• by Karl Greenberg , July 14, 2009

Ask United Airlines about the importance of good customer service. The airline is currently dealing with a web-savvy musician who launched a music video, "United Breaks Guitars," on YouTube, alleging that airline baggage handlers broke his expensive Taylor guitar and United won't reimburse him. United did not return Marketing Daily's call seeking comment.

If travelers can relate, then this comes as no surprise: Overall customer satisfaction with airlines this year has declined for a third consecutive year, to a four-year low, according to market consultancy J.D. Power & Associates. The firm's 2009 version of its "North American Airline Satisfaction Study" suggests the decline is driven by decreased passenger satisfaction with in-flight services, flight crew and costs and fees, compared with 2008.

Not all is bad in the study, based on surveys of some 12,900 passengers who traveled between April 2008 and May 2009. Respondents said flight delays decreased by 8 minutes this year from 72 minutes in 2008. Average ticket-counter wait times have decreased to 12 minutes this year from 14 minutes in 2008, per the firm.

The study, which divides carriers by traditional and low-cost, weighs satisfaction based on cost and fees; flight crew; in-flight services; aircraft; boarding, deplaning and baggage; check-in; and reservation. Alaska Airlines ranks highest in the traditional network carrier segment for the second year in a row, and JetBlue Airways for the fourth year running in the low-cost category. The scores of only one airline, Southwest, actually improved year over year.

Southwest's improvements were driven by strong customer responses to its reservations, check-in and boarding/deplaning/baggage measures. It was tied for second place with WestJet.

Dale Haines, senior director of J.D. Power's travel practice, says the three general categories of performance that matter most to travelers are cost and fees, in-flight services, and flight crew. He says that airlines have cut back on food and beverage service and/or they charge for it.

"Airlines called it unbundling of fees, but consumers call it 'nickel and dime'-ing. There is an expectation issue; things that had been included before have become extra costs to consumers, who also see that airfares have not declined at the same rate as fuel prices."

He notes that fuel prices today are 53% lower than they were at peak last July, "and, while airfares have come down, they haven't come down from peak last year." Airlines that are doing well in the survey are those that maintain a level of performance year over year. "Southwest and Alaska have made incremental improvements over the past several years that are showing up in our research," says Haines.

Good customer service boils down to corporate culture at airlines, not the bottom line. "I suspect that the organizational culture of individual airlines is part of what has influence here. Work forces are being reduced, and everyone gets asked to do more with fewer resources. But some [airlines] treat customer service as part of their culture and part of how they do business; others treat customer service as an additional element of the job."

He says such events as flight delays are where the rubber meets the road. "The reason Alfred Hitchcock was a master of suspense was that he put just enough elements into films to let the audience scare themselves. Likewise, when air travelers are faced with delay and don't know the reason, their imaginations take over.

Obviously, in those situations, passengers are unhappy. "But when we find that the gate agent provides some sort of communication or update to passengers in the boarding area, satisfaction goes back up a bit. If they attempt to provide some information on the reason for delay, it provides an increase in satisfaction. And that's a no-cost activity to the airline."