We have all been there before, standing beside the luggage conveyor belt after a long flight, quietly praying for our luggage to magically pop out of that little window and slide our way. When our luggage finally shows up, it typically means the end of a long day that generally has the potential to stress out most travelers.

For me at least, as long as I get my luggage I am satisfied with my trip. But for a lot of us, there are several factors we use to grade the airlines, and a recent survey shows that customer dissatisfaction is running at near record level lows. These factors include anything from planes leaving and arriving on time, to the service inside the plane from fight attendants, to just how easily mishaps get handled by the agents at the ticketing desks.

Having lived in Europe the past few years, I have been no stranger to the long distance flight back and forth to the States. I suppose I have traveled roughly 100,000 miles on airlines over the past couple of years, and I have to say that for the most part I have had very pleasant experiences. My girlfriend was unfortunate enough to have lost some luggage for a week over this past Christmas, but other than that, I have been pretty lucky.

Seems I'm in the minority. A recent survey taken by the University of Michigan showed that, on a 100 point scale, passengers gave the airline industry a score of 62. This is only 1 point higher than the all time low score of 61 that was recorded during 2001.

There are several excuses that can be given by the airlines in reaction to the low scores. The first, is of course the usual excuse these days, high fuel costs. As airlines struggle to battle the rapidly increasing cost of keeping their planes in the air, of course they are going to have to look at ways to cut back on expenses. These could be reduction in the number of bags for check-in, the cutting back of certain in-flight luxuries passengers are used to having, fewer flights, etc. All of which could be viewed as a reason to be unhappy with the flight.

I don't know about you, but I often wonder why they even bother to give me a bag of pretzels if there is only going to be five pretzels in the bag -- and yes, I actually did count one time to find just five pretzels. But at least it was handed to me with a nice smile, which goes a long way, you have to agree!

Another reason why the average scores are so low could be the trend toward low-cost airlines. Remember, people, if you buy the cheapest ticket you can find, on the cheapest airline you can locate, don't expect the Cadillac of the skies to show up. If you are looking for the lowest prices, expect to get what you are paying for. This is, of course, a bad generalization on my part, I do realize that, but something to keep in mind when judging your recent flight experiences.

As for me, I am pretty loyal to American Airlines (NYSE: AMR). Their flights are usually on time, and I have rarely had any problems at all with any sort of missed flights, lost luggage, etc. OK, so they lost my girlfriend's luggage for a week during Christmas, but at least they did eventually find it, drove it to our house, and gave us $120 to go shopping in the meantime. So in the end, they made up for the experience.

In the current survey, American scored 62, which was the second highest ranking under Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), which had high marks with a score of 79. I have not flown on Southwest in several years, but they must be doing something right to be so far ahead of the rest of the pack.

What are your thoughts on this survey? Have your flown recently, and if so what was your overall impression with your trip? Let us hear which airlines you use, and how you rank them.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.