Comparsion of FF reward tickets availability
 

IdeaWorks made 6,160 booking queries at the websites of 22 frequent flier programs during February and March 2010. Travel dates spanned June through October 2010; 10 long-haul routes and 10 city pairs under 2,500 miles were checked to assess reward seat availability.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/122818/ff-comparsion.jpg

Pretty big different. I like the fact that you can use an award ticket for an emergency case. Like, if you really have to fly somewhere the next day without having paying too much. Availability is pretty important and that some airlines get this low procentage a few months in advance is a bit remarkable.

However, since for example Airberlin doesn't have long-haul flights every day, this stats are a bit misleading.

No surprise Delta is next to last. :rolleyes:

I thought this topic had been covered about a month ago....

In several forums, under each airline with different degrees of outrage.
Any body who thinks SWA is the best way to go for reward travel needs to have their head examined.
One has to read the different systems and maximize your benefit.

US is the worst - I have redeemed >3M miles on US on partners and US.
DL is next worst - 2.3M miles and a 99$ EF subscription says no to that as well.
Give me a cancelable award on AF with DL miles any day over a free ticket on SWA.
DL is frustrating all right, but to give 96% and 12% rates, with no mention of FC benefits, partner awards, upgrades, shop with miles, rental car deals...

+1

As a Diamond Medallion, which was obtained easily through a combination of business credit card spending and paid travel, my Delta Skymiles aren't as widely redeemable as some other airlines, but the complete picture of cost vs benefit is far better than elsewhere. I obtain the miles very easily, leveraged heavily through promotions, and I have better award availability because of status and know-how plus flexibility in redeeming. As a result, I get dozens of award tickets annually for myself, family, friends, and employees, and I can cancel/change at will. When I fly, I get lots of perks, club access, etc. Again, most of this is tied to my status, but you can't just list award redemption success rates and ignore which programs provide the opportunity for status, how hard it is to obtain, what it entails, the scope of the airline's network, and so on.

The topic is about FF reward ticket availability, not about FF benefit. As far as ticket availability is concerned, I tend to agree with the survey.

DL SM blows big time. Everybody knows it now.

DL has a great marketing slogan that fits perfectly

SM is :-: best in class :-:

Benefits tied to awards and award availability are inherently linked. Comparing availability or benefits exclusively will lead to a false perception of value. For example, if an airline had 100% availability but they served only five airports and offered only cramped coach service with no perks, most would consider this vastly inferior to 75% availability over a wide network that includes many perks and quality service.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that DL is widely recognized as having the worst award availability in the US, especially at the 25,000 mile domestic coach roundtrip award ticket level which is the most popular redeemed award ticket in the US.

US is undoubtedly the worst as I haven't seen a 25k award available for any tries of mine in the past 2 to 3 years. But Delta is certainly just about as bad since they changed to the 3 level system.

WN doesn't promise a choice between the Dom and the Krug, but what they do promise, they deliver. Never had a problem finding a way to use a RR (and I've used them for places like LAS, MCO, BDL, DAL). While I don't fly a lot of WN, they do have some nice car rental/hotel promos that add value to RR and my ability to travel. The bottom line is I don't mind flying Y on WN, and if someone wants to hand me ~$300 in free coach tickets every so often, sure.

On the other hand, I can see into both DL and AA saver inventory on AS. My experience agrees with that survey: AA kicks DL's butt when it comes to overseas awards on their own metal flying to places they have in common (LHR, CDG, FRA, NRT). My experience redeeming US miles to fly US (yes, I know: this was before US started the share miles promos, so I thought I had ~25K orphaned miles from my HP days, instead of realizing what this was worth once I swapped between some accounts) was similar- it took AGES until I could use them.

It seems to be true that that survey isn't considering partner awards and elite benefits, which probably affects DL and US's value- but that's fairly advanced sort of stuff.

US is bad in terms of redemptions on its own metal, but for the overwhelming majority of US customers there are UA, CO and even AC redemption options for coach awards using US 25k miles.

The overwhelming majority of DL customers have no such partner outlet at 25k miles. :( AS doesn't have the footprint of significance for DL customers that UA and CO have for US customers.

Is there an equivalent of this survey for business/first class award tickets?

Or a general rule-of-thumb for higher-than-coach-class award availability
for popular routes and seasons?

I would be interested in such a survey too. On airlines like LH and BA, which charge exorbitant fees for award tickets, economy class awards are essentially worthless. On such airlines, only premium cabin award availability matters.