July 17, 2005
New Tools Ease the Task of Using Your Miles
By SUSAN STELLIN
USING frequent-flier miles to book an award ticket can be such a frustrating experience that it has even inspired an ad campaign featuring a sarcastic agent who relishes telling customers, "No can do," when they call to book an award.

Trying to book frequent-flier seats using the online tools the airlines first introduced wasn't much easier than trying to book on the phone. The typical response was similarly negative: "There are no award seats available for the dates you entered." But in the past year, a few airlines have made their Web sites a lot more helpful. Instead of just saying no, some carriers now tell you when you can actually find a flight using award miles.

Northwest is the most recent airline to give its frequent-flier tools a makeover, displaying a color-coded calendar indicating which dates during the month you selected have seats on the route you want at different award levels. (Like most carriers, Northwest has a two-tiered system, with a limited number of seats designated for "standard" awards - which require 25,000 miles for a domestic ticket - and more seats available if you use twice as many miles.)

One quirk with Northwest's new tools is that you have to be logged in with your frequent-flier number to use the souped-up features, though if you don't have your number handy you can still search for award flights, but won't see the results on the calendar. Additional options allow you to include alternative airports in your search or look for weekend flight combinations on a particular route.

Another feature, flexible search, lets you search award seats from one to three days before or after the dates you entered - but if you choose this option, you don't get the monthlong calendar with your results. If your plans are really flexible, you can even search for awards to any destination that meets your vacation criteria, like Golf, Beach/Sun or Ski/Snowboard.

Although Northwest now offers the most features to help its frequent fliers use their miles, it isn't the only airline to upgrade its tools.

Continental introduced its own online calendar last fall, and this spring added the ability to book award flights on one of its partners - Northwest - with plans to add other partners down the road.

Searching for flights on a partner carrier is a good way to broaden your options when award seats are scarce, but you usually have to call the airline you've accrued miles with to check availability on its domestic or international partners.

US Airways also offers a calendar to help passengers book awards, though its tool works a bit differently from the other two. After you enter your destination, departure airport and the month you want to travel, a color-coded calendar is displayed to show which days have different types of award seats available. Once you pick a departure date, you go through the same process for your return flight, then get a list of all the available award flights on the dates you chose.

AMERICAN also offers its frequent fliers an award calendar, but it's more of a general guide than a tool to check real-time flight availability. If you go to aa.com/hotspots, you can download a five-month calendar that shows which dates have the best award availability, when there is a good chance of finding a seat, and when there are limited or no award seats left; the catch is, the calendar only displays this information for popular routes, and you still have to enter your search using a separate tool in order to see which flights, if any, are actually available.

AMERICAN does, however, let you search for award flights up to four days beyond the date you select - a recent addition - and it plans further enhancements over the next few months.

Delta takes a similar approach with its chart showing which routes have some award seats available in coming months (the list is organized by state), but again, it's just a general guide, so it's not nearly as helpful as a calendar that tracks award availability in real time.

United is the laggard of the old guard, still making its Mileage Plus members search each date separately when trying to book a frequent-flier ticket online, though JetBlue's TrueBlue members have to call to book awards. Southwest does let its Rapid Rewards members book award tickets online, and unlike the other airlines, it doesn't limit award seats, so using a free ticket isn't usually a challenge (though there are blackout dates, when you can't use awards).

Randy Petersen, editor of Inside Flyer, a magazine and Web site about frequent-flier programs, said despite recent improvements, the industry still has a way to go to make their online award booking tools really useful.

"The good thing is, they're starting to move to a graphic calendar interface instead of, submit a date and find out if it's yes or no," Mr. Petersen said. "But I'd say we're still a year or a year and a half away from seeing version 2.0 of online redemption. The money is not being spent to take it to the next generation."

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company