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6 Airlines That Just Aren't Worth It Anymore

Fee hikes, route cuts, and shrinking perks are testing flyer loyalty.

By Amanda Teague , Edited by Sara Albertelli

Updated Aug. 26, 2026

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Air travel keeps getting more expensive, and several airlines have quietly stopped delivering what used to come standard with the ticket. Spirit Airlines took that furthest of all, shutting down completely on May 2, 2026, the first major U.S. carrier to fail in 25 years after fuel costs wrecked an already fragile balance sheet. Its collapse capped a year of fee hikes, route cuts, and loyalty devaluations industry-wide.

None of it is guesswork. It's documented in J.D. Power's 2026 satisfaction study, DOT complaint data, and the airlines' own fee announcements, and it matters for anyone trying to save money on travel this year. Here's where the numbers back up what flyers have been saying.

American Airlines

American logged more Department of Transportation complaints than any other U.S. airline in May 2026, with 1,181 cases driven mainly by flight problems and refund disputes. That ran well ahead of United's 744 and Delta's 705 for the same month, and it wasn't a one-off: American posted the highest network cancellation rate of any major carrier in 2025 and mishandled 0.66 bags per 100 checked in, worse than the 0.52 industry average.

Loyalty members took a separate hit. Starting December 17, 2025, American stopped awarding AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points on Basic Economy tickets. Then, for tickets bought on or after May 18, 2026, it cut off complimentary seat selection and upgrades on those fares, even for elite members, and raised their bag fees by $5 apiece. J.D. Power scored American's economy segment at 624 out of 1,000, below the 627 average.

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Southwest Airlines

Southwest spent five decades building its identity around two free checked bags and open seating, then gave up both. It started charging $35 for a first checked bag and $45 for a second on May 28, 2025, ending the last major fee-free holdout in U.S. air travel. Assigned seating followed on January 27, 2026, replacing the boarding scramble flyers had tolerated for 54 years.

The same overhaul renamed Southwest's fare tiers and introduced a no-changes Basic fare with credits that expire in six months instead of a year. CEO Bob Jordan framed it as a bid for the profitability shareholders expected, and investors agreed, sending shares up nearly 9%. Southwest still topped J.D. Power's 2026 economy rankings at 670, but the study itself warned that new bag and seating fees tend to erode satisfaction over time.

United Airlines

United's on-time numbers look solid on paper. In 2025, 76.9% of flights landed on time, edging past the 76.4% industry average, with a cancellation rate of just 1.36%. The trouble starts at baggage claim: United posted the worst mishandled-bag rate of any major network in 2025, at 0.72 bags for every 100 checked in.

United also led the industry's move to strip down premium cabins in 2026, rolling out a basic tier for its Polaris business class that trades away lounge access and advance seat selection for a lower fare, a move Delta mirrored months later. Despite the decent punctuality, one dissatisfaction tracker found United drawing an unusually high volume of complaint-related searches and an average review score of just 3.3 out of 10, suggesting baggage mishaps and stripped-down fares are hurting its reputation more than its on-time record suggests.

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JetBlue Airways

JetBlue built its reputation as the friendlier alternative to legacy carriers, but through the first five months of 2026 it posted the lowest on-time arrival rate among all active reporting airlines, at 70.5%. The financial picture behind those delays is bleak: JetBlue reported a $141 million operating loss for the second quarter of 2026 alone, and CEO Joanna Geraghty has laid out a growing list of cuts to preserve cash.

Those cuts have reached the route map. JetBlue is abandoning Miami, cutting Seattle back to seasonal service, and parking Airbus A320s in the desert while closing its Newark flight attendant base and tech-operations bases. The airline is refocusing its network and its upgraded Mint cabin around Fort Lauderdale, a pivot that suits South Florida flyers better than the New York travelers who built its original base.

Delta Air Lines

Delta has spent years positioning itself as the industry's gold standard, and the 2026 J.D. Power data mostly backs that up: Delta ranked in the top two across all three cabin segments the study measures, taking first place in premium economy (736) and second place in both first/business (750, behind JetBlue) and economy/basic economy (667, behind Southwest's 670, a gap of just three points). That's actually an improvement in the economy segment from 2025, when Delta placed third behind Southwest and JetBlue.

Where Delta is losing ground is elsewhere. The airline received 705 consumer complaints in May 2026, and the carrier has followed United into unbundling its premium cabins. Starting July 8, 2026, Delta began selling Basic Business fares for its Delta One cabin, tickets that keep the lie-flat seat and meal but assign seats after check-in and reduce the checked-bag allowance. After a transition period through January 18, 2027, the fare itself will no longer include Delta One Lounge or Delta Sky Club access beginning January 19, though travelers may still qualify for Sky Club access through other credentials. Delta calls it a new entry point into premium cabins, but the effect echoes what basic economy did to coach over a decade ago.

Frontier Airlines

No major U.S. airline scored worse with passengers in 2026 than Frontier. The carrier finished dead last in J.D. Power's economy rankings at 533 out of 1,000, nearly 100 points below the 627 segment average, and posted the lowest on-time arrival rate in the industry at 70.7% for 2025.

Frontier's complaint numbers back up the frustration. In 2024, it logged 23.3 complaints per 100,000 passengers, more than 10 points worse than the next carrier on that list. Seat pitch on its Airbus fleet runs as tight as 28 inches, among the smallest in U.S. aviation, and nearly everything beyond the seat carries its own charge, starting with a $50 enrollment fee for the discount club that unlocks Frontier's lowest fares and running up to $75 for bags over 41 pounds.

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Bottom line

None of this means grounding travel plans. If anything, it's a good time to start traveling more, since several carriers are competing harder on price to win back flyers who are watching every dollar. But it does mean checking before you book.

The pattern across all six carriers is the same. What reads like a bargain fare often isn't once bags, seats, and loyalty perks get priced separately. Comparing total cost, not sticker price, before booking is still the simplest way to avoid a bad surprise at the gate.

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