Ready for take-off: US Airlines ranked by negative Twitter mentions
Warwick, RI, 2019-Oct-08 — /Travel PR News/ — Social media is bridging the gap between brands and customer experience, allowing consumers to voice their opinions in real-time for the whole world to see.
We all know poor reviews and negative comments can make or break a brand’s reputation. With 330 million active users, Twitter, in particular, has become an extensive platform for engaged customers to reveal both praise and complaints in equal measure.
With this in mind, travel insurance comparison site InsureMyTrip analyzed over 96,000 tweets over a two-week period1 – using a unique sentiment analysis tool – to discover which of the nine largest US airlines receive the most positive and negative mentions.
| Airline | Percentage of positive mentions | Percentage of negative mentions |
| Spirit Airlines | 31% | 69% |
| Frontier Airlines | 36% | 64% |
| American Airlines | 44% | 56% |
| United Airlines | 50.5% | 49.5% |
| JetBlue Airways | 50.5% | 49.5% |
| Delta Airlines | 51% | 49% |
| Alaska Airlines | 62% | 38% |
| Allegiant Air | 64% | 36% |
| Southwest Airlines | 70% | 30% |
Spirit Airlines has the highest proportion of poor reviews, with nearly 70 percent of its Twitter mentions containing a negative sentiment. Over a third of negative keywords in Spirit’s mentions were due to delays or cancellations.
| Percentage of keywords mentioned in negative tweets | |||||||
| Airline | Delay | Cancel | Customer Service | Luggage | Money | Seats | Food |
| Spirit Airlines | 16.7% | 18.5% | 7.1% | 2.1% | 3.5% | 0.9% | 0.9% |
| Frontier Airlines | 19.4% | 13.1% | 8.9% | 2.3% | 2.1% | 1.3% | 0.9% |
| American Airlines | 14.2% | 9.9% | 6.7% | 2.1% | 3.4% | 2.5% | 0.6% |
| United Airlines | 23.6% | 11.2% | 7% | 2.4% | 2.2% | 1.8% | 0.1% |
| JetBlue Airways | 23% | 7.2% | 4.4% | 1.4% | 1.9% | 1.8% | 1.3% |
| Delta Airlines | 19.5% | 9.3% | 6% | 2% | 0.8% | 1.4% | 1.3% |
| Alaska Airlines | 16.2% | 8.2% | 4.6% | 2.6% | 1.3% | 2.4% | 1.8% |
| Allegiant Air | 20.6% | 6.2% | 6.8% | 1.5% | 3% | 0.9% | 1.5% |
| Southwest Airlines | 15.8% | 10.6% | 4.5% | 2.3% | 16% | 15.7% | 3.3% |
This comes as no surprise, as Spirit recently found itself in hot water with its passengers over its alleged ‘hidden’ bag fees. Spirit even faces a lawsuit after its customers accused the company of knowing its online travel agents hid ‘gotcha’ bag fees customers are expected to pay at the airport.
Frontier Airlines followed closely with 64 percent negative mentions, receiving the highest number of complaints about ‘customer service’ (8.9%) compared to any other airline analyzed.
American Airlines was in the third position with 56 percent of negative tweets overall.
At the other end of the spectrum, Southwest Airlines tops the list with 70 percent of its Twitter mentions considered positive. When analyzing the sentiments, ‘customer service,’ ‘luggage,’ and ‘food’ were the words with the best scores.
These findings are also a testament to Southwest Airlines’ latest accolade as the sixth best airline in the world, announced earlier this year.
Interestingly, although it performed well overall, Southwest Airlines received the highest number of negative mentions for keywords regarding seating (15.7%), as passengers are not assigned seats. Instead, they’re given a boarding group, indicating where they should line up when they’re at the gate ready to board.
Allegiant Air and Alaska Airlines followed closely with 64 and 62 percent positive mentions, respectively. With both airlines receiving hardly any negative mentions for their ‘luggage,’ ‘money,’ ‘seats,’ and ‘food’ offerings.
‘Delay’ is the most commonly tweeted negative keyword overall for eight of the nine airlines, with United Airlines receiving the highest negative percentage for this keyword (23.6%). This is followed by ‘cancel’ – the most popular negative keyword for Spirit Airlines overall (18.5%) – and customer service takes third place.
Ronni Kenoian, Manager of Marketing and eCommerce at InsureMyTrip, commented:
“Social media is often where passengers turn to voice their opinions in real-time. And Twitter is one of the most powerful communication tools available.
It is interesting to see how positive and negative customer feedback stack up — and, in turn, how airlines respond in an effort to improve customer service.”
InsureMyTrip has put together a handy infographic looking at the findings in more detail, which can be viewed here.