For the past few months, I’ve seen a number of “quality” ratings go out on airlines in the media.  The criteria of these various media outlets seems to be out of step with reality in the airline world and I want to talk about that for a minute.

First, any one airline experience is a highly subjective event.  Complaints about airlines are usually driven by 2 or more bad experiences on flights rather than one and keeping statistics on single events to drive an evaluation doesn’t necessarily reveal whether or not airlines are offering good service. 

Second, the criteria being used to “rate” an airline is often based on the luxuries offered such as in-flight entertainment, WiFi, food or business class seats.   Three of those 4 criteria are often based on price as a function of the kind of ticket a person bought. 

Third, the loyalty programs of airlines tend to skew ratings as well.  It’s amazing how many passengers will continue to rate an airline as “good” in return for those almighty miles.  A “free” ticket excuses a lot of discomfort and abuse. 

Why  not rate airlines on things like seat pitch available in economy seating?  And what about the costs to upgrade to a better seat and/or level of service?  Shouldn’t the ” a la carte” pricing scheme of airlines be included in such a rating? 

Imagine a rating system that offers negative points for less than 31″ of seat pitch, no points for 31″-32″ of seat pitch and positive points for anything 33″ or greater in seat pitch.  Let’s consider bag fees and offer negative points for anything costing over $25 or more for 1st bag checked, no points for $20 to $24 per bag and positive points for less than $20 per 1st bag checked.  You could do the same with food offerings as well. 

Let’s count things like baggage loss claims on annual basis and on time ratings as well.  Offer positive points for being in the top 3, no points from level 4 to level 6 and negative points for being below level 6.  Let’s evaluate how the airline accomodates passengers inside its hub terminals because airlines do have some control and influence over the environment they offer you in most cases. 

Why not include regional carriers in the evaluation of the legacy and SuperLegacy airlines?  They are, after all, selling you the ticket and their brand is what is being touted so shouldn’t those regional airline flights be included in evaluating the brand?

And let’s evaluate on the basis of economy, economy plus and business (and first class domestic) class.  First class, on an international basis, doesn’t really matter because I assure you that it will be top notch compared to any other service level you could experience.   On any given domestic flight, about 10 to 12 percent of the seats available are business/first class seats.  The rest are economy.  All too often we’re rating airlines on how well they’re treating the vast minority of passengers. 

And let’s leave loyalty programs out of it.  They cause passengers to act irrationally and only to the benefit of the airline. 

Wouldn’t it be nice to choose a flight based on such a rating system and the price for a fare?  You can bet that airlines would pay a lot more attention to the basics and a lot less attention to the 10% whose fares are generally being paid for by their business and who don’t have a financial stake in their choices.

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax