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Saturday
- August 5, 2000
Best Airline Website? Continental
Smooth-flying Continental trounces the competition in
the Airline category of the latest PowerRankings by Forrester
Research, Inc. Forrester PowerRankings combine survey data
from online consumers and unbiased shopping tests to provide
objective rankings of the leading eCommerce sites in various
categories. Following Continental are Northwest, American,
Alaska, Southwest, United, US Airways, and Delta.
Continental rises above a crowded
field by offering quick online buying and a simple reservation
cancellation process. Its site also allows Web shoppers
to choose their seats and meals as well as book rental
cars and hotel rooms. Its greatest weakness was inconsistent
email response times. Northwest comes in a distant second,
offering a feature-rich site and speedy replies to email
inquiries. But Northwest frustrates shoppers with its separate
navigation and search engines for the main site and the
reservations section, and it doesn't let customers cancel
reservations online.
"Once again, Continental
wins the PowerRankings Airlines category. But the difference
from last fall is that this time it broke away from the
competition," said Tom Rhinelander, senior analyst
at Forrester. "Continental beats the competition at
delivering what online travel shoppers are looking for
-- a site with a simple and quick way to purchase tickets,
useful features and relevant travel content, and good customer
service."
Third-place American offers
a home page with a convenient calendar that, when clicked
on, automatically fills in flight dates, and its customer
service was quick to reply to email questions. However,
the site suffered from server errors and a laborious checkout
process. Southwest comes in fourth, offering a bare-bones
online shopping experience. The site lacks a search engine,
flight status information, and email support. But cost-conscious
travelers flying to locations served by Southwest may not
mind, given the fast buying process, low prices, and near-instant
answering of phone calls.
"Southwest's site matches
the airline perfectly," added Rhinelander. "Customers
may not get flight status information on the site or a
meal other than peanuts on the plane, but they do get a
fast and functional site and inexpensive fares."
Alaska Airlines comes in fifth,
offering speedy ticket buying, but its customer service
is slow and the site is missing features like terminal
maps and integrated car and hotel booking. Landing in sixth
place, United offers a useful search capability, but lacks
helpful customer service. An arduous online buying process
and server errors leave US Airways in seventh place, while
last-place Delta is criticized for inconsistent navigation
and server errors.
For the updated PowerRankings,
Forrester surveyed 19,000 consumers from Greenfield Online's
600,000-person online panel. These consumers identified
the most recent eCommerce sites that they purchased from
and rated their experiences. A team of Forrester shoppers
then evaluated the shopping experience for sites with a
statistically valid number of consumer respondents, performing
a series of rigorous tests in six areas. The consumer data
and Forrester shopper scores were then synthesized and
weighted, with consumer views accounting for two-thirds
of the overall PowerRanking. A complete set of PowerRankings
results -- both consumer and Forrester shopper data --
are made available to all ranked companies for no charge.
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