Flying Budget: Taking the Discount Route
BLITZER: Low cost doesn't necessarily mean low quality when it comes to flying. Discount airliners topped a new study based on performance and customer satisfaction. CNN's Bob Franken shows us how the competition stacked up.</s>BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The winner and new champion in the 14th annual Airline Quality Rating is JetBlue. In fact, three of the top four best performers are low-fare operators: JetBlue, Southwest and America West. All together, the study rated 14. Many of the big ones were somewhere at the bottom. United, American, Delta among those in the lower tier. All of the information came from the U.S. Department of Transportation. What about performance industry-wide? This will surprise the weary traveler. It was up. Although, that weary traveler might not be surprised to find it was up only slightly. And that, because the number of official consumer complaints was way down. Even so, on-time arrivals were down, while passenger bumping was up. Lost luggage, up. This is a joint project of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Wichita State University. As for the performance of the low-cost carriers, the analysts made it clear they believe it's not just those low fares, but higher customer service which has resulted in a big jump in their market share, from just 4 percent when the studies began to a full 25 percent now. The old joke used to be, flying is the best way to fly. The study might suggest that flying cheaply is the best way to fly. Bob Franken, CNN, Washington.</s>BLITZER: Batter up. It's Major League Baseball's full-scale opening day. But will off-season reports of steroid use cast a shadow over the season? We'll go live to Cincinnati. Our Josie Burke, she is standing by. That's coming up.