Best Airlines for Redeeming Miles

By Scott McCartney | The Wall Street Journal – Fri, May 18, 2012 3:16 PM EDT

Ready to redeem your frequent-flier miles and reward points for a plane ticket? You'll probably get a seat on Southwest, but good luck with Delta, at least at the basic redemption level.

Southwest Airlines has the best availability of award seats among U.S. airlines on travel dates this year between April and October, according to an annual survey by IdeaWorks Co., a travel consultancy that made 6,680 queries on 23 airline websites testing availability. The worst among U.S. airlines: Delta Air Lines and US Airways. Those two had no seats available at the lowest mileage level on about two out of every three inquires, or worse.

Availability increased this year at British Airways and United Airlines, along with JetBlue Airways, Southwest and its AirTran Airways unit. And it is tougher this year to get standard-level award tickets at American Airlines, which is undergoing bankruptcy reorganization.

The survey also signals an emerging industry trend: Airline points are more rewarding than airline miles.



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