In any industry, you’ll have some amazingly good companies mixed in with some that make your blood boil. Here in the U.S., when surveys are done to determine the worst overall companies in the country, some from the travel industry are always included. Here are the most recent travel-related companies that people have called “the worst.”
Of course, the same holds true all over the world. Take the U.K., for example. They’ve had the same basic problems as we have when it comes to travel companies not giving refunds due to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic. So MoneySavingExpert.com, a U.K.-based consumer website designed to help readers save money, has been conducting surveys to see which companies have been the worst offenders.
This recent survey ran between June 30th and July 6th, with a total of just over 77,000 responses about travel firms. The goal was to discover how respondents felt about their ‘refund experience.” They were asked to rate it as ‘great.’ ‘OK’ or ‘poor,’ and whether or not they actually got one.
They ranked the companies from best to worst and although there were several smaller companies that most Americans wouldn’t be familiar with, there were several that U.S. citizens probably know.
Of the major brands, Ryanair scored the worst. 90% of its customers rated their experience as ‘poor’ and only 1% said it was ‘great.’ Of the 70 companies total, it got a net score of -89 (attained by the 1% who rated it ‘great’ minus the 90% who deemed it ‘poor’) and came in 65th place.
Ryanair, of course, is never a company to get “two thumbs up,” even during the best of times. It’s the company that seriously considered installing these seats into their planes, has been known to “fat shame” their flight attendants, and once received this scathing (but very funny) complaint letter. They’ve been pretty awful throughout the pandemic.
Virgin Atlantic performed almost as badly, with a net score of -88%. At the time of the survey, only 1% of respondents had received a refund from them. Although owner Richard Branson had gone as far as mortgaging his private island to save the airline, Virgin Atlantic was still in the midst of needing a bailout during the time of the survey.
Well-known KLM and Lufthansa also performed badly in the poll, with net scores of -79 and -78, respectively. At the time of the survey, 4% of those surveyed had received a refund from KLM and 6% from Lufthansa.
Air France had a net score of -69 and came in #48, while Aer Lingus was right in front of it (#47), with a net score of -68. A few steps ahead of them were Etihad (#43 of 70), Emirates (#40), and Wizz Air (#37). Princess Cruises was #35.
British Airways did comparatively well, at #16, as did Norwegian Air, which ranked #14.
Some American companies also made the list. Expedia (based out of Seattle) was #32 of 70, Hotels.com (from Dallas) was #21, American Airlines (Fort Worth) was #17, and Airbnb (San Francisco) was #5 with 83% of respondents having received a full refund from them at the time of the survey.
Click here to see all of the rankings.
PC: Edward Orde/Wikimedia
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
