The Finest Airline of 2024

Airways are extra than simply their loyalty applications, which is why this 12 months — for the primary time — we’ve decided the most effective total airline model.

NerdWallet’s journey crew in contrast a number of classes throughout airways, corresponding to their in-flight experiences and leisure, pet charges and operations. We spent months amassing information, analyzing the wonderful print and usually nerding out, not solely to find out the most effective airline, but additionally the most effective airline rewards program, the most effective lodge and the most effective lodge rewards program of 2024. Take a look at all of our winners.

Some vacationers would possibly prioritize an airline that at all times will get their checked bag to their ultimate vacation spot, whereas vacationers preferring to take a carry-on might want an airline that features a carry-on with their ticket, whatever the fare class.

With this in thoughts, we prioritized components of the flight expertise that supply clear, goal and measurable advantages. We then boiled these components right into a single total score throughout airways.

Right here’s what we in contrast:

The airline rewards evaluation is a subset of the general rankings for these applications. That’s as a result of a enterprise traveler in search of the most effective rewards factors and elite standing advantages won’t care about, say, an airline’s pet coverage.

We rated every airline model throughout all of those classes on a five-point scale, then used a weighted common of those rankings to find out an total winner. Use the hyperlinks above to be taught extra about how we constructed these rankings.

Alaska Airways dominated the competitors this 12 months, incomes excessive scores in practically each class we thought of. The airline carried out notably effectively in the way it rewards clients by means of its Mileage Plan loyalty program and the advantages it provides by means of its MVP elite standing program. Alaska’s solely low rating got here for its “Saver” fundamental financial system fares, that are extra restrictive than others.

Right here’s how the most effective airline scoring performed out throughout classes:

Hawaiian Airways noticed good outcomes for its elite standing program and operational excellence. American Airways additionally carried out effectively, with notably excessive marks for its elite standing program and add-on price construction. Delta Air Strains and Southwest Airways scored very effectively in some classes however very poorly in others, and this inconsistency dropped their total scores.

Frontier and Spirit rounded out the underside of the record, which is unsurprising given these low-cost carriers’ no-frills method.

Alaska Airways gained greatest total airline for 2024 due to a mix of its excessive rewards fee, pet charges and advantages provided to its elite standing members.

For an airline to be eligible, it needed to be based mostly within the U.S. and have a publicly accessible rewards search calendar with availability from 15 days to eight months from the time of the search.

9 airways match these standards: Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and United. No different U.S.-based airways met these standards.

We seemed on the rewards fee, fundamental financial system, operations, elite rewards fee, pet insurance policies, in-flight expertise and add-on charges. We rated every of those elements individually, then decided an total score based mostly on the weighting described under.

Here is how we rated and weighted every issue:

• Rewards fee (23.5%). We decided the greenback worth of every program’s rewards miles and the earnings fee of miles. To find out the rewards fee, we multiplied the worth of every mile by the earnings fee after which multiplied by 100. For instance, if an airline’s rewards miles have been price $0.01 apiece (the worth of rewards miles) and 10 miles have been earned per greenback spent (the earnings fee of miles), its program would have a 10% rewards fee. (On this instance, the 2 equations can be: first $0.01 x 10 = 0.1, then 0.1 x 100 = 10, or 10%.)

• Fundamental financial system (11.8%). Six of the airways (Alaska, American, Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue and United) provide fundamental financial system fares. We rated these fares throughout 9 classes, from which we derived a single composite score. 

• Operations (17.6%). We rated every airline based on on-time efficiency, cancellations and passenger rebookings, and baggage mishandling. We developed a composite score from these classes.

• Elite rewards fee fee (11.8%). We decided each (a) the worth and (b) the price of incomes elite standing with every program, and decided an total worth by dividing (a) by (b). 

• Add-on charges (17.6%). We in contrast the price of charges throughout a number of fare lessons in two classes: (1) bag charges and (2) seat task charges.

• In-flight expertise (11.8%). We analyzed the airways’ leisure choices based mostly on classes like Wi-Fi availability/price and film availability/price. We additionally took into consideration different metrics, like whether or not seatback screens have been accessible.

• Pet insurance policies (5.9%). We analyzed the expertise of flying the airways with a pet, together with whether or not pets have been allowed in the primary cabin, whether or not they have been allowed in cargo, limits on the variety of pets or their dimension and value. We additionally checked out U.S. Division of Transportation (DOT) information round pet losses, accidents or deaths, and passenger complaints in opposition to airways about their dealing with of animals. 

For every issue, we subtracted the bottom worth from the very best worth to find out the vary. Then, we cut up this vary into 5 separate “star score” ranges. We assigned every airline program an acceptable star score based mostly on the place its worth fell within the vary.

We independently spot-checked information collected to make sure accuracy. Details about loyalty applications was verified on the airways’ web sites.