The Best and Worst US Airlines

Not everyone loves to fly, and that wariness is often made worse by flight delays, cancellations, lost luggage, etc. Complaints among air travelers have spiked since the pandemic, and last year there were a record 66,675 of them against US airlines, according to the US PIRG and Education Fund. "Passengers are ticked off, and they know now that voicing their concerns gets results, because we saw [a] ton of consumer protections passed last year," Teresa Murray, PIRG's consumer watchdog chief, tells CBS News. Some airlines fare better than others, however, as the consumer advocacy group found, with Southwest receiving the fewest complaints of the bunch; Frontier accrued the most. Read on to see how the airlines ranked across multiple categories:

Best (complaints)

1. Southwest
2. Alaska
3. Hawaiian

Worst (complaints)

1. Frontier
2. Spirit
3. JetBlue

Best (cancellations)

1. Southwest
2. Hawaiian
3. Delta

Worst (cancellations)

1. Frontier
2. Spirit
3. United

Best (delays)

1. Hawaiian
2. Delta
3. United

Worst (delays)

1. Frontier
2. JetBlue
3. Spirit

Best (mishandled luggage)

1. Allegiant
2. JetBlue
3. Frontier

Worst (mishandled luggage)

1. American
2. United
3. Alaska

More here on other rankings, including for mishandled wheelchairs and being involuntarily bumped off a flight. (Spirit didn't do great with PIRG, but it does well on another list.)