TripAdvisor Now Lets Travelers Bemoan, Praise Airlines Through Ratings & Reviews Image courtesy of kevindean
For years, travelers have been able to review, book, and rate most aspects of their trips on TripAdvisor – everything but their flight. That’s about to change, now that the company has opened the floodgates of praise and ridicule by allowing passengers to rate their carrier of choice.
TripAdvisor recently launched a new airline review platform, as well as a flight search service, that allows travelers to rate the quality of their flying experience, look for the most promising routes, and compare prices for trips.
The new platform will include all major global airlines, providing travelers with a “go-to resource for making more informed air travel decisions based not only on the price of the flight, but the total experience with the airline as viewed by TripAdvisor’s community,” the company says.
Through the new system, consumers can post star ratings and reviews of airlines that will generate an overall score of the carrier.
Additionally, TripAdvisor rolled out the new feature — dubbed FlyScore — on July 12, inviting users to rate their specific flights on a scale of 1 to 10 based on duration, quality of aircraft, in-flight amenities, and duration of itinerary.
The ratings from FlyScore will be shown alongside the average cost of flights when users search specific routes on the travel review site.
By providing reviews and ratings for airlines and flights, TripAdvisor is providing travelers the opportunity to sort potential flights by score and price, much like its long-held hotel review platform.
Passengers have already provided a variety of reviews for United Airlines.
“Over the years, the in-flight experience has changed dramatically – in some ways for the better, in some ways for the worse,” Bryan Saltzburg, senior vice president and general manager, global flights business, said in a statement. “We’re uniquely solving that problem by surfacing candid traveler reviews and photos, detailed amenities information and tools to find the lowest fares all on one site empowering flyers to pick the best itinerary for their trip.”
While the site has only be operational for a few days, Slate reports that some airlines have already received a variety of reviews and ratings.
As of Monday, American Airlines had received 2,585 reviews and ratings for a score of three stars, Delta has collected 2,025 reviews and ratings for a score of four stars, and United passengers provided 1,802 reviews for a rating of three stars.
Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.
