Will Southwest regain satisfaction crown?
(David Tulis/AJC Special)
Is Southwest Airline’s merger with Orlando-based AirTran hurting the Texas-based carrier’s reputation for top-notch customer service?
The latest American Customer Satisfaction Index would suggest so. The 2012 results knock Southwest from the top spot to No. 2, behind JetBlue.
Dallas-based Southwest, which is in the process of folding AirTran’s operations into its system, had led the customer service survey for 18 years. JetBlue, which has its biggest presence in the Northeast, also beat Southwest in customer satisfaction in a recent J.D. Power and Associates North America Airline Satisfaction Study of low-cost carriers.
As an Associated Press report points out, Southwest is facing a challenge folding AirTran’s operations into its system and has even delayed plans for traveler connections between Southwest and AirTran flights because of baggage fees charged by AirTran and not by Southwest. A Southwest spokesman said the companies are “moving through the process” of combining operations.
AirtTran is the 2nd largest carrier serving Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport behind Delta, which improved in both the ACSI and J.D. Powers surveys.
Do you think Southwest will regain its top spot? Which carrier provides the best customer service?
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22 comments Add your comment
montrel
June 19th, 2012
11:55 am
airtran’s bad service will drag down southwest—big changes need to be made
Rob
June 19th, 2012
12:24 pm
The merger was all about Southwest eliminating a competitor. It had nothing to do with improving customer service. How does the consumer benefit from having one fewer low cost airline? Enjoy being herded into your unassigned seat.
Bobby
June 19th, 2012
12:41 pm
Southwest has not done Atlanta passengers any favors. I used to love SWA and drove over to Birmingham to fly them. But their fares are no longer competitive and their customer service has dropped to the levels of all the other airlines. Unfortunately SWA does not represent competition for air service in Atlanta.
Bobby
June 19th, 2012
12:43 pm
Insofar as which airline provides the best customer service? That’s somewhat an oxymoron. I’ll give Delta the nod but only by a hair.
Quite frankly my dear...
June 19th, 2012
12:51 pm
Any landing you can walk away from is decent customer service to me.
Dirtly little secret
June 19th, 2012
1:36 pm
Here’s the part they won’t admit….
Southwest has no problem whatsoever running ads claiming to not charge fees but happily accepts every penny of fees they collect under the flights operated as “Airtran”. Not sure their business model translated well when they added AC types and encoutered the associated increased costs that come with having to support multiple types with Engineering and Mtc support. Will be intersting to see how they end up paying for these increased operating costs without adopting the same revenue streams as the other carriers their size.
Damisha
June 19th, 2012
1:44 pm
I wouldn’t have guessed Jet Blue ranked #1. They’re involved in so many airline incidents that make the news, like stranding passengers on the tarmac for hours and the midair ranting pilot episode.
ATLBRAVE
June 19th, 2012
2:41 pm
The reality is, their customer service is tied directly to airfare prices! From what I have witnessed, their prices are no longer “low cost” or at least they don’t make you feel like you are getting the best deal. If they can just fix that…cont. to not charge for bags and get rid of the Air-Tran name and they will go back to the #1 spot. If planes that say Air-Tran keep flying, if their prices cont. to look the same as all of the other airlines then they might slide down to #3.
Bobby 2
June 19th, 2012
3:23 pm
I agree with my namesake below. I was excited to see SW enter the Atlanta market, but it has not helped us out at all. Higher pricing than Delta, reduced schedules, terrible flight times to big markets. It’s like they are pushing me to Delta, and I was a big Airtran flyer. Every time I look to fly them to a market, Delta has a better price. And don’t sing me the free bags song, I already get those
Linda
June 19th, 2012
3:24 pm
Southwest has treated their new employees from AirTran like second class citizens. They’ve taken away seniority and dramatically cut pay for AirTran pilots and flight attendants. That clearly will lead to poor service. I don’t think I’ll be flying AirTran.
