Which Airlines Rank the Best, Worst in 2016?

Do you fly with the best of airlines? Or are you a passenger of some of the worst?

The good news? You will soon know the answer. The bad? Many millions will come to the realization that they pay "the worst" of airlines to ferry them around the country.

WalletHub recently came out with a list of the best (and/or worst) airlines in the country for 2016. Here are their findings:
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Courtesy WalletHub

Virgin America ( which was recently bought by Alaska Airlines) finds itself in the top spot this year. JetBlue is a close second.  And American Airlines and United find themselves bringing up the rear.

Beyond the best and worst overall scores, WalletHub also ranked airlines on reliability, comfortability, petability (or, for those that didn’t think that was funny, how pet friendly they are), and how economical they are.  


​Does this study really matter?

No, not really.

Listen, I’m not sticking up for one airline over another, but when it comes to this study, the bigger the airline, the more likely it is to perform poorly (yes, I realize Delta performed pretty well overall).

Airlines, across the board, are hard to compare to each other. They all do different things better than others. For example, if you wanted to get to Indianapolis, Alaska Airlines would be very low on your list of airlines to use. That’s because they don’t fly there. American certainly flies into Indy “better” than Alaska Air. Sure, the airline may be a great carrier, but if they don’t fly to where you want to go, why would you use them?


Bottom line

Studies like these can be useful for certain things. They make for good headlines, you get to know the strengths and weaknesses of the airlines, you learn which ones are cheaper than the others, you know which airline to use if you’re going to be traveling with a pet, etc. But beyond that, they don’t carry much weight.

​What do you think about the list?
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