These Are the Airlines Americans Avoid Flying on at All Costs

Even saving money can't lure passengers to some airlines.

I try not to be a hater, even though as an early December Sagittarius who made reading my personality in eighth grade, it's hard. And perhaps hardest to suppress my natural hater tendencies when it comes to airlines; flying is a pretty terrible experience despite the absolute miracle of human ingenuity that it is. The seats always feel too thin, my feet fall asleep, and the cost of a ticket normally comes out to at least half my rent.

Travel guide platform The Vacationer just made it mission impossible, with a study sharing which airlines Americans say they avoid flying at all costs.

The Vacationer polled more than 1,000 people to determine which airlines were avoided most often. These are the airlines Americans are most likely to avoid flying on at all costs, ranked:
1. Spirit Airlines — 21.06%
2. Allegiant Air — 16.36%
3. American Airlines — 14.40%
4. Frontier Airlines — 14.30%
5. Delta Air Lines — 12.63%
6. JetBlue — 12.63%
7. Alaska Airlines — 10.68%
8. Southwest Airlines — 10.28%
9. United Airlines — 7.64%
10. Hawaiian Airlines — 5.48%

Nearly 32% of respondents said they would never avoid any of the above airlines, because the cost of the flight is most important to them, and nearly 17% said they would never avoid an airline because flight dates and times are most important to them. And as much as I'd love to poke fun at the list above, I can't! Why? Because I'm in that 32% of people who simply will fly on any sort of airline, plane, cargo vehicle, etc., if it meant that I could save money on my flight.

Courtesy of The Vacationer

In total, nearly half of American adults (48.38%) don't avoid flying any specific airline. Given how expensive traveling is these days, and the fact that some people are skipping out on groceries in order to save money for a trip, that's not too surprising. There's really no advantage to avoiding certain airlines if your goal is to save money.

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Opheli Garcia Lawler is a Staff Writer on the News team at Thrillist. Follow her on Twitter @opheligarcia and Instagram @opheligarcia.