Overall customer
satisfaction with North American airlines slipped two percentage points from
last year to 681 on a 1,000-point scale, according to the J.D. Power and
Associates 2012 North America Airline Satisfaction Study. Scores show a wide gap between the
sentiments of business and leisure travelers, the former being far more
critical of airlines.
J.D. Power annually measures customer satisfaction in seven weighted
categories: cost and fees, flight crew, inflight services, aircraft,
boarding/deplaning/baggage, check-in and reservations. In each category,
business travelers rated carriers lower than did their leisure counterparts.
While leisure passengers on average gave airlines an overall
686 rating across those measures, business travelers rated airlines at 664 on
the 1,000-point scale, according to data shared with BTN.
"Not surprisingly, business travelers tend to rate all
of the satisfaction measures lower than leisure travelers in both the
traditional and the low-cost segments," said Jessica McGregor, senior
manager of J.D. Power's global travel and hospitality practice. "That's
not uncommon to the airline industry. We see that in our hotel study and our
rental car study as well. Business travelers are a little more tough in the
ratings."
Business travelers in this year's study comprised about a
quarter of the more than 13,500 respondents who flew on a major North American
airline between May 2011 and April 2012.
J.D. Power also asked respondents why they chose a specific
carrier. Price was the top criteria for 41 percent of business and 54 percent
of leisure travelers when selecting "low-cost" carriers, a category
in which J.D. Power includes JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines. However, rewards
programs edged out price as the number-one reason business travelers selected "traditional
network" carriers, including Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, McGregor
said. "For low-cost carriers, the rewards don’t have as much as an
impact," she said.
Like in other travel segments, airline loyalty runs deeper
for business travelers. "With hotel and rental car, business travelers
tend to be more loyal and advocate for the brand more so than leisure
travelers, even though they're harder in their satisfaction rating,"
McGregor said. "The same holds true for the traditional airline segment,
so business travelers are more likely to fly with the airline the next time and
more likely to recommend the airline. However, in the low-cost segment, there's
relatively no difference, so you're not seeing higher advocacy rates for
business travelers in the low-cost segment."
Based on all respondents, carriers in the
"low-cost" segment scored highest, with JetBlue at the top (776),
followed by Southwest (770), and WestJet (733). Meanwhile, Alaska Airlines
(678) was the highest-rated "traditional network carrier," followed
by Air Canada (677) and Delta (659). US Airways scored lowest at 614. J.D.
Power did not share individual carrier rankings segmented by traveler type.