Switchfly Reward Seat Availability Survey
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2011
Programs: I was loyal to One Pass & Star Alliance before FT ... now I value all miles and programs
Posts: 219
Switchfly Reward Seat Availability Survey
Has anyone ever heard of this survey or the consulting company, IdeaWorks? Here's their press release ...
http://www.ideaworkscompany.com/pres...ailability.pdf
First: Air Berlin / Southwest
Last: Delta
I thought this was a very interesting list. Apparently, the survey's in its 3rd year, though I don't recall ever reading about it.
http://www.ideaworkscompany.com/pres...ailability.pdf
First: Air Berlin / Southwest
Last: Delta
I thought this was a very interesting list. Apparently, the survey's in its 3rd year, though I don't recall ever reading about it.
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2011
Programs: I was loyal to One Pass & Star Alliance before FT ... now I value all miles and programs
Posts: 219
#4
Join Date: May 1999
Posts: 1,627
Pretty poor juornalism effort if you ask me. They imply that legacy award availability is based on saver awards by example, but don't explicitly state so. My assumption would be that similarly Southwest award availability is based on Wanna Get Away fares with points, but it's not clear at all.
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2001
Location: MSY; 2-time FT Fantasy Football Champ, now in recovery.
Programs: AA lifetime GLD; UA Silver; Marriott LTTE; IHG Plat,
Posts: 14,508
The View From the Wing blog posted some pretty strong criticism of their methodology. It's worth reading the whole post, but a couple of important points:
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfr...d-availability
- They searched airline websites only. So even though US Airways and United have access to the same award space, United offers online booking of many partners while US Airways does not. Thus United ranks much higher — even though miles in each airline’s programs can access the exact same saver award seats.
- They’re searching different routes for each airline but over the same dates, which ignores the effects of high and low seasons.