So letвЂ™s look at some of these awards, and add a little bit of contrarian - and maybe a bit snarky - commentary to illustrate the, at best, highly subjective nature of the awards. But the decision criteria make the site's selections very assailable. That doesn't mean the carriers singled out by aren't deserving of honors. But throwing in some assessment of the quality of those reviews opens the process up to lots of reasons to doubt it's accuracy, or even fairness. Determining the winner by quantity of reviews would have been easy. 's site managers explained that the siteвЂ™s awards were determined by вЂњusing an algorithm that took into account the quantity and quality of airline reviews and ratings submitted by travelers worldwide, over a 12-month period on TripAdvisor FlightsвЂќ throughout 2018. Too often, as this yearвЂ™s awards illustrates, such вЂњBest ofвЂќ awards serve merely to perpetuate long-standing corporate stereotypes and reputations and do not detect or recognize short- or long-term deterioration in the operations or performances of companies singled out for those awards.

And that meaningless/cluelessness is not limited to industries like the airlines, which are widely known for dissatisfying their customers and investors, but extends to annual honors lists for many, even most other industries. Unfortunately вЂ“ for both Southwest and вЂ“ the timing of the release of the travel siteвЂ™s third annual airline awards now serves less to honor carriers for excellence than it does to underline the meaninglessness, and even the occasional cluelessness of such awards. Southwest long has won awards and kudos from travelers, travel journalists and both Wall Street analysts and, especially, investors, many of whom have earned fortunes investing in the Dallas-based airlineвЂ™s shares over the last 48 years.

Southwest airlines reviews and awards