JetBlue and Southwest Earn ‘Best Experience’ Rating

JetBlue Airlines and Southwest Airlines deliver the best customer experience in the airline industry, according to the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings by Temkin Group, a customer experience research and consulting firm. JetBlue took the top spot with a rating of 75 percent, placing it 52nd overall out of 293 companies across 20 industries. Southwest Airlines came in second with a rating of 72 percent, placing it 89th overall. JetBlue shot up from the middle of the pack in 2014 to the top spot in 2015, improving by 15 percentage points over the past year.

Additional findings from the airline industry:

• The ratings of all airlines in the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings are as follows: JetBlue Airlines (75 percent), Southwest Airlines (72 percent), Delta Airlines (69 percent), Alaska Airlines (69 percent), Virgin America (63 percent), American Airlines (57 percent), United Airlines (56 percent), US Airways (55 percent), AirTran Airways (52 percent), and Spirit Airlines (47 percent).
• JetBlue Airlines (+15 points), Delta Airlines (+6 points), and Alaska Airlines (+4 points) improved the most between 2014 and 2015.
• American Airlines (-5 points), United Airlines (-5 points), and AirTran Airways (-4 points) were the only companies in this industry whose ratings declined between 2014 and 215.
• Overall, the airline industry averaged a 63 percent rating in the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings and tied for 12th place out of 20 industries. It was also one of only five industries to improve its rating over the past year, increasing its average by 1.2 percentage-points.

Temkin Group asked 10,000 U.S. consumers to evaluate their recent experiences with a company across three dimensions: success (can you do what you want to do?), effort (how easy is it to work with the company?), and emotion (how do you feel about the interactions?). Temkin Group then averaged these three scores to produce each company’s Temkin Experience Rating.

In these ratings, a score of 70 percent or above is considered “good,” and a score of 80 percent or above is considered “excellent.” In this year’s Temkin Experience Ratings, 37 percent of companies earned a “good” or “excellent” score, while 26 percent received a “poor” or “very poor” score.

The free report “2015 Temkin Experience Ratings” is available for download at www.TemkinGroup.com.