FORTUNE: …
No. 7: United Airlines, Domestic It might not have taken the top spot for worst customer service, but United Airlines racked up a staggering number of complaints on our World’s Best Awards survey. Issues with seating were at the top of the list. “Bumped from paid-for first-class seats to last row in coach next to the toilets. Rep was too busy to even provide refund—had to follow up by mail and phone to get any compensation whatsoever. They did not seem to care about what they did,” wrote one survey respondent. “The United Board and the executives should be forced to ride in coach class for a week, including cancelled connections and lost luggage. Hell isn’t as bad as this airline,” fumed another. More troubling were the survey respondents with special needs who complained about the airline’s treatment of them. “Was not treated well while traveling with my large service dog. I am a double amputee as a result of the Boston Marathon bombings. Will not fly this airline if I can help it,” wrote one T+Lreader. “Horribleeee—was in a wheelchair and all but ignored,” said another. “Will never fly again with them.” Can’t say we blame them.
No. 5: American Eagle, Domestic: A regional subsidiary of American Airlines, American Eagle has been dinged for delays and unwelcoming attitudes. A recent trip on the airline made one World’s Best respondent long for the good old days of glamorous air travel: “I have been riding airlines since 1964 and there is no comparison from then to now. The experience now is horrid compared to…the 70’s.” A reviewer on SkyTrax described the American Eagle staff’s style as “generally terrible/confrontational,” adding, “If these people spent half the time they do berating customers actually doing their jobs correctly maybe they wouldn’t have such a terrible track record with customer service.”
No. 1: Spirit Airlines, Domestic: Spirit Airlines received lower marks for customer service than any other airline included in the World’s Best Awards survey. Not surprisingly, T+L readers had a lot to say about this low-cost carrier.“Worst airline in the world,” wrote one reader. “They leave you stranded when they cancel your flight, then basically tell you they don’t care. If they could figure out a way to charge for oxygen, they would do it. Used to fly them regularly but now I would pay more to avoid them.” The airline tries to deflect these types of customer complaints on Twitter, but the automated, robot-generated responses from “Spirit Autopilot” are hardly a consolation to disgruntled passengers. After receiving an unsatisfactory response for a complaint about the airline’s checked-bag fee policy, one user wrote, “This is your retort @SpiritAirlines? Did you also skimp on customer service to save $$?” As it turns out, yes, they did. “A big social media team costs money, so we put our feed on Autopilot to save you cents on every ticket,” states the company’s Twitter bio, which directs passengers to the customer service page of their website instead. That reasoning doesn’t reassure customers like @etholk, who wrote, “It would be nice if [you] guys even pretended to take the opportunity to show your customers that you care about them.” … (more)
