A study testing the availability of free seats showed that Southwest Airlines Co. could fulfill 99.3% of requests for award seats requiring standard mileage levels, and Alaska Air Group Inc.'s Alaska Airlines offered choices on 75% of requests. US Airways Group Inc. could fulfil just 10.7%. Delta Air Lines Inc. was among the stingiest, too, with awards requiring the lowest mileage available for only 12.9% of requests made by IdeaWorks Co., a consulting firm.
Ideaworks, "who specializes in loyalty program, marketing and revenue-boosting strategies for airlines", made 280 seat requests from each of over 20 airlines, in February and March, for a mix of long and short haul journeys in the period June through October.
The results (for seats available at the lowest/standard award redemption rate) were as follows:
1. Southwest (99%)
2. Air Berlin (99%)
3. Air Canada (94%)
4. Virgin Blue (90%)
5. Lufthansa (86%)
6. Singapore Airlines (77%)
7. Iberia (76%)
8. Alaska Airlines (75%) 116 billion miles outstanding as of 31.12.09
9. Jet Airways (73%)
10. Qantas (73%)
11. Continental (71%)
12. United (69%) 457.6 bn miles outstanding as of 31.12.09
13. AirTran (68%)
14. Cathay Pacific (67%)
15. British Airways (65%)
16. SAS (64%)
17. American Airlines (58%)
18. Air France/KLM (56%)
19. Emirates (36%)
20. Delta (13%)
21. US Airways (11%) 129.1 bn miles outstanding as of 31.12.09
