Sogolytics, an experience survey platform, has published ‘The Sogolytics CX Rankings: U.S. Airlines 2026’, a new benchmarking study of the customer experiences across the six largest US-based carriers.
Based on survey feedback from 1,014 travellers, the independent report measures 21 experience factors spanning booking, the airport, the aircraft cabin, disruption recovery, and future loyalty at Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Frontier Airlines, and Allegiant Air.
The findings show that, as ever, ticket price is a major factor when choosing which airline to fly with. However, reliability, communication, and disruption recovery are big factors when deciding if they will use that airline for their next flight.
Across the six US airlines focused on for the survey, 84% of travellers surveyed indicated they were satisfied with their primary airline overall. But there is a broad gap between the highest and lowest rated carriers.
The winners and losers in overall customer satisfaction
Southwest Airlines has come top in every retention and advocacy metric in Sogolytics’ report. The Texas-based low-cost carrier received the highest overall satisfaction scores in the survey, at 89%; the highest Net Promoter Score, at +39 (driven by half of customers rating it 9 or 10 out of 10); and the highest likelihood of customers choosing to fly with them again, at 91%.
Southwest is also the only carrier strong on both halves of the journey, with top ratings both in the airport and aircraft cabin factors.
Colorado-based ultra-low-cost airline Frontier Airlines ranks last on every loyalty measure of the report, including the only negative NPS in the study at -6. It also sits in the bottom three airlines in terms of all seven in-flight experience factors: seat comfort and legroom, cabin and lavatory cleanliness, flight attendant service, food and beverages, in-flight entertainment, inflight wi-fi, and baggage handling.
The overall airport and inflight journey experience
The survey found that some airlines are better at creating a good customer experience on the ground than in the air.
Delta, American, and Southwest did well in all seven in-flight cabin experience categories.
On the pre-flight side, Frontier, Allegiant, and Southwest claimed six of seven wins for factors including the quality of booking, apps and websites, check-in, boarding, real-time updates, and cost transparency.
Disruption recovery is the highest-leverage CX moment
Some disruption is inevitable for regular air travellers, but how it is handled is a key customer experience factor. 32% of respondents in the survey reported they had experienced flight issues including a delay of 30 minutes or more, a cancellation, or a missed connection.
Chicago-based United Airlines had the highest disruption rate, at 43%, while Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air had the lowest, at 19%. Among affected travellers in the survey, 38% said they felt they were more likely to fly the airline again after a well-handled disruption, compared with 20% who became less likely – a net loyalty gain of 18 points.
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and American convert disruptions into loyalty most often, with 42% of their affected customers saying they would fly with that same carrier again. Delta also led on disruption handling overall, at 68% satisfied, while Frontier Airlines ranked lowest, at 42%.
Price wins the initial booking. Experience wins the next one
50% of travellers in the survey cite ticket price as a top factor when choosing an airline, which is twice the share of the next-highest driver (seat comfort). But fare alone does not predict who comes back. The two cheapest carriers in the study sit at opposite ends of loyalty, with Allegiant near the top, at NPS +32, and Frontier last, at -6.
Different priorities in the CX
The survey results found that priorities shift sharply by segment. Frequent flyers weight ticket price 18 points lower than occasional travellers, replaced by in-flight service, loyalty programmes, communication, and digital tools.
Business travellers weight price 19 points lower than personal travellers. Families with children weight communication 7 points higher than solo travellers, and male travellers weight on-time performance 9 points higher than female travellers, which is the largest gender gap in the study.
