Three Canadians airlines are among those ranked in a new look at 100 global airlines – with Air Canada in the last 20.
AirHelp’s 2024 ranking, described as an online service helping passengers seek compensation from airlines, looked at three main factors to arrive at an overall score, namely punctuality, customer feedback and efficiency with which airlines handled their compensation claims.
In the top three are Brussels Airlines, Qatar Airways and United, while Nouvelair, Buzz and Tunisair come in last position.
Air Canada found itself among the bottom 20 airlines with a ranking of 91 out of 100, with AirHelp noting that while its customer opinion was high, its punctuality and handling of complaints left something to be desired.
Air Transat ranked first with a score of 36 out of 109, with customer opinion giving it a boost, while WestJet is slightly behind, with a score of 45.
Airlines that do not fly internationally, such as Porter and Flair, were not included.
AirHelp CEO Tomas Pawliszyn said the ranking should only be seen as a “snapshot” as it assesses their strengths and areas where improvements can be made.
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“Airlines always have the opportunity to improve their rankings each year, using the score to guide them,” he said in an article.
While the rankings may be helpful to some air travelers, travel and personal finance commentator Barry Choi said it’s really a matter of perspective because of where some airline reviews come from. the loudest people.
“Everyone who faced the delay and is trying to get compensation is going to speak out very openly and that’s understandable,” he said, referring to those who might have been among the interviewees participating in the classification.
“It’s one of those things where consumers, when they’re not satisfied, and it’s completely justified, they’re going to complain a lot more. How often do people with a positive experience say how great it is? »
In the case of AirHelp’s ranking, a third of the overall score came from customer opinions.
The service claims to have conducted hundreds of surveys asking for opinions from travelers from more than 54 countries, with nearly 20,000 rankings collected. Questions included cabin crew, comfort, cleanliness, food and entertainment available.
However, when it comes to looking at rankings like AirHelp’s to determine whether you’ll fly on a certain airline, Choi says there are other factors a traveler can consider when choosing of a flight, not just the lowest price or the best rating.
“Sometimes it’s like an instinctual call,” he said. “Think about where you’re based, where you’re flying, how many planes are going to get there, how many flights are there daily.”
When you know this information, Choi said you can decide whether you’d rather deal with an airline that flies to your destination several times a day rather than once or twice a week.
“The answer is obvious, even if the other airline is significantly cheaper.”
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