Bacchus
June 19th, 2012
3:57 pm
Have tried Southwest 3 times now since they came to ATL and my reaction is mixed. Like the free bags (though I rarely check a bag). I am impressed with the fast boarding (no boarding groups divided by First Class, Diamond, Platinum and Gold Medallion, then Silver Medallion, then followed by mileage program credit card holders, then the poor nobodys who sit in the back…all while fighting for overhead bin space). There is no IFE and hardly any on-board catering, but let’s just accept that anything I bring to eat or occupy myself with while flying will be far more customized to my preferences than what any airline can offer me.
But I really could do without the flight attendants who flunked out of comedy school or didn’t make the cut on American Idol.
jason
June 19th, 2012
5:42 pm
Shocker! People don’t like the cattle call airline, Air Tran biz class fliers have left in drones for Delta.
Michael
June 19th, 2012
8:32 pm
As a Atlantan, I just always find myself being loyal to Delta. I really miss Eastern and their wide body jets. For any airline to seriously compete with Delta, it will require bigger airplanes than 737’s for me. Eastern and Delta were basically equal in Widebody jet competition. I just want Delta to restore the Atlanta to Tel Aviv flight nonstop service. You can only route so many people through JFK New York, Amsterdam, and Paris for Middle East destinations. I will give Southwest a try. My co worker gave them good marks.
Jonathan
June 19th, 2012
8:50 pm
Southwest the only what is the international route and the bye airtran but the have airtran charge fee of the bag ang the also the have the agents we. The salary cut the has two. Company we different salary and making money of airtran that no right for the people working in Orlando
Airline Guy
June 19th, 2012
10:02 pm
Can I get a translation for the last comment?
No really
June 20th, 2012
1:11 am
What language is that
radar
June 20th, 2012
9:27 am
@Linda, I don’t know where you are getting your facts, but AT employees are getting massive raises, up to 40% more and they are having the red carpet rolled out in transitioning over. Taken away seniority? Ha! They got date of hire PLUS 2.5 UNLESS living outside of their base of ATL.
Get it together before you post trash.
montrel
June 20th, 2012
1:41 pm
with price cuts, airline service has gone way down in the last 10-15 years—rude, surly gate agents and flight attendants, inflexible change policies, delayed flights, etc. I miss the 1990s—much better.
Billy
June 20th, 2012
8:34 pm
Radar is wrong. I lost 4 years 2 months seniority and it cost me $243,000 over 3 years.
Praveen
June 21st, 2012
1:59 pm
I am an Airtran Elite flyer who will be bolting to Delta once WN finishes off Airtran. Already, Airtran has fewer sales under Southwest with fares to cities like Boston, Philly, NY going up under the new regime. Southwest removed XM radio from Airtran. And with affordable business class and even worse, assigned seating gone soon, I will travel Southwest only if they offer a fare that is cheaper by at least 10 bucks.
Also Southwest has cut some of the smaller desitnations that Airtran used to service like Bloomington, IL. That route got good traffic.
Also CLARK HOWARD should apologize for his laughable analysis of the effects of Southwest buying airtran. I lost some respect for him when he said Southwest would make fares from Atlanta cheaper and give us more options. Expect the number of direct flights to go down too as Southwest will not direct all the existing Airtran traffic through Atlanta. That means expect more one stop flights.
Praveen
June 21st, 2012
2:01 pm
And what exactly is so good about the open seating policy on Southwest? You have TO PAY EXTRA to board early and even then you are not guaranteed the seat you want.
Steve
June 26th, 2012
2:37 pm
I used to marvel at Southwest’s business acumen. But when they decided to eliminate Bloomington, IL as a destination, I lost some of that respect. I am quite familiar with that route – excellent traffic, great demographics, State Farm, Country Companies, Illinois State University, free parking. Even Chicago-area people would fly out of Bloomington because of the ease and free parking. I guess they’re the experts, but it makes no sense to me.