Survey Says: Alaska Airlines Rates Best Overall : Publication: A Consumer Reports questionnaire that measured passenger satisfaction with domestic carriers ranks Alaska and Delta 1-2. Biggest survey complaint was on-time performance.

How do you rate the airlines you fly? Which do you like? Dislike? Barely tolerate? Which do you love? And on what criteria do you base these opinions? If Americans aren’t conducting travel surveys themselves, it seems they’re participating in them.

Each year, dozens of surveys and polls are commissioned by airlines, consulting firms and consumer organizations trying to determine the tastes and biases of leisure travelers, business travelers, coach and first-class travelers and first-time travelers. To be sure, some of the statistics are quite revealing.

One of the more comprehensive domestic airline surveys was just published by Consumers Union in the July issue of the organization’s magazine, Consumer Reports. It was the first time readers of the magazine had been asked to rate airline service. Frequent travelers may note that there are few surprises in the survey.

Both of the overall top-rated airlines in the Consumer Reports survey--Alaska and Delta--are known for being well-managed carriers that pride themselves on customer service. In the survey, respondents were almost uniformly positive about Alaska and Delta in all areas questioned: check-in service, boarding area, cleanliness of the planes, seat width and leg room, ventilation and cabin temperature, flight service, quality of food, baggage problems and on-time performance.

Alaska’s overall satisfaction index rating was 83, followed by Delta (76), America West (76), Southwest (74), Midway (73), American (72), United (70), Northwest (68) and USAir and TWA (67). At the bottom end were Continental (66), Pan Am (65), Eastern (64) and Hawaiian (62), four airlines in deep financial trouble, including one--Eastern--that has subsequently ceased operations.

The airlines that had the most trouble satisfying their customers were the carriers in deepest financial trouble. For example, Alaska Airlines, which rated highest in airline food, spends about $7.50 per passenger for food, the highest domestic expenditure in the industry. Hawaiian Airlines, which did not fare well in this category, spends the least--about $1.54 per passenger. The one interesting surprise: Midway Airlines, although operating in bankruptcy, still managed to score in the top five in the survey, including high marks for the quality of its food.

In many cases, the Consumer Reports survey results mirror previous consumer surveys. Since 1988, Conde Nast Traveler magazine has surveyed its readers, asking them to rate U.S. airlines. In the most recent survey, published in the November, 1990, issue, readers also rated Alaska Airlines No. 1, followed by Midway, American and Delta. In fifth and sixth places: Southwest and America West. In the Conde Nast poll, United ranked seventh out of 10, and the bottom three slots belonged to Piedmont, TWA and USAir. Pan Am didn’t make the top 10. And neither did Continental.

Regarding the Consumer Reports survey, “I feel strongly that the ratings and rankings reflect the general reaction to airline service in this country,” says Charles Daviet, survey research division head for Consumers Union.

Who participated in the survey? Daviet won’t reveal the exact numbers, except to say that more than 140,000 of Consumer Reports’ readers responded to the questionnaire, which covered domestic flights taken from January, 1989, through May, 1990. Consumers Union membership is 4.1 million.

“Our readers are different,” Daviet maintains. “They’re more highly educated, they earn more and they’re looking for more from their services and products. What we discovered is that for our readers, it’s not a matter of how long a flight is or how clean the plane is or how good the food is . . . it’s a matter of expectations that are or are not being met.”

And the CR survey revealed that, in general, readers were “underwhelmed by the quality of their flying experiences. Overall, airlines satisfied their customers less than did such frequent gripe targets as car repair shops, auto insurers and hotel chains.”

One of the things Consumers Union did to make sure the results weren’t too general was to ask respondents to describe their last, most recent flight. The No. 1 complaint? On-time performance.

“We were specific,” says Daviet, “and it gave us an excellent cross-sectional view of their experiences. We didn’t ask them just to list their favorite airline. That’s a meaningless question.”

Indeed, I’ve always believed that it is more revealing to rate an airline’s performance by specific route. It’s one thing to say that airline A is the “on-time airline” because its systemwide performance is excellent. But it is hardly adequate if you’re on the airline’s morning flight from Cleveland to St. Louis and that flight is consistently two hours late.

You can also rate airline food by route. And overall airline service. It’s one thing to say an airline has great food. And, chances are, if your flight departs from a city that has an excellent flight kitchen, you stand a good chance at good airline cuisine.

But if it doesn’t, you don’t.

So how do you make a survey such as Consumer Reports’ work for you?

If you’re flying out of--or into--a major hub controlled by one of the top airlines, as rated by Consumer Reports or Conde Nast surveys, try to choose that airline. And, as CR suggests, if you’re unhappy with any aspect of your flight, you can actively participate in another kind of survey: complain to the Department of Transportation. The DOT keeps its own list of complaints. (Yet, as the CR piece reports, less than two out of every 100,000 passengers filed complaints last year with the DOT.) For those interested, the DOT consumer affairs direct phone number is (202) 366-2220.

The airlines, for their part, take the Consumer Reports survey very seriously. “We’ve won some surveys before,” says Alaska Airlines chairman and CEO Ray Vecci, “but without sounding too self-serving, we feel the recognition from Consumers Union is the most significant one we’ve received because of their detachment from any advertising support. But we also pay attention to our own surveys.”

Not long ago, Alaska Airlines officials noticed a growing number of complaints concerning the clarity of passenger announcements made by flight crews on board Alaska airplanes.

“When we noticed the trend of complaints growing,” says Vecci, “we completely replaced airplane speakers, microphones and amplifiers, then we went to work with our pilots to improve their microphone technique.

“It’s one thing to be highly rated in a survey, but if your passengers literally can’t hear you, you’ve got a problem.”