U.S. Airlines Can’t Crack the Top 20.

About a week ago, the annual ratings for some 200 of the world’s airlines were released by Skytrax, a web site that describes itself, albeit a bit redundantly, as “The comprehensive Airline and Airport customer review site for airlines and airports across the world.”
 
According to Skytrax, more than 19 million airline passengers were surveyed, the results sliced and diced, and the top 20 announced. I’m sure it will not come as a shock to most of us that there were no U.S. airlines in the top 20.
 

 Coming in at Number One in the international rankings was Emirates, followed by Qater Airways and Singapore Airlines. There were a few of the major international carriers in there–Lufthansa, Air France, Air New Zealand and Qantas–and a couple that surprised me: Bangkok Airways, for example.
 
Of the U.S. airlines, Virgin America came the closest to cracking the Top 20, finishing in 25th place, but what struck me was the ranking given to Hawaiian Airlines: 72nd overall. Having flown Hawaiian a lot, I find it very difficult to believe that 71 airlines are doing a better job of pleasing their customers.
 
The Smarter Travel web site, which reported these rankings, also expresses some skepticism, noting that there was a clear international focus to the survey and there are usually more passenger pleasing amenities provided on international flights than–God knows!–we get on domestic flights in the U.S. Furthermore, there was no indication as to how the answers to the Skytrax questionnaire were weighted, a critical factor in any survey.
 
All that said, is anyone out there truly surprised that none of the U.S. airlines finished in the top 20?