Airline travel Buying Guide

Getting started

During the first successful airplane flight in 1903, Orville Wright had to lie on top of a wing, next to the motor, in the open air. He might feel right at home on many of today's airliners. Though pilots and passengers now get to ride inside the plane, comfort remains a sore point, according to a new survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.

Almost 15,000 readers told us about their experiences on 29,720 domestic round-trip flights in the previous 12 months. Eight of the 10 airlines they rated received low scores for seating comfort. Only JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines did better. They also topped our list overall. (In late April 2011, consumers received some good news--the U.S. Department of Transportation announced a set of sweeping protections for airline passengers.)

Other quality-of-flight measures also got low marks from our readers, including cabin-crew service, cleanliness, and in-flight entertainment. The proliferation of added fees further contributes to passengers' low opinion of today's flying experience, and even to their decision of whether to fly at all.

But some carriers have done a better job than others, as evidenced by a wide difference in overall satisfaction scores, from Southwest's lofty 87 to US Airways' lowly 61. Southwest was the only airline to receive top marks for check-in ease and the service provided by its cabin crews. Passengers also gave the airline high grades for cabin cleanliness and baggage handling. The latter might reflect the fact that Southwest is the only airline we rated that lets you check two bags free of charge. But bags three, four, and beyond will cost you $50 each. And like most other carriers, Southwest charges extra for items over its size and weight limits. (Our survey was conducted before Southwest's well-publicized problems last April with cracks in several of its planes.)

JetBlue, which ranked second in overall satisfaction, was the only airline to outscore Southwest for seating comfort, possibly because it gives passengers more room than they're accustomed to in this era of tightly packed planes. JetBlue's coach seats are 32 to 38 inches from the seat directly ahead, while coach seats on most other carriers are just 31 inches apart. JetBlue was also the lone carrier on our list to earn top scores for in-flight entertainment; its seatback TV screens offer passengers 36 channels.

Bottom-ranked US Airways occupies the same unenviable spot on our list as it did in 2007, when we last assessed airlines. In addition to its low overall score, survey respondents gave it the worst marks of any airline for cabin-crew service.

Our 2007 Ratings, incidentally, covered 18 airlines. This year that number is down to 10, due at least in part to industry consolidation. Next time around, there might be even fewer airlines. United and Continental merged in October, though they are operating as separate airlines for the time being. Southwest and AirTran have also announced plans to merge, pending government approval.

How to land the best fare

Regardless of which airline you choose to fly, there's no reason to pay more than you have to. And as you may have noticed if you've bought a ticket in the last year, airfares are up. Ticket prices rose about 20 percent between March 2010 and March 2011, based on the 300 domestic routes tracked by Harrell Associates, an airfare-consulting company in New York.

Though cheap seats may be harder to come by, you can still save money by taking a few simple steps.

Work the Web

More than 70 percent of our survey respondents who booked their own flights did so directly on an airline's website. A smaller number, 55 percent, compared fares on other websites before they chose an airline. For the best possible deals, we suggest you cast that wider net. While the airlines sometimes post great fares on their sites, you might be able to find lower prices elsewhere.

Start with websites that allow you to compare the deals from multiple airlines, such as Airfarewatchdog, Bing, FareCompare, and Kayak. Also try travel-agency sites, such as CheapTickets, Expedia, and Travelocity.

If you're a bit more adventurous, websites such as Hotwire and Priceline.com are another option. Hotwire has set prices, while Priceline lets you bid on tickets. Neither indicates which airline you'll be flying or whether your flight is nonstop until you've bought your nonrefundable ticket. To bid on Priceline, first check what other sites charge for a flight you want and then bid 50 percent less, suggests George Hobica, founder and editor of Airfarewatchdog.

Finally, before you book a flight you've found online, check the airline's site. You might see more flight choices for a similar rate, and you'll rarely have to pay booking fees. If you want to fly on Southwest, you'll have to go to Southwest.com, the only site where its flights are available for booking.

Be flexible

Shifting your travel dates by a day or two will often allow you to nab a much lower price. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday are generally the cheapest days to fly, says Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare. He also suggests that you avoid Sunday, when people often return from vacation and cheap seats are hard to find. If you're traveling with a group, consider splitting up your party when you're searching for deals. "If you have four in your group and there are only two cheap seats available, online reservation systems will give everyone higher-price seats," Seaney said. Instead, check the price for one, two, and three seats on the plane, as well as for all four, and then book accordingly.

Check multiple airports

When you use price-comparison sites, specify the city you want to depart from, not the airport. Most sites will then show you the flight options for any of that area's airports. Often leaving from one of those other airports will be significantly cheaper.

Sign up for promo codes

If you're a member of an airline's frequent-flyer program, you can often sign up for special promotion codes, which provide discounts from 10 to 50 percent. Promo alerts can be sent to you via e-mail, RSS feeds, Twitter, Jaiku, Facebook, and other channels. But the deals expire quickly, so you'll have to act fast. The trade-off? Your e-mail inbox can get flooded with offers that don't interest you.

Book early or late

You generally don't need to book more than 90 days in advance. Booking about 21 days before your trip will usually get you a good fare. Price-comparison sites often let you sign up for alerts that will tell you when prices drop on a particular route. The best time to shop? Many sales are posted late Monday or early Tuesday. But bargains can appear at any time, so keep searching, Hobica says.

Use social networks

Many airlines tweet deals. Two examples are @FrontierSale and @JetBlueCheeps, where we found a $10 one-way fare from San Francisco to Long Beach, Calif. But seats are limited. By some accounts, @UnitedAirlines' Tware fares sell out within 2 hours.

Carriers continue to squeeze with fees

Higher fees have become a common way for some airlines to squeeze a little more money out of their passengers, while keeping their advertised airfares competitive. The industry's baggage fee revenue alone jumped more than 22 percent between the third quarter of 2009 and the same period in 2010, from $740 million to $906 million, according to the Department of Transportation.

But the airlines may be pressing their luck. Forty percent of our survey respondents who said they're flying less these days gave increased fees as the major reason--far more than those who blamed flight delays, poor service, or any other annoyance. And according to our survey analysts, paying fewer additional fees generally translated into higher overall satisfaction with an airline.

We asked our survey respondents whether they had paid extra for any of a long list of services that once were free, including checked bags, in-flight snacks and meals, and small comforts such as pillows and blankets. Forty-five percent of respondents who checked a bag said that they had paid for the privilege, while 21 percent paid for snacks or meals and 6 percent for a pillow or blanket.

Unpleasant surprises

Although fees are increasingly common, they aren't always disclosed to passengers at the time of booking, according to a report in 2010 by the Government Accountability Office. Forty-one percent of our survey respondents who paid extra to check a bag that had been deemed overweight by the airline told us that the added fee came as a surprise. And 22 percent of respondents were surprised by fees for their carry-on baggage. In addition to being a hassle, unexpected fees can make it difficult for consumers to compare the true costs of flying on various airlines.

As with overall satisfaction, airlines differ widely in how likely they are to saddle you with extra fees. For example, 93 percent of the Southwest passengers we surveyed had avoided all of the fees we asked about. But 43 percent of AirTran passengers reported paying one fee on our list, 21 percent paid two, and 3 percent, three or more fees.