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Best US Airline, ranked by Value Score

✓ fares + reliability from Google Flights, DOT & carrier data

Rank by your priorities

Showing the general best-value ranking across US carriers. Pick a priority or drag a slider — nothing here is our opinion, it's your math.

What matters to you

↓ How the score is computed
Start from:
Ranked comparison · live — fare per mile on a fixed LA–New York route; reliability from DOT Air Travel Consumer Report

The formula — published, no black box

Value Score = ( Σ weightᵢ × normalize(reliabilityᵢ) ) ÷ (fare-per-mile ÷ fleet-average fare-per-mile)
  • Each airline is scored relative to the other carriers — the worst carrier on a measure sits at the bottom, the best at the top, everyone else in between. A score means "how this carrier compares to its rivals," not an absolute grade. (This also lets us fairly combine measures on totally different scales — a percentage, a rate per 100, a dollar fee.)
  • weightᵢ = your slider values. A priority chip just presets the sliders (e.g. "for reliability" cranks the cancellation + bag-handling weights). Override any time.
  • Default weights are set by the data, not us. Each measure is weighted by how much it actually varies across carriers (its coefficient of variation): a measure where every airline scores about the same can't separate winners from losers, so it earns little weight; a measure that varies widely is a real differentiator, so it earns more. Here countries served, cancellation rate, total destinations and bag handling vary the most, so they carry the most default weight; seat pitch, on-time % and bag fee cluster tightly across carriers, so each is floored at a small share.
  • Network reach — total destinations and countries served — is included as a value measure: an airline that reaches more places (and more countries) is simply more useful for more trips. Counts come from published route data and include codeshare and partner-operated flights sold under the carrier's code, so alliance members read higher than their own-metal footprint; applied the same way to every carrier. Care only about where you fly? Drag Destinations and Countries to zero. Fly internationally? Tap “for global reach” to weight them up.
  • Dividing by fare-per-mile relative to the fleet average turns raw reliability into value — a great-but-pricey airline ranks below a solid one at the average fare. Fleet-average fare on the sampled route is $0.0925/mi.
  • How the fare number is built (worked example): we take the cheapest one-way main-cabin economy fare on one fixed transcontinental route — Los Angeles → New York, ~2,475 mi — and divide by the distance. Delta: $204 ÷ 2,475 mi = $0.0824/mi. American: $319 ÷ 2,475 mi = $0.1289/mi — 56% more per mile for the same nonstop. This is a route snapshot, not a network-wide average: directionally useful, and transparent by design.
  • Carriers with no service on the sampled route (Spirit and Allegiant don't fly LA–NYC) have no fare, so they can't get a value-per-dollar score — they're shown muted and marked no route service rather than guessed at.
  • Data: fares sampled from Google Flights (Oct 2026, for Nov 2026 travel); reliability — on-time %, cancellations, mishandled bags — from the US DOT Air Travel Consumer Report; seat pitch and bag fees from carrier spec pages. fares are a route snapshot
Below: context & how-to-read — not a verdict
Reading guide — teaches you to drive the tool above

What actually separates these units — and how the tool decides

The default ranking isn't our opinion about what's "best." The tool weights each spec by how much it actually varies across this field — a spec where every unit scores about the same can't separate winners from losers, so it earns less weight; a spec that varies widely is a real differentiator, so it earns more. Here, room coverage is by far the biggest separator (these units range from ~220 to ~1,560 sq ft), so it carries the most weight by default. Smoke CADR matters — it's the hardest particle test — but most of these units cluster fairly close on it, so it earns moderate weight rather than dominating. See exactly how weights are computed →

Disagree with the default weighting? That's the point — drag any slider and the ranking becomes entirely yours.
→ Fighting pet dander or wildfire smoke? Tap the "for pets" or "for smoke" chip above — it re-weights the tool for that fight instantly.

The number that matters: CADR, sized to your actual room

The spec that decides whether a purifier actually works in your space is CADR matched to room size — not the inflated "coverage" number on the box. That box figure assumes a weak 1 air change per hour; for anyone buying a purifier to fix a real problem (allergies, smoke, pets), you want 4–5 air changes per hour, which means the room it truly handles is roughly half to a third of the printed rating. A unit advertised for 1,500 sq ft is really a strong 400–500 sq ft performer at 4×/hr. The quick rule: CADR (smoke) should be at least two-thirds of your room's square footage. A 350 sq ft bedroom wants ~230+ smoke CADR; a 500 sq ft living room wants ~330+. The tool ranks on honest CADR and coverage so you're not buying a badge.

