I don't recall seeing this article in any earlier message thread, but if it was discussed, please pardon the new post. Either way, I found an Consumer Reports article on claiming awards on the major carriers. It's pretty interesting and can be found at http://www.consumerreports.org/Speci...9906flyer0.htm . I am wondering if anyone else has had a chance to look at it and what you thought.

Thank You!

There has been much discussion about that article in several threads, but your link to the article is great!

Now, the article answered several of my questions about the statistics. Most important, the total number of award seats and the percentages are in the top 500 city pairs for award travel only!

That may seem like a lot, but that definitely leaves a lot of room for errors, when you consider there are literally thousands and thousands of city pairs.

From the article:

<begin quote>

You could, indeed. Domestically, nearly half of all awards redeemed last year were for travel on 500 routes, as varied as New York-Los Angeles (#1) and Philadelphia-St. Louis (#500).

<end quote>

In other words, those stats represent less than half of all award travel. I would contend that it is certainly likely that some airlines awarded significantly more or less travel than others on the top 500 routes, skewing the numbers for or against them.

I just don't understand why they did only the top 500 cities, if the airlines gave them the top 500 cities, why not just get all cities ...

Yes, this is a really excellent article, particularly given our heated discussion in the Delta forum at the moment.

Thanks jeffreyt,

James

Okay, I'm digging deeper into the report ... maybe it's just me, and please feel free to tell me I'm nuts, but I am just NOT buying some of these numbers.

For instance, Boston to San Francisco. According to their data the following airlines awarded the following percentage of all seats flown to frequent travelers:

DL 33.6%
NW 31.8%
US 31.0%
CO 21.6%
AA 18.5%
UA 17.8%
TW 17.4%

All Airlines 19.2%

So, of all the trips taken (not seats to the city) 19.2% of them were on award ticket ... that's what they contend.

Now, let's take a look at their methodology ...

<begin quote>

Round-trip tickets showing prices of $0 to $25 each way were counted as frequent-flier awards, the same criterion DOT analysts use to identify award tickets. (Ticket taxes, passenger facilities charges in the U.S., and landing tariffs imposed by overseas airports can make a "free" ticket show as having a fare up to $25 each way.)

<end quote>

In fact these statistics are not "award tickets" but "free tickets"! Theoretically I suppose this should have an equal affect on all the airlines, but on the other hand some airlines might be more generous with free tickets. Bump tickets come immediately to mind ... some airlines give you a free ticket, while others only give you $'s off. Also, non-revs ... are these included in these figures ... I'm thinking yes in many cases.

Also note, that the percentages are % of award seats as a % of all trips flown, not seats available.

It is hard to know what to think about the specific numbers but the comparisons on a relative basis could prove to be somewhat useful.

Hi jeffreyt. Yes, I actually originally posted it as "Most Wanted Reward Seats...," under General Travel Talk, a little while ago, but as beckles said the link is very useful and your choice of location is quite good. In fact, I think I erred in not posting it here!

Just wanted to point out that there were two different articles and that both the one in this thread and in my earlier Gen Trav Talk thread are from the June CR TRAVEL LETTER, not the regular June Consumer Reports, which dealt with rating the airlines in general!

By the way, beckles, I too wonder about some of these matters you raise. It's a wild FF world!