• by December 22, 2008

Consumers ranked Southwest Airlines as the top domestic airline in providing value for their dollars, according to the latest BrandIndex scores from research firm YouGovPolimetrix. Virgin Atlantic led the rankings for international airlines, Courtyard by Marriott for non-luxury hotels, and Hyatt Hotels & Resorts for luxury hotels.

The lowest-ranking brands in each category were United Airlines, Aeromexico, Motel 6 and W Hotels.

BrandIndex also ranked buzz for each brand by asking consumers if they had heard anything positive or negative about them in the preceding two weeks. The two top-valued airlines also received the most positive buzz, but the top hotels buzz-wise were Holiday Inn in non-luxury and Hilton in luxury. The most negative buzz came from US Airways, Air France, Motel 6 and Omni Hotels.

BrandIndex derives brand scores from 100 to -100 by subtracting negative feedback from positive. In this respect, Southwest nabbed a 40.0 value ranking--flying well above No. 2 JetBlue (16.9), which itself was miles ahead of No. 3 AirTran (3.0). In buzz, Southwest also soared, with a 30.6 score vs. JetBlue's 8.9 and Continental's 2.4.

Scores were much lower in general for the international airlines, with Virgin only earning a 5.4 in value (over Lufthansa's 2.6) and a 4.8 in buzz (over British Airways' 4.5).

The hotel races were much tighter. For the non-luxury brands, less than five points separated the top six value-wise, with Courtyard by Marriott nabbing 27.8, its sister Marriott chain, 27.4; Comfort Inn, 27.2; Holiday Inn, 26.0; Best Western, 25.8, and Hampton Inn, 23.3. In buzz, Holiday Inn's 18.7 was followed closely by Marriott's 18.5.

In luxury hotels, W was the only chain of nine surveyed to have a negative value score, with Hyatt's 13.4 followed by Hilton' 12.9, Westin's 9.5 and Windham's 8.3. In buzz, nobody came up negative, with Hilton's 11.2 leading Ritz-Carlton's 9.6, Hyatt's 8.1, and Four Seasons' 7.7.

BrandIndex interviews a sample of 5,000 U.S. consumers, 18+ every day, with respondents drawn from an online panel of 1.4 million people. The latest travel brand results were based on figures as of Dec. 8.