New research from Which? has revealed the best and worst airlines for customer service in 2024. Which airlines have nose-dived and which are soaring high? Read on to find out.
Image Credit: Which? Click on image to enlarge.
Which? Best and Worst Airlines for Customer Service 2024
In May 2024 Which? carried out a survey of over 4,000 people to find out how well companies across a range of key sectors handle customer service and identify the areas where they are falling short.
Worryingly with the peak summer travel season well underway the airline industry trailed behind other industries scoring a satisfaction score of just +52. Overall, it was the joint third lowest scoring industry of the nine covered, sharing its position with the energy sector.
Airline performance was assessed across eight different areas of customer service which included: how easy it is to find a contact number, how long it takes to get in touch with a person who can help and how well issues are dealt with.
Worst Airlines for Customer Service
Flying lowest by far was Wizz Air, with a net satisfaction score of just +13 and starkly low compared to the sector average of +52. Ryanair also scored poorly (+28) followed by British Airways (+46)
Notably Wizz Air’s place in last position comes over a year since the airline publicly committed to improving its customer service, and follows a separate Which? survey earlier this year which saw it named the worst short haul airline in the UK, customer service being among the main issues identified at the time.
In this latest survey by Which?, 57% people surveyed who had contacted Wizz Air reported experiencing at least one problem with their customer services, compared to 41% across the airline industry overall.
Of those who reported an issue in their customer service dealings with Wizz Air, 44% reported long delays in receiving a response to their email, and the same number 44% also reported speaking to unhelpful or dismissive advisors.
31% of those who had problems said they waited a long time on the phone before speaking to an advisor, and a significant number did not manage to get through at all. 21% said they could not reach customer services despite continuous attempts, equally 21% never received a response to their email. 13% had their call disconnected after spending a long time in the queue.
Image by SKYRADAR from Pixabay
Ryanair was just ahead of Wizz Air, with an overall customer score of +28. As with Wizz Air, the airline received below average scores in each of the eight categories the consumer champion assessed.
49% of Ryanair customers surveyed who contacted customer services reported experiencing a problem. 31% of those who experienced an issue said that they waited a long time on the phone, 25% said there were long delays receiving a response to an email and 23% said they failed to get through to someone despite continuous attempts to do so.
Finally British Airways was the third poorest performing airline for overall customer service, receiving a net satisfaction score of +46, compared to the sector average of +52. Just under half (48%) of passengers surveyed who had contacted British Airways reported an issue with their customer service interactions. However, in some categories the airline did score in line with or above the sector average.
Best Airlines for Customer Service
At the other end of the scale, Which? Recommended Provider Jet2 was the highest scoring airline with a customer satisfaction score of +81. In second place was Emirates with +74 followed by TUI Airways +61.
Image Credit: Which? Click on image to enlarge.
Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy, says:
“Travellers are currently facing some of the highest ever fares, but our latest survey shows the standards of customer service of some airlines to be very poor.
“Airlines must step up their game and ensure they are properly investing in their customer services to make it easier for passengers to get in touch with someone who can help, and get timely and effective solutions when they encounter a problem.
“The government must prioritise giving the Civil Aviation Authority stronger powers, including direct fining powers, so it can properly hold airlines to account when they fail to comply with consumer protection laws.”
Jane Hawkes, Consumer Champion specialising in Travel, says:
“The ongoing failure of airlines ranked poorly in this research to recognise the urgent need for improvement is short sighted, disappointing and quite frankly completely unacceptable. We are now way past the old covid chestnut excuse yet it is still being used to excuse poor service.
We need to go back to basics and cut the fluff when it comes to customer service. People should be able to pick up the phone when they want to, speak to a real person, not have to navigate endless customer service options, not be left on hold for unreasonable lengths of time then transferred and be cut off meaning they have to start from scratch.
Enough is enough, people have been fobbed off for long enough. Airlines need to ensure they fulfil their legal obligations to passengers without question and be penalised heavily for failure to do so.”
Are you surprised at Which’s findings? Which airlines would top and tail the table for you? Please let me know in the comments.
