If you fly frequently, you know there are risks that come with the territory. You may have cancellations, delays, a heck of a time getting through TSA and the chance of getting bumped.
As if knowing the likelihood of any of those things could happen isn’t stressful enough, throw holiday travel into the mix, too. It’s no fun, but it’s a reality.
We took a look at a study of a U.S. Department of Transportation report showing the number of involuntary denied boardings per 100,000 passengers, per 2018 quarter, by U.S. airlines. Here are how the cards fell:
Airline | “Bumps” per 100K passengers | Involuntary denied boardings | Passengers who boarded |
---|---|---|---|
Frontier Airlines | 6.28 | 1,219 | 19,423,432 |
Spirit Airlines | 5.57 | 1,529 | 27,468,604 |
Alaska Airlines | 2.30 | 743 | 32,302,771 |
PSA Airlines | 2.29 | 309 | 13,522,038 |
American Airlines | 1.95 | 2,614 | 133,844,068 |
The analysis showed that Frontier and Spirits airlines were about twice as likely as the following three airlines to bump passengers.
While numerous other airlines were evaluated, Delta proved to have the best rate, with only 22 bumps out of 138,786,700 enplaned passengers. That’s only .02 passengers per 100,000 who were involuntarily bumped.
What’s your favorite/least favorite airline to fly and why? Tell us in the comment section below.
Safe travels!