Most travelers have strong opinions about airlines, hotels, vacation rentals and rideshare companies.
But which travel brands have the worst reputations overall?
A newly released survey asked Americans exactly that—and some of the results may surprise you.
Once a year, the American market research and analytics company The Harris Poll releases one of the best-known measurements of corporate reputation. The list of the “Top 100” has been posted since 1995 and, of course, by the time you get to the bottom quarter of the list, you’re talking about companies that are rated Poor, Very Poor or Critical.
Since the year 2019, The Harris Poll has partnered with Axios to gauge the reputation of the most visible brands in America, based on 20 years of Harris Poll research.
During the study, Americans are asked which two – in their opinion – stand out as having the best reputation and which two have the worst reputation in America today. All nominations – best and worst – are compiled into an aggregate list to determine the “Most Visible” companies. Subsidiaries and brands are tallied within the parent company to create a total number of nominations for each company.
Respondents are then asked to use seven qualities as the framework for their decisions.
- Trust
- Culture
- Ethics
- Vision
- Products & services
- Relevance
- Character
Here’s how the scoring is considered, on a 0–100 scale:
- Those with a Reputation Quotient (RQ) of 80 & above are considered Excellent
- 75-79 = Very Good
- 70 – 74 = Good
- 65-69 = Fair
- 55-64 = Poor
- 50-54 = Very Poor
- Below 50 = Critical
The 2026 Rankings for Travel Companies
The Axios Harris poll looks at companies from all different sectors – groceries, clothing, electronics, etc. However, travel-related companies were well represented. Unfortunately, only two travel-related companies made it into the top 50 (and even those ranked at No. 41 and No. 48).
#41 – Southwest Airlines
Southwest’s overall score was 75.8, which placed them at #41 and made it the highest-ranked travel-related company. For comparison, Southwest ranked No. 73 in 2025 — a 32-place improvement! The survey was conducted between Feb. 13 and March 3, 2026, which was, coincidentally enough, right after Southwest had switched to assigned seating (but many flyers hadn’t yet experienced it on that airline).
#48 – Delta Air Lines
Delta’s overall score was 75.0, which ranked them at #48. This is the third year in a row that the airline has hovered around #48/49.
#58 – United Airlines
United’s score of 73.9 put them in 58th place. They had placed 69th place (total score of 71.0) last year, and didn’t even make the top 100 in 2024.
#63 – Airbnb
Airbnb had ranked #77 last year. This year, with a total score of 73.2, they made it up to 63rd place. In 2024, they didn’t even break the top 100.
#72 – Uber
With a score of 71.6, the rideshare company dropped considerably this year. In 2025, they had a score of 73.2, which put them in 58th place.
#74 – American Airlines
With a total score of 70.8 this year, the legacy carrier’s placement remains unchanged since 2025, when it was also in the 74th position.
#100 – Spirit Airlines
Rounding out the top 100 at #100 (even worse than Temu, which was #99, X/Twitter at #98 and TikTok at #97) was Spirit Airlines, with a total score of 59.4. A whole lot of good that did the ultra low cost carrier, may it rest in peace.
Where To Find The Full List
The entire list can be found on this page of Axios’ website.
Of course, reputation rankings aren’t the same thing as customer satisfaction rankings.
They’re a broader measure of how Americans feel about a company overall, taking into account factors like trust, ethics, culture, products and services, and corporate character.
Still, it’s interesting to see which travel brands continue to earn goodwill—and which ones struggle to win over the public year after year.
And if nothing else, Spirit’s last-place finish proves one thing: Americans may disagree about a lot of things, but apparently they can still find common ground when it comes to airline opinions. 😆
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
