Delta Soars, American Stumbles: H1 2025 Airline Showdown
Delta took the crown in H1 2025 with zero involuntary denied boardings, while American stumbled with the highest bumping numbers, cancellations, delays, and complaints.
In a tale that feels like a reality show more than airline metrics, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s latest report (for the first half of 2025) crowns Delta as the golden child with zero passenger bumping's, while American takes the dunce cap for cancellations, complaints, and baggage mishaps. Buckle up - it’s turbulence ahead, but only for some..
✈Delta’s No-Bump Victory Lap
Delta Air Lines has pulled off an impressive feat: zero involuntary denied boardings in H1 2025. That’s right - no forced bumping of any passenger. Prairie-dogging to another flight? Nope. Delta seems to be treating its customers with respect, rather than adding them to the relocation list.
They’ve leaned heavily on voluntary changes, offering compensation, gift cards, travel credits, sometimes even big incentives until someone agrees to reschedule. If you’re okay with a little wait + a bonus, that’s your ticket. But for many, this approach beats feeling pushed off a plane with little say.
Of course, the ghost of 2017 still lingers - when United Airlines infamously dragged Dr. David Dao off an overbooked flight, sparking viral outrage and a PR disaster so bad it became a business-school case study. Since then, carriers have been terrified of becoming the next meme-able fiasco. Delta, in particular, seems to have taken notes: rather than risk another headline about passengers being hauled down the aisle, they’ve leaned into voluntary compensation . Think gift cards, travel credits, even four-figure offers - anything to keep customers smiling instead of live-tweeting their misery.
American’s Rough Takeoff
American Airlines… not so much laurels this time. It’s under the spotlight for some serious underperformance across multiple fronts. Here’s how deep the hole is:
- Cancellations: American cancelled ~2.69% of flights in H1 - nearly triple the industry average of ~1.56%. That’s a lot of grounded passengers.
- On-time arrivals: They ranked near the bottom, with just ~73.3% of flights arriving on time.
- Baggage handling: They’re worst in class here too - about 0.78 mishandled bags per 100 enplaned. That’s the highest among U.S. carriers. United’s close behind, but “close” doesn’t feel great when you’re dragging your suitcase off a carousel and half of its contents have taken a side trip.
- Denied boardings: American involuntarily bumped 7,163 passengers - more than any other airline. Delta bumped none. The difference feels less like margin and more like night and day.
- Complaints: In June alone, American had 1,996 DOT complaints. That’s more than double the complaints for United or Delta in that same period.
Where Others Fit In
- Hawaiian Airlines leads in timeliness, with the best on-time arrival rate (~83.1%) in the first half.
- Southwest also showed improvement, ranking high in punctuality and keeping cancellations under control.
- Several smaller carriers like Allegiant and Hawaiian kept their cancellation rates below 1%, putting them in the low-disruption club.
Final Word
In the battle for “Which airline won-the-least-awful-rankings,” Delta takes the crown (for once) for treating passengers better across multiple metrics. American, meanwhile, needs to check its watch, baggage carts, boardings, and cancellation policies - all at once.
If you’re booking flights in the near future and you care about avoiding chaos, the report suggests your safest bet is: go early, fly with someone besides American, or just hope your delayed flight comes with a decent bonus. (Seriously, that voluntary bump offer might look tempting now.)
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