• by Tanya Gazdik , January 8, 2016

Virgin America swapped places with Southwest Airlines to take the top spot in YouGov BrandIndex’s annual holiday travel satisfaction rankings.

The biggest reversal of fortune came for JetBlue: last year, the New York-based carrier lost 11 points during the 2014 holiday season. This year, not only did JetBlue gain nine points during the same time frame, but it moved up to third place, displacing Alaska Air.

“The airline has been opening up additional routes to Florida and the Caribbean, which seems to be helping the brand attract more flyers over the recent holiday period,” YouGov BrandIndex CEO Ted Marzilli tells Marketing Daily. “The airline also announced its new entertainment partnership with Amazon at the beginning of the travel season. Don't underestimate what a good film or the distraction of online shopping can do to help pass the time on a long and often crowded flight.”

Anyone who flies regularly has likely noticed that planes seem to be filled to near capacity as the norm, Marzilli adds. “And while price is still a key driver of choice, entertainment, amenities, such as free snacks, nonstop flights and unique ad campaigns can all be differentiators.”

Consumers had a much more favorable experience overall with domestic airlines this past holiday season.

While Virgin America takes the top spot, it also had the largest drop in satisfaction during the recent holiday season. Last year, the airline experienced a drop of more than three times this year's amount, suggesting that the airline experienced problems during the holiday crunch in both years, but perhaps handled them better this time around.

Most domestic airlines made significant satisfaction level gains compared to last year, when three airlines out of 10 took substantial drops.

YouGov BrandIndex (www.brandindex.com) interviews 4,300 people each weekday from a representative U.S. population sample -- more than 1.5 million interviews per year. Respondents are drawn from an online panel of nearly 2MM individuals. YouGov BrandIndex tracks the perception of 1,400+ brands daily, across more than 20 industry sectors.

During the past 90 days, YouGov BrandIndex surveyed 2,500 consumers 18 and over who anticipate taking an airline trip that is either somewhat likely, likely or very likely over the next year. To determine satisfaction, respondents are asked: “Are you a satisfied customer?” The margin of error is an excellent +/- 3.5%.