The U.S. Airlines With the Most Customer Complaints

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Oversold flights, lost luggage, cancellations—flyers have a lot to whine about to airlines these days. But which airline gets the most consumer complaints? Travel rewards site Upgraded Points analyzed the data from the Department of Transportation’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection’s Air Travel Consumer Reports from July 2020 through September 2021 to determine the airline with the most unhappy customers in the U.S. 

The study looked at the monthly averages for complaints per 10,000 passengers. The airline with the worst track record was Frontier Airlines (which just announced a merger with the fifth-most complained about airline, Spirit Airlines). 

According to Upgraded Points, Frontier Airlines (with 0.7 monthly complaints for every 10,000 passengers) gets almost double the amount of complaints from unhappy flyers as JetBlue Airlines. 

The five U.S. airlines that received the most customer complaints per 10,000 passengers were: Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, United Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and Spirit Airlines. 

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The U.S. Airlines With the Most Customer Complaints

Frontier Airlines received more complaints about fares (which made up about 18 percent of the overall unhappy communications) than any other airline in the U.S., according to the study. 

If you’re concerned about being able to get a timely refund, you may want to avoid flying Hawaiian Airlines—more than 76 percent of complaints received by this carrier were centered around refunds.

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