U.S. airlines did something pretty unimpressive in 2024, and if you’ve flown recently, you won’t be surprised when you hear what it was.
For the fourth time in the past five years, the number of complaints about airlines lodged with the Department of Transportation hit a new record. In total, 66,675 flyers were mad enough to figure out how to reach out to the DOT to make a complaint about their flying experience — and you know you must be making people pretty angry to make that happen.
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Airlines didn’t achieve the dubious honor of earning a record number of complaints just because more people are flying in the post-pandemic era. While the volume of passengers was up 4% in 2024 compared with the year prior, there was a 9% increase in complaints lodged.
When you hear “airline complaints,” chances are good that your mind jumps to one particular discount airline that’s widely known for low prices and customer service that is, shall we say, lacking.
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That airline, of course, is Spirit, which most recently made the news after a passenger tried out its new premium offering —Big Front Seats — and ended up posting pictures of cockroaches climbing up the plane cabin walls (probably not the publicity the company was looking for regarding its new premium offering).
With bugs as your seatmate, you may wonder how things could get worse, but in reality, another airline actually topped the list of complaints. It has earned its place as America’s most hated airline — and the contest wasn’t a close one.
You won’t find this much legroom on a discount airline.
Image source: Shutterstock
This airline fails in all sorts of ways
The airline that earned the honor of the most complaints to the DOT in 2024 was another low-cost carrier with a reputation that isn’t great: Frontier. This is according to a PIRG analysis of Department of Transportation data.
This is actually the third year in a row that, among the 10 largest airlines, Frontier had the highest number of complaints per passenger.
Frontier had a complaint ratio of 23.3 per 100,000 passengers. Frontier’s complaint ratio was a shocking 10 points above the second-worst airline in America, which was Spirit, because, of course, it had to make the list somewhere. Spirit’s complaint ratio was 12.8 per 100,000, while the third-worst airline, JetBlue, had 10.4 complaints per 100K flyers.
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Frontier didn’t just disappoint people in one particular way, either — the airline did all sorts of things wrong that drew the ire of customers. Frontier had:
The worst record for cancelations The worst record for delaysThe second-worst record for mishandled wheelchairs The worst record for involuntary bumping
This may leave you wondering if it does anything right, and the good news is, it’s actually the third best when it comes to complaints about mishandling bags. Of course, if your bag gets to your destination and you don’t, that’s not exactly the ideal outcome.
Flyers don’t choose Frontier for the customer service
Frontier flyers probably aren’t surprised to hear this, and, in reality, the company isn’t usually the first choice of customers whose top priority is a pleasant experience. Instead, people fly Frontier because of the value it offers.
Frontier not only has consistently low prices for travel to many destinations, but it also offers some unique opportunities to save, including GoWild! All You Can Fly Passes, as well as Kids Fly Free deals for adult Discount Den members. For budget-conscious travelers, putting up with the hassle may be worth the low fares.
In fact, while consumers weren’t buying for a while, and the airline had four unprofitable years, it broke this streak and ended 2024 with net income of $85 million.
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While Frontier made clear in its recent earnings forecast that it doesn’t expect such a rosy picture this year — and already plans reduced capacity on low peak days in the second quarter of 2025 amid weakening demand — it’s still in a better position than its slightly less-hated rival, Spirit, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year and which Frontier has made a (so-far failed) attempt to buy.
More on travel:
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Frontier is also making an effort to improve conditions for customers, including adding first-class seats in 2025. However, whether you’re flying first class or coach, you’re still likely to be unhappy if your plane doesn’t take off on time, if you get bumped, or if your wheelchair doesn’t get to your destination safely. Frontier may want to work on improving these fundamentals if it doesn’t want to suffer Spirit’s fate.
