The results of Travel + Leisure’s best domestic airline survey are in — do you agree?

Lists. You either love them or you hate them. I happen to have a soft spot for lists, and I’m swimming in reading the best of everything in travel over at the newly redesigned Travel + Leisure site right now. Though it’s easy and more fun to swoon at luxury hotels on the other side of the globe, the question of which airline rates the highest for service is something everyday travelers have an opinion on — because they’ve most likely flown on a few of them whether they made the top five or not. Below are Travel + Leisure’s, Zagat’s and JD Powers’ takes on how airlines stacked up against each other.

Travel + Leisure readers measured the airlines on cabin comfort, in-flight service, customer service and value (food was optional) as stated in their methodology.

Here is the list of domestic airlines that ranked the highest among T+L readers.

1. Virgin America
2. JetBlue Airways
3. Midwest Airlines
4. WestJet Airlines
5. Southwest Airlines

Compared with last year’s top five, Virgin America remained in the No. 1 spot, JetBlue moved up and swapped places with Midwest, WestJet was new to the list and Southwest jumped up two spots from No. 7.

“Curiously, not a single of those so-called legacy carriers made Travel + Leisure’s top 10 list,” USA Today noticed.

Last year in Zagat’s 2008 Airline Survey, domestic and international airlines were divided into several categories. Virgin America was tops in “Best Midsized Domestic Airlines - Premium Seating” and second to Midwest in “Best Midsized Domestic Airlines - Economy Seating.” Contrary to T+L’s results, the legacy carriers did make top ranks. Continental, Delta and American Airlines ranked the top three in “Best Large Domestic Airlines - Premium Seating,” but JetBlue and Southwest pulled above Continental in Zagat’s ” Best Large Domestic Airlines - Economy Seating” category. But the categories that were a bit more fun to read included “Best In-Flight Entertainment (Domestic)” - JetBlue, and “Best Value for the Money  (Domestic)” - Southwest.

The J.D. Power & Associates survey results recently came out as well. The study found that customer satisfaction with airlines in 2009 fell for the third consecutive year. That said, Witchita State professors put out an Airline Quality Rating every year and say, “in a rare occurrence, the industry improved in all four major elements of the AQR: on-time performance, baggage handling, denied boardings and customer complaints.”

With all these opinions, we’re interested in knowing what you think. Do you have a favorite airline for flat-out flying experience - no matter how big or how small the airline is?

– Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger

[Photo: Virgin America's Red Entertainment system; Credit: Virgin America]

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 10, 2009 at 5:21 pm by Jen Leo and is filed under Airline travel, Business Travel, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.