear you now. “What? Southwest?” Yeah. Southwest.

Southwest is the low-cost carrier that other low-cost carriers strive to be. Are they the cheapest? No, but they’re close. Are they the most comfortable? No, but they’re not the least comfortable either. Their prices are fair. The experience is fair. The comfort is fair. You may dislike Southwest, but we love it.

I flew Southwest for years, on a weekly basis while traveling for work, and I can say that they have the best rewards program I’ve seen in terms of how many points it takes to get a free flight. Yes, you’ll be stuck with a pack of peanuts as a meal, but with the money I save on Southwest I’ll buy whatever I want to when we get off the tarmac.

It’s true that Southwest does have the occasional delay, but I’ve found that most of those delays happen on the same flight schedules, at the same times, on the same days, between the same cities. It’s predictable, is what I’m saying, and I can deal with predictability.

Southwest gets our vote because they won’t nickle-and-dime you. Need to change a flight? No arbitrary charge for making someone do some typing. Need a checked bag? We’ll give you a couple – for free. Low-cost flight with wi-fi? Priority access and avoid the Southwest check-in? How does $12 sound for the best seat on the flight?

Dependable? Reliable? Honest? Yes. Flashy? No, and that’s part of the appeal. We love Southwest, and we say it proudly.

Virgin America

Everything is better on Virgin America.

This feels like cheating because A) they’re owned by Alaska now and B) Richard-Freaking-Branson.

We’ve flown a decent amount on Virgin, most recently on our way to London, and Virgin is just awesome. A little pricey? Sure, you can say that. But, sometimes you get what you pay for. Virgin is more than clean, it’s futuristic. It’s more than comfortable, it’s soothing. Price not-withstanding, it’s the best airline in the U.S. and the best transatlantic flight we’ve ever had.

The entertainment on Virgin is outstanding, with an excellent array of music and films, and the food is way above-board for an airline carrier in coach. Say one thing about Mr. Branson, he knows refinement and he knows class. The on-flight entertainment and e-commerce reflect that.

Additionally, we’ve never had a flight delayed because of maintenance or mechanical issues, and every plane we’ve been on is so pristinely kept that it feels brand new. Well, with Branson’s money, maybe they are all new.

Consistently a top 5 airline in the world, the entire Virgin Airlines flagship, and certainly VA, has excellent operations and customer service that quite frankly dominate any other operator as a total package. Want your luggage to arrive with you every time? It’ll happen. Want a great experience? It’ll happen. Want to feel more special than your ticket price deserves? Done. Want kind and entertaining staff that bends over backwards to give you a rich experience? It’s happened every time.

Yes, sometimes it really is that simple. Sometimes paying a little extra gets you a lot more. If you’ve never flown Virgin, you owe it to yourself.

Two We Don’t

Delta

I’ve flown Delta many times. I’ve given it many chances. In my experience, I would prefer not to have those experiences.

Delta has almost always been late, and this is coming from someone who flew the airline almost exclusively while traveling for several months, so consider about 20 flights into that equation. Twenty flights is enough to have shown some morsel of promise. Nah.

Delta is bad enough to have prompted one comedian we’re fond of to coin a little ditty about his feelings about Delta during his skit. The lyrics? “We’re Delta Airlines, and life is a f*&$ing nightmare.” It’s true. Look it up.

What they have going great for them is size. Delta’s route network is incredible, but their size only adds to the disdain I and some others feel for them, given our experience. To be that big, with so many routes and so many planes, how can every experience I have be so bad?

They have the resources to do better, period. Mechanically, they’re one of the best. The planes are great with a massive fleet, comfortable, and everything appears wonderful from the street-corner. Get on-board a Delta flight, have a delay, roll around the tarmac for a bit, let the on-board staff ignore you three or four times in your panicked want of water, and you start to see where it falls apart. It’s happened to me numerous times. Am I unlucky? Perhaps.

What do you get for all of this? An incredibly expensive flight. One of the most expensive in the U.S., in fact.

Spirit

Here’s the truth about Spirit – I’ve never flown with them. I’ve booked with them twice, and was 2 for 2 on cancellations on two separate occasions without inclement weather, impending asteroid or worldwide implosion.

I would rather fly Delta than Spirit. I would rather fly fold-up Wright Bros. craft than Spirit. I would rather Oregon Trail my way across the country than fly Spirit. I would rather ride side-car tractor festooned with mule manure than fly Spirit.

I would rather walk than fly Spirit. They’re so bad they had to promise to not be the worst. Publicly.

Now, “what’s so bad if you got your money back” you ask? I didn’t. Zero for two on that one as well. In fact, let me tell a little story…

About two years ago Tracy and I took a flight to Boston to visit a few friends of ours. Excited about the trip, we somewhat haphazardly booked our flight to Boston on JetBlue and booked the return flight from Boston to Fort Lauderdale on Spirit. We had never flown on this airline before, so we really didn’t fear the return flight.

Five days later, we pull into Logan Airport, walk up to the marquee and see “delayed” next to our flight indicator. “Delayed” actually meant “cancelled”, and only those who walked up to the counter were able to get on other Spirit flights out of Boston, as they seemingly failed to send the notification via e-mail, which I had selected. The reason, as we understood it, was that it was “windy in Chicago.”

Out of options on Spirit, we booked another, last-minute flight on – you guessed it – Delta. Two people, one way from Boston to Fort Lauderdale. “How much,” you ask? $1,200. When we asked the young, unattentive lady at the Spirit counter for a refund, she responded “oh, I’ve already shutdown the computer.” Yes. Computers. Those things that take mere moments to start, then pull information from all part of the globe. She was incapable of issuing a refund because she turned off her computer with a line full of angry would-be customers. Was it late? Oh, no, my friends. Closing time this fair day was apparently 4pm. We were given a number to call, that was of course never to be answered by a human, that was intended to be our source of refund. Never happened upon repeated calls to corporate.

Most recently, my wife was flying back from Tampa on Spirit (a flight she did not book, by the way). She did make it back. She did not do so easily, on time, or without a bit of a disconcerting incident.

Just before push-back, the pilot said that they couldn’t take off because the flight had been switched at the last minute (gate change) with a flight that was going from Tampa to Detroit with a major flaw that nearly went unnoticed. The Detroit flight had enough gas to make it to Fort Lauderdale. The Fort Lauderdale flight had enough gas to make it to Detroit. See a problem there? This doesn’t do much for our confident level in airline safety.

I congratulate the pilot in this instance, otherwise the flight to Detroit would have had to make an emergency landing due to lack of fuel, and the flight into Miami would have likely hard a (very) hard landing on the account of having too much fuel.

I don’t care how cheap Spirit is. Maybe you do. Maybe you love Spirit. Maybe it’s fun. If it gets you where you want to go, then great. In fact, I’ve heard that the newly appointed CEO plans massive changes, starting with the customer service. I hope that’s true, as an airline this inexpensive with upgrades in that department could really aid in the common person’s ability to travel. As of now? I know many people who avoid flying because they can’t afford anything else and don’t trust Spirit. We hope that changes, but time will ultimately tell.

Conclusion

So, my friends, take a little time to pick your flight. Price is important, but so are safety, reliability and dependability. Traveling should be fun, should be a rewarding experience and should be something to be savored. Maximize your experience and avoid the pitfalls by picking the right carrier to get you out of the gate.