→ Know your room size? Drag the Room coverage slider up and the ranking re-sorts to units that genuinely cover it at a real air-change rate — instantly.

Best air purifier for allergies & asthma

For allergies and asthma the non-negotiable is True HEPA — certified to capture 99.97% of particles at 0.3 microns, the size that includes pollen, dust-mite debris and mold spores. Do not settle for "HEPA-type" or "99% HEPA," which are marketing dodges that let far more through. After that, you want high pollen/dust CADR and a quiet low setting so you'll actually run it 24/7 in the bedroom, which is where allergy relief is won. Among the verified field, the Levoit Vital 200S and Core 400S hit True HEPA with low filter cost and sub-25 dB quiet modes — a strong allergy-bedroom combination without the premium price. Tap "Bedroom (quiet)" above to re-weight toward exactly this.

Best air purifier for smoke & wildfire

Wildfire smoke and smoke smell are a raw-CADR fight — you need to move a lot of air fast through True HEPA, and ideally real activated carbon for the gaseous/odor fraction HEPA can't catch. Here the standouts are the high-CADR, large-coverage units: the Coway Airmega 400 (328 smoke CADR, ~1,560 sq ft rated) for whole-floor wildfire events, and the Blueair Blue Pure 211+ (350 smoke CADR) as a high-throughput value pick. For persistent odor rather than particle load, prioritize carbon depth — thin carbon pads saturate in weeks. Tap "Wildfire / smoke" above and the tool pushes raw CADR to the top of the weighting.

Best air purifier for pets

Pet owners are fighting two different things at once: dander (a fine particle True HEPA handles well) and odor (a gas that needs carbon). A purifier that's great on paper for dust can still leave the room smelling like a litter box if it skimps on carbon. Prioritize True HEPA + meaningful activated carbon + strong CADR, and expect to replace filters more often — pet hair clogs pre-filters fast, so low filter $/yr matters more here than for most buyers. The Coway AP-1512HH (Mighty) and Winix 5500-2 both pair True HEPA + washable pre-filter + carbon at a low annual filter cost — well-suited to the pet-household grind.

Best air purifier for mold

Mold spores run ~1–5 microns — comfortably inside True HEPA's catch range — so any certified-HEPA unit with adequate CADR for the room will pull airborne spores. The honest caveat we'll state plainly: an air purifier removes airborne spores but does not fix the moisture source feeding the mold. Pair it with humidity control (ideally under 50% RH) and remediation, or spores keep regenerating. For a damp basement or bathroom-adjacent room, size up on CADR and run it continuously; a True HEPA unit like the Levoit Vital 200S (low filter cost, quiet) is a sensible always-on choice.

What True HEPA actually costs to own

Sticker price is the smaller number. The one that bites yearly is filter cost, and it varies wildly across this field — from ~$43/yr (Austin Air) to ~$195/yr (IQAir). Over five years, a cheap unit with expensive filters can cost more than a pricier unit with cheap ones. That's why the tool scores filter $/yr as its own axis instead of hiding it — it's the ongoing bill most review sites quietly omit. Factor washable pre-filters (they extend the main HEPA's life) and real replacement intervals, not the optimistic "up to 12 months" on the box.

Why we don't just name a winner

"Best air purifier" is meaningless without for what. A wildfire household needs raw CADR; an allergy sufferer in a small bedroom needs quiet + true HEPA; a pet owner needs carbon + cheap filters; a budget buyer needs low yearly cost. One name buries that trade-off — the Value Score keeps it in your hands. That's the whole point of this site, which is why the formula sits right above, in the open.

The specs, briefly

Coverage = room size it's rated for (the biggest differentiator across this field). CADR-Smoke = clean-air delivery rate for the hardest 0.09–1 micron particles (higher = faster, stronger). True HEPA = certified 99.97% @ 0.3µm, not "HEPA-type." Filter cost/yr = the real ongoing bill most sites hide. Noise (low) = dB on the quiet setting (lower = bedroom-friendly). How much each counts by default is set by the data, not us — see the methodology.

Specs verified Aug 2026 against the AHAM Verifide directory + manufacturer spec sheets. Prices are approximate street prices pending live-retailer verification. Some links may be affiliate; that never changes the Value Score — the math runs on published specs, not payouts.