UK agents and airlines outperformed in Skyscanner’s first ‘trust’ awards

Only one UK company has made it into Skyscanner’s top 10 of airlines and online travel agencies, as voted for by millions of its customers worldwide.

Flybe was the only UK airline to earn one of the new Traveller Trust Awards, which the travel search platform said it had introduced to make it easier to book travel based on customer service rather than purely on price.

However, Skyscanner said that more than 70% of its UK partners have above or equal to four stars. “There were many trustworthy and high performing partners who did not receive an award,” said a spokeswoman.

The airline’s or agent’s star-rating will be placed next to its name on Skyscanner’s search results.

The awards go to airlines and travel agents who’ve seen the greatest levels of positive feedback from Skyscanner customers over the 12 months from August 2017 to July 2018.

The top 10, in alphabetical order, are:

* American Airlines
* Condor
* Delta
* Eurowings
* Flybe
* Justfly
* Lufthansa
* Skyticket
* Transavia
* Ucuzabilet

The Traveller Trust Awards focus purely on the traveller’s experience before they travel and are calculated using Skyscanner’s Partner Quality Ratings scoring system.

Customers were asked to feedback on their booking experience on five different categories which included: customer service, ease of booking, ease of website use, price accuracy and clarity of optional extras and costs.

Award winners were determined taking into account the online survey travellers completed, as well feedback received from the Skyscanner customer service team over the course of the year.

Skyscanner said customers can rely on the ratings as an indicator of what to expect when booking a flight with a particular travel agent or airline.

The ratings enable airlines and online travel agents to differentiate themselves through the quality of their service as well as on price, it said.

Skyscanner’s quality ratings do not include information about traveller’s experiences on board the flight or the airline operating the service.

Hugh Aitken, senior director of strategic partnerships at Skyscanner, said: “These days travellers aren’t just looking for transparency in pricing, they are increasingly making choices based on the quality of the booking site and after sales customer service.

“We are excited to be announcing the winners of our first ever Traveller Trust Awards and send out a clear message to the industry about the importance of the customer booking experience being key to increasing customer satisfaction and improved sales.

“We strive to work with all our partners at Skyscanner to drive excellence and increase trust levels amongst all our customers.”

Skyscanner has set up a dedicated portal to allow partners to fully understand how well they are performing in the market to help them improve and optimise their performance. The company plans to expand the awards next year to include all travel options in order to fully represent travellers’ opinions and award high performing travel brands.