We all know that Delta is the best domestic airline. But that doesn’t mean it’s the airline you should be flying. There are so many criteria that must be looked at before deciding which airline should be given your dollars. After all, the “best” is so subjective these days.
At present, Delta can be described as the airline with the best service, hard product and reliability, but these are only some criteria in the ever-changing puzzle that must be looked at. Let me walk you through my framework and the criteria I give to each of the Big 3 airlines.
I am going to list out the criteria that I deem most important in my rankings of domestic airlines, and then I will assign a 3-2-1 ranking for each of the three airlines. I will only focus on the Big 3, since they are the only reliable carriers out of my home airport in the Northeast.

Obviously, this a long list of factors to consider, but I feel there is strong reasoning behind each one of my selections. Keep in mind, these ratings will change largely based on where you are located, and if you are hub-captive. In my case, direct routes are not a criteria since I am only getting a direct connection to a hub, and I generally don’t takes those routes anyway due to the limited timing granted by those schedules.
I’m not going to go through each of my criteria. Rather, I’d like you to make this choice for yourself and tally up your rating of how the different airlines stack up. You may want to adjust some of the criteria to be weighted, so feel free to play around with the chart.
Now it’s your turn! I’m curious to see your results.