Alaska Airlines was just named the best airline in the U.S., according to a recent ratings report from The Points Guy website, which offers annual rankings on airlines.
The report placed Alaska Airlines ahead of Southwest and the third-place Delta on its list.
“We take pride in the data we’ve assembled from sources across the industry and largely based all criteria on what we believe regular passengers care about most. Alaska Airlines, with Southwest and Delta to follow, are clearly doing it right,” The Points Guy founder Brian Kelly said, according to USA Today.
For Alaska, which topped the ranking last year, the continuing high ranking came down to satisfying customers.
“The airline continues to be a favorite of its customers, and ranked in the top 3 across half of our criteria — airfare, on-time arrivals, baggage handling, customer satisfaction and its best-in-the-industry frequent flyer program,” the website said.
Southwest’s low airfares and increase in network size helped propel it to the No. 2 spot.
Delta jumped four spots from last year’s list to earn its high ranking.
“The reason is that Delta made slight improvements across several of our criteria, such as airfare and bumps, while still maintaining top three scores in others like on-time arrivals, lost baggage and the size of its network,” according to the report.
The rankings did not include Allegiant Air since there isn’t enough data on the airline, according to the report.
The Points Guy uses “a strategic methodology based on specific criteria and data, evaluating on-time arrival rates, passenger complaints, cabin comfort, baggage issues, and much more," according to USA Today.
Mainly, the report bases its ratings on four main categories — price, convenience (the size of the plane’s network), extras (like lounges) and headaches (lost bags and customer service).
Alaska topped last year’s list, followed by United, Virgin America, JetBlue and American Airlines in the top five. Delta finished at No. 7 last year.
Last November, Forbes ranked the top 10 airlines in the world for 2018. Air New Zealand finished at the top of the pack, followed by Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Australia and Virgin Atlantic.