Premium travel appears to be gaining momentum among U.S. airlines. Earlier this month, JetBlue opened bookings for BlueFirst, its new domestic first-class offering scheduled to launch in December. In September, Alaska Air Group announced plans to expand premium seating across Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, while Southwest introduced extra-legroom seating in January as part of its move to assigned seating.
As airlines invest in higher-end offerings, which brands make the strongest impression on premium air travelers?
We look at YouGov BrandIndex data to identify the top ten airlines by net Impression score among premium flyers – those who booked premium economy, business-class or first-class tickets in the past year – and compare their scores with those of economy flyers.
Delta Air Lines leads United and American among premium flyers
Delta Air Lines records the highest net Impression score among premium flyers, at 50.3. This coincides with Delta’s recent expansion of its premium offerings. In April 2026, the airline announced plans to introduce next-generation Delta One suites on its incoming A350-1000 aircraft and bring Delta One suites to its existing A330-200/300 fleet for the first time.
United Airlines takes the second spot with a score of 46.2, with American Airlines close behind at 45.0.
These three U.S. carriers are comfortably ahead of the rest of the top ten brands among premium flyers. Emirates ranks fourth with a score of 35.5, followed by British Airways (32.9) and Alaska Airlines (30.8).
Southwest is next at 27.3, narrowly ahead of Qatar Airways (26.9). JetBlue (25.1) and Hawaiian Airlines (24.9) round out the ten brands.
Delta's lead is particularly interesting when compared with its performance among economy flyers, where the order of the top three is reversed. United records the highest Impression score among economy flyers at 43.8, followed by American (43.1) and Delta (42.6).
While the three airlines have fairly similar scores among economy travelers, Delta establishes a clearer advantage among premium flyers.
Hawaiian Airlines records the biggest relative difference between premium and economy flyers
Across all ten airlines, net Impression scores are higher among premium flyers than economy flyers, although the size of that advantage varies considerably.
Hawaiian Airlines stands out on this measure. Its Impression score of 24.9 among premium flyers is 43% higher than its score of 17.4 among economy flyers – the largest relative difference of any airline examined.
Hawaiian is also preparing to expand its premium seating capacity. As CNBC reported in September, the airline plans to introduce 22 new first-class suites on each of its 24 Airbus A330 aircraft, alongside a new premium-economy cabin. The overhaul, beginning in 2028, will increase the proportion of premium seats on these aircraft from 30% to approximately 40%.
Emirates also records substantially stronger perceptions among premium flyers (35.5 vs. 28.9), a relative difference of 23%. Alaska Airlines (30.8 vs. 25.0) and Qatar Airways (26.9 vs. 21.9) register similar relative differences.
In absolute terms, however, Delta has the largest gap between the two audiences, with its Impression score 7.8 points higher among premium flyers. Hawaiian Airlines follows closely with a 7.4-point difference.
By contrast, United and American record considerably smaller gaps of 2.4 and 1.9 points, respectively, despite having some of the highest Impression scores among premium travelers.
With several carriers introducing or expanding premium offerings, these differences provide a useful benchmark for tracking whether their investments are accompanied by changes in consumer perceptions.
Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. Impression scores are based on whether respondents have a generally positive or negative impression of an airline. Scores are reported as net scores from -100 to +100, based on daily surveys of U.S. adults. Data is weighted using a propensity scoring methodology with targets from the American Community Survey (ACS) to ensure representation by age, gender, race, education, and region. Figures cover July 23 to October 22, 2026. The analysis focuses on the top ten airlines by Impression score among respondents who booked premium economy, business-class or first-class airline tickets in the past year (n=865), with their scores compared against those of respondents who booked economy tickets in the past year (n=1,060).
