Southwest Airlines has not had a great past few months.
Over the holiday season the airline did a lot to torch its reputation when a technology breakdown caused it to strand tens of thousands of customers. In addition, the company's initial response to those issues left a lot of its customers angry.
Add in that Southwest (LUV) has also been dealing with an angry pilots union and unrest with its flight attendants as both groups very publicly seek new contracts, and you might think that the public's faith in the carrier would be badly shaken.
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In reality, while people were certainly angry about the holiday meltdown, Southwest had built up a lot of good faith with its customers. Yes, its breakdown and its imperfect response to what happened tested that faith, but it did not cause the American public to reject the airline.
That's very clear from the results of the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index, an annual gauge of how the public feels about a variety of industries.
Southwest actually saw its score rise as it tied for the No. 2 spot on the list with American Airlines (AAL) behind only Alaska Airlines (ALK).
And while the results may be surprising, they make sense when two things are taken into account -- the timing of the survey and the airlines that finished well below Southwest.
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Southwest Airlines Mostly Kept People Happy
To understand why Southwest not only tied for second place but raised its customer-satisfaction score to 78 from 77, you have to look at the timing of the survey.
"The ACSI Travel Study 2022-2023 is based on interviews with 10,588 customers, chosen at random and contacted via email between April 2022 and March 2023.
"Customers are asked to evaluate their recent experiences with the largest companies in terms of market share, plus an aggregate category consisting of 'all other' -- and thus smaller -- companies in each industry," according to the ACSI.
That means that two-thirds of the people surveyed gave their responses before Southwest's meltdown occurred. The ACSI does not break out the votes, but it's likely that the airline, which tied for the top spot on the 2022 ACSI report, might have been doing even better until its late-December meltdown.
In addition, while it was a terrible situation that affected tens of thousands of people, Southwest's holiday meltdown was a singular event. Overall, despite those problems, the airline still offers a better experience than Frontier Airlines (ULCC) (which scored 67) and Spirit Airlines (64) (SAVE).
Aside from those two bottom dwellers, the other rated airlines all came in between 75 and 77, one point below Southwest.
Southwest Had Earned Goodwill
Again, despite the holiday-season meltdown, Southwest's general business practices are very customer-friendly. The airline offers clear pricing where everything, including bags, is included.
That's atypical in the airline industry, where even full-fare carriers like Delta (DAL), American (AAL), and United Airlines (UAL) post economy fares where nothing, not even a seat assignment, is included.
Frontier and Spirit make clear that they're trying not so much to make people happy as to get them to their destinations at the cheapest possible fares.
Southwest offers good value and does not nickel-and-dime passengers. That may not be enough for the company to maintain its ranking in next year's survey if it does not avoid more major meltdowns, but it did buy the company a lot of goodwill.
The reality is that consumers tend to be very forgiving of airlines when they're not actively being stranded. Southwest has actually earned that goodwill and it might be able to right its ship given the hundreds of millions it's investing to make sure it does not repeat its holiday meltdown in 2024.
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