But if you want to know how American carriers really stack up, you have to look at the raw data. So that's what we did.
We've created a list of the best airlines within the United States, based on the two most important factors for a trip: an enjoyable flying experience and a timely flight.
For in-flight experience, we relied on J.D. Power & Associates's 2013 North American Airline Satisfaction Study.
For on-time and cancellation ratings, we pulled data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
Note that this list does not include every American airline. We considered only those for which we had reliable data from both the JD Power survey and the BTS. You'll notice carriers like Spirit, Virgin America, and Hawaiian Airlines are missing.
Read more about our methodology here.