Case Study: Major U.S. Airlines achieves actionable passenger insights and service improvements with NetBase Quid

Quid analyzed 4,174 consumer reviews of the five major U.S. airlines over a six-year period to better understand what airline travelers are saying about their travel experiences

Quid analyzed 4,174 consumer reviews of the five major U.S. airlines spanning six years to pinpoint what travelers talk about and what drives their ratings. The study surfaced concentrated customer concerns—flight crew, delays, and customer service were the top topics—alongside inflight experience, cancellations and business class, revealing varied brand associations and mixed sentiment across airlines.

Quid applied text analytics and network visualizations to cluster themes and color them by rating, linking topic frequency to brand-level impressions. Key findings: flight crew (16%), flight delays (10%) and customer service (9.4%) were dominant themes; Alaska earned the largest share of 10‑star reviews while United and American had the most 1–2 star ratings; United’s negatives were largely driven by delays, cancellations, customer service and connections; Southwest’s positive reviews skewed to price, and Delta and Alaska scored highest on food.