Want to fly the traditional hub-and-spoke airline with the best level of customer satisfaction? Sorry, but you need to drive at least as far as Orlando to catch Alaska Airlines.

Tampa Bay area travelers can ride the top-rated low-cost airline - JetBlue - to the Big Apple, Boston and Cancun. And most-improved Southwest, which flies nearly one out of three passengers at Tampa International, makes nonstop flights to dozens of U.S. cities.

The J.D. Power and Associates annual North American airline satisfaction study released Tuesday likely won't influence which carrier you pick. Travelers overwhelmingly decide based on price, schedule and frequent-flier memberships.

But rankings provide good fodder for opining on one of the world's most visible industries. A few interesting tidbits:

-Consumer satisfaction with airlines overall dropped for the third straight year. The biggest reason: prices and fees. Last year brought airline fees for checking a single bag. Most airlines also jacked up charges for changing a ticket, flying with a pet and flying unaccompanied minors.

-Southwest posted the only improved grade, in part because of because "boarding/deplaning/baggage measures,"J.D. Power said. Must be those numbered boarding passes that ended the old "cattle call" rush into the cabin.