If it feels like airline complaints are everywhere lately, you’re not imagining it.
A new analysis of 9,000 Reddit posts looked at which U.S. airlines passengers complain about the most—and the results aren’t especially flattering.
If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that not all airlines are alike.
Some airlines consistently cost more than others. Some give better or worse amenities. Some make you jump through more hoops. The list goes on and on.
Jetfinder, a private jet charter company, set out to see which U.S. airlines were considered the best—and the worst. So they analyzed 9,000 Reddit posts and comments that mentioned U.S. airlines in January, 2025. Here’s how they did it:
Their methodology
Data was collected via the PullPush API from travel-related subreddits including r/travel, r/flights, r/airlines, and airline-specific communities.
Sentiment analysis was conducted using VADER (Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner), a lexicon-based tool developed by Hutto & Gilbert (2014) and designed specifically for social media text. The base VADER lexicon was augmented with airline-specific terminology to better capture industry-relevant sentiment indicators.
Each airline was represented by 1,000 data points (500 posts and 500 comments). Negative sentiment ratio was calculated among opinionated posts only, excluding neutral content to provide a clearer comparison between carriers.
Jetfinder did include the caveat that their findings reflected perception, sentiment and opinion rather than objective performance metrics. That being said, unlike a standardized survey, the study provides insight into how our country’s airlines are discussed in one of the internet’s most candid public forums.
The winners and losers
Jetfinder ranked the top nine U.S.-based airlines. Alphabetically, they include:
- Alaska
- American
- Delta
- Frontier
- Hawaiian (note: pre-merger)
- JetBlue
- Southwest (Note: pre-several updates)
- Spirit
- United
According to Reddit, Frontier is the most disliked U.S. airline in the country, with more than a third of posts discussing the ultra low cost carrier expressing dissatisfaction. Complaints focused on fees, issues with baggage handling, and service disruptions.
American wasn’t far behind, with a negative sentiment score less than one point lower than Frontier’s. Most complaints focused on fees, lost luggage and issues with poor customer service.
Third was JetBlue, with complaints in just over 28% of posts. Fees, delays and seat comfort (the latter two were tied) were the biggest negatives.
In order of most complaints:
- Frontier (36.4%)
- American (35.5%)
- JetBlue (28.1%)
- Southwest (27.9%)
- Delta (23%)
- United (22.9%)
- Alaska (21.8%)
- Spirit (21.6%)
- Hawaiian (20%)
What passengers’ biggest complaints were
For the most part, each airline had its own specifics of what passengers complained about the most. These were the top three complaints for each airline:
- Frontier: fees (30.6%), luggage (17.2%), delays (16%)
- American: fees (22%), delays (21.7%), customer service (16.8%)
- JetBlue: fees (20%), delays (11.4%), seat/comfort (11.4%)
- Southwest: fees (28.8%), seat/comfort (18.8%), delays (15.9%)
- Delta: fees (32.2%), customer service (17.7%), delays (17.3%)
- United: fees (26.5%), delays (22.2%), customer service (18.3%)
- Alaska: fees (22.3%), seat/comfort (18.2%), customer service (14.5%)
- Spirit: fees (27.7%), seat/comfort (17.6%), luggage (16.9%)
- Hawaiian: fees (22.4%), delays (14%), customer service & seat/comfort (both 13.9%)
Notice a trend?
The ancillary fees that airlines tack on to virtually everything was the #1 complaint for every single airline. With ever increasing fees to check a bag, to pick your seat (even if you’re a parent with a young child), and sometimes to even bring a carry-on onboard, that should come as no surprise to anyone. But without regulation, there’s little stopping them—and airlines know it.
Notes and observations
We found it surprising that, as much as Spirit Airlines is typically the poster child for “airlines passengers love to hate,” it came in as a respectable #8 of 9 for “most disliked airline.” Again, since this survey was based more on perception, opinion and sentiment, most likely on personal experience, that could account for it doing so well. After all, even I, a Spirit naysayer for years, have flown on them a few times and had few to no problems.
Again, we also want to mention that the information was collected in January 2025. That was before Hawaiian had fully merged with Alaska and before the majority of Southwest’s changes had come down the pike. It would be interesting to see how opinions have shifted since then.
You can see the full results of Jetfinder’s study on this page of their website.
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