It seems almost impossible to believe, but Americans are even more frustrated with air travel now than they were three years ago.
According to a report released last week by PhoCusWright, 38% of leisure-only U.S. travelers feel slightly or substantially worse about their airline experiences than they did just a few years ago, while a tiny 13% feel slightly or substantially better.
Among business travelers, 40% feel their experiences have gotten worse.
The report, "Heat from the Middle Seat: The U.S. Consumer Perspective in Air Travel," notes that the increase in negative feelings toward flying coincides with the same period during which airlines added baggage fees and other ancillary charges.
Less than half of U.S. air travelers feel positive about their airline experiences, according to the report, while a quarter of them feel negative.
"Flyers are essentially giving airlines a grade of C+, which is barely above satisfactory," said Carroll Rheem, PhoCusWright's director of research. "But even more concerning for airlines is that their most valuable customers -- business travelers and those with higher annual household incomes -- are even less happy than the average."
The report found that affluent travelers (those with an annual household income of $100,000 or more) are nearly twice as likely to have negative sentiments as travelers with annual household incomes of $50,000.
In addition, business travelers are less likely to have positive sentiments toward their flying experiences and more likely to have negative feelings, the report found.
In addition to baggage fees, airlines have been rushing to increase sales of optional services like preferred seating and priority boarding. PhoCusWright said that while those fees represent "a tremendous opportunity for airlines," that opportunity will be difficult to realize with declining traveler satisfaction.
"Consumers are inherently reluctant to buy services from companies they feel are taking advantage of them, and, unfortunately, many feel that way about airlines today," Rheem said.
"Airlines have therefore put a ceiling of their own creation on the potential success of optional services. If they focus on repairing relationships with their passengers, airlines have the ability to break that ceiling. Whether or not they have the inclination remains to be seen."
A second report out last week, aiming to identify "passenger pain points" in the overall experience of air travel, found that more than one-third (34%) of air passengers had experienced baggage-related delays when checking in, depositing or picking up bags on their most recent flight.
The report, commissioned by Amadeus and executed by Travel Tech Consulting, identified the three key "passenger pain points" in the airport experience as baggage, delayed or canceled flights and time delays at check-in and security.
Technology solution
The Amadeus report, "Navigating the Airport of Tomorrow," suggests that adopting better technology would help alleviate some of the problems.
Amadeus said that at 43%, "disruption management" ranked as the single most important area where travelers would like to see improvement.
In addition, 18% of passengers had experienced a delayed or canceled flight during their last travel experience.
Just under 40% of travelers said they would "adopt services that delivered real-time information to their mobile devices on flight and baggage status as well as directions at the airport."
A third of respondents requested greater self-service options, including the ability to purchase additional services at airport kiosks and self-tagging options for luggage.
The survey found that problems at the airport translate into negative perceptions of the carriers. If customers are made to wait in line for longer than 30 minutes to check in, their perception of the airline swings negatively by 10%.
The report suggested that the application of emerging technologies could help solve the challenges of the airport experience. Such sought-after technologies include one-touch check-in and progress tracking; a permanent baggage tag with technology that enables bag tracking through the airport, onto the airplane and off again at the final destination; and roving agents with tablet computers to provide information to passengers.