Although the airline industry has spent big to increase brand loyalty, the majority of American flyers do not have a preferred carrier.
A new survey conducted for financial news website TheStreet looked at consumer preferences in the industry and found that 63% of customers did not express a preference for a specific airline and just 5% felt getting frequent flier miles to be an important factor when booking.
Apart from price, 28% of respondents said non-stop service was important, followed by the time of departure cited by 20%, and 15% made booking decisions based on an airline’s reputation.
Almost a quarter of respondents had made a complaint to an airline and 60% of these felt satisfied with the overall response.
Unsurprisingly, nickel and diming is a major annoyance with 70% against bag fees and 56% irritated by charging for in-flight snacks.
"The airline industry believes that bag fees are immensely logical and that airlines are able to build customer loyalty, but our new poll shows that most Americans still hate bag fees and feel little loyalty to individual airlines," said Ted Reed, transportation reporter for TheStreet.
