Why and where was this post moved? It was relevant to NW and NW travel,
it did not engage in flaming and there were no complaints? It also had 14 responses and over 100 views.



Test shows frequent-flier seats not hard to come by.

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From USA TODAY:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/biztr...01-awards_x.htm

Overall, Delta's SkyMiles frequent-flier program was the top performer, rendering free seats on the desired route and day 85% of the time. American's AAdvantage program placed second at 80%, followed by United's Mileage Plus at 79%, US Airways' Dividend Miles at 67%, Northwest's WorldPerks at 62%, and Continental's OnePass at 54%.

American led in providing free business class seats on requested routes and days by doing so 92% of the time.

But Bowman says that in a few cases, frequent fliers' complaints seem warranted. He singled out Northwest's poor performance in business-class award seats.

Northwest spokeswoman Mary Stanik says the percentage of miles flown for free by WorldPerks members has risen from 6.1% in 1999 to 7.5% in 2003, and that Northwest is upfront about award seat availability.

"We have tried to establish realistic expectations," she says.

Interesting.....



This was the last post, did that have anything to do with it’s subsequent removal?

Quote:
Originally Posted by RadiocycleThere is one measurement that the survey may have missed.Worldperks, and probably most (if not all) loyalty programs offer greater award seat availability to thier Elites than to base members that don't fly much.If all airline loyalty programs were sampled by top tier elite pax looking for award seat availability it is possible that NW would be at the top of the list.This survey didn't attempt to sample availability by base member and then by top elite member to establish the variances.I would say the research is incomplete and needs to be conducted again.RC

That may be a good point. However, if they looked at the variances that Elites receive for the Airlines across the board it may have been a wash if all scenarios were equal?

I also feel that even NW understands their low position in this survey due to Northwest spokeswoman Mary Stanik quote; "The percentage of miles flown for free by WorldPerks members has risen from 6.1% in 1999 to 7.5% in 2003, and that Northwest is upfront about award seat availability.
"We have tried to establish realistic expectations," she says.

Personally, I do not think I would be as proud of of a 1.4% increase over a 4 year period.