The most (and least) complained about airlines - as gripes from disgruntled travelers skyrocket

Complaints against airlines in the United States have skyrocketed nearly 500 percent since 2019, with Southwest leading the pack for the most griped about airline, new data showed.

In just three years complaints rose from 9,551 in 2019 to 47,591 in 2022 - a 498 percent increase that left the past two decades' numbers in the dust.

Of those nearly 50,000 complaints made in 2022, 7,087 were made against Southwest Airlines. The next most complained about airline was American Airlines with 3,017, then United with 2,211. 

Frontier Airlines followed with 1,896 complaints, then Spirit with 1,521, JetBlue at 1,506, and Delta with 1,482.

The data was compiled by the Department of Air Travel and the US Public Interest Research Group, which found that the prevailing complaints against the airlines stemmed from lost baggage, scheduling problems, or passengers who were bumped from their reservations.

The initial spike in complaints came at the outside of the pandemic, when they surged from 9,551 in 2019 to 35,873 in 2020.

Complaints eased into 2021, dropping to 20,365. But they then more than doubled in the next year to a recent high of 47,591 in 2022.

The last significant surge took place over twenty years ago when complaints rose from 6,394 in 1997 to 20,564 in 2000 before settling at about 8,000 to 10,000 per year over the following decade.

Across the 17 largest airlines, there was about an 80 percent surge in complaints in 2022 from 2021 on a complaint-per-100,000 passengers scale. In 2021 the rate was about 3.1 per 100,000, and a year later it was 5.6 per 100,000.

Frontier, Spirit, and JetBlue had the most complaints per 100,000 passengers, according to the data, the third year in a row they held those spots.

Of the largest airlines - American, United, Delta, and Southwest, comprise about 80 percent of all travel - United had the best rate of complaints per 100,000 passengers

SkyWest, Horizon, and Mesa airlines had the best rate of complaints per 100,000 passengers of the airlines surveyed.

'Air travel is just a mess right now,' Deirdre Cummings of MASSPIRG Education Fund said, according to the Boston Globe.

'Airlines often post unrealistic schedules, they cancel flights, and they drag their feet with refunds,' she added. 'Airlines and online ticket agents just don't face enough consequences when they abuse customers.'

Southwest Airlines had more complaints against it than any other airline in 2022

Scheduling problems like delays and connections account for most complaints

About 45 of all complaints made against US airlines stemmed from scheduling problems like cancelled flights, missed connecting flights, and delays, according to the data.

Republic had the highest cancellation percentage at 4.7 percent, while Hawaiian was the lowest with 1 percent. Delta had the lowest rate of cancellation out of the top four airlines.

The worst airline for arriving on time was Allegiant, with just 63.4 percent of flights arriving on schedule, then JetBlue at 64.6 percent, and Frontier with 66.1 percent.

Problems with scheduling have been so prevalent that in February the Transportation Department said it was opening an investigation into a number of US airlines 'to ensure that they are not engaging in unrealistic scheduling of flights,' according to the Boston Globe.

Refund complaints were the next most prevalent category, accounting for about 25 percent. American was the worst for providing refunds, followed by United Airlines, and then Frontier.

American Airlines was the worst for baggage complaints, followed by Alaska, and JetBlue.

Bumping - which occurs when an airline overbooks a plane with the hopes that some passengers won't show up, but everybody shows up and somebody must be removed from the flight - was also a gripe among travelers.

Frontier was the worst for bumping, with a rate of about 2.66 passengers out of 10,000 being affected in 2022. That number was four times higher than the next worst offender, Envoy Air.

Delta did not bump a single passenger in 2022, the data showed.

It comes after Biden announced a new initiative that if put into use would require travelers be reimbursed for hotels, meals, taxis and flight change costs when airlines delay or cancel their flights.

Airlines would also be responsible for reimbursing the original cost of the flight if it is canceled.