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Which Airlines do Flyers Avoid the Most?

The results of a survey released by The Vacationer revealed Spirit Airlines, Allegiant Airlines, and American Airlines are the three flyers try to avoid the most.
Standards are a good thing when it comes to airlines.

 

 

New research by The Vacationer revealed that there are certain airlines that Americans do their best to avoid using – irrespective of attractive fare price, convenience of schedule or basically under any other circumstances.

 

Who Took the Infamous Top Spot?

This anonymous survey – in which 1,021 adults aged 18 or over participated – revealed that Spirit Airlines is the nation’s most-avoided airline, with 21.06% of participants signaling that they gave the airline a wide berth. In the second and third most-avoided spots came Allegiant Air, which garnered 16.36% percent of the vote, and American Airlines, which received 14.40% of the vote.

 

]Following on at a very close fourth place was Frontier Airlines, which 14.30% of surveyed travelers said that they did their best to avoid. As for the least avoided airline? That coveted spot goes Hawaiian, which received just 5.48% of responses from among those polled.

 

The results of the survey – the full methodology of which is available to view here – was analyzed by Eric Jones, a professor of mathematics and statistics at Rowan College South Jersey and co-founder and head of operations at The Vacationer. This research comes off the back of the website’s 2023 Summer Travel Survey, which revealed that over half of Americans planned to travel during the peak season.

 

While the results indicated some strong preferences concerning the specific airlines that certain participants refused to patronize, the site’s research further revealed some interesting demographic insights among respondents.

 

Research Reveals Further Demographic Insights

For example, women were more likely than men to keep their options open in terms of their preferred carriers. When asked, “Which of these airlines do you avoid flying on at all costs?”, 50.93% confirmed that they avoided flying none of the ten given choices of airline, but as Professor Jones clarified, while women are less likely than their male counterparts to avoid none of these carriers, “…the two airlines they did say they avoid more often than men are Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines.”

 

Additionally, 24.28% of respondents over 60 years of age confirmed that they avoided none of the ten choices of airline because the ability to access flights at dates and times convenient to them was of primary importance when selecting a carrier. But going back to that infamous top spot, the results are clear. “The number one most avoided airline at all costs for every age group was Spirit Airlines,” says Professor Jones.

23 Comments
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floridastorm June 18, 2023

Well, since Spirit has now been bought out by Jet Blue I expect them to be brought up to speed within time. Jet Blue is one of the most preferred airlines in the country and maybe the world. 

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Grog June 15, 2023

I'll never understand why Spirit has such a bad reputation. 

My three flights with them all went perfectly!  I booked their "Big Seats" so I flew more comfortably with them they I do in eco on Lufthansa, United, or anyone else for that matter.  I paid far less for the ticket than I would've elsewhere.  And I departed on time, flew safely, and arrived on time.  Seriously, what's there to bitch about?

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aresef June 12, 2023

Of the airlines I've flown, Spirit is the only one I've absolutely sworn off. I took them in a pinch to LAX for a family thing and I felt like I was sitting in a salad bowl and the FA's spent way too much time hocking their credit card. The way back, I hung out in the concourse waiting and waiting for the boarding announcements as flights to IAD from other airlines took off. When I started to get worried, they came on and told us the crew had timed out. They put me up and rebooked me on UA. I slept fast, returned to the airport and found they way more proactive the following morning in anticipating and rebooking connecting passengers like me to cope with possible delays.

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TH310 June 10, 2023

Spirit's spot at number 1 is well deserved.  Four of us were scheduled on Spirit to fly from New York to South Carolina and the flight was canceled.  This was Saturday.  They told us they could get us there on Tuesday. We debated whether to rent a car and drive or pay Delta for four last-minute first class tickets (all that was left).  Delta won.  Spirit has no alliances and no additional aircraft in the event something goes wrong.  Someone else had booked that trip for us but now I make sure that I never do fly on them.   Never have and never will.

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cochinjew June 10, 2023

I visit USA often enough to have, until recently ua gold, dl plat medallion and explat 
aa. as i have to fly between usa and europe, i am disgusted at the service, food and drinks at aa. united is not much better either. Sticking to Qatar and Air France this year. Never flown spirit allegiant frontier southwest ryanair wizz air etc but i do like Air Asia out of KL . I decided to drop by Explat status when people who do not fly much were getting explat status and i had to struggle hard to become one by flying. i have qatar gold that gives me entrance to flagship lounges.  Flying as a pleasure now belongs to the airlines from other countries.