Award availability comparisons?
 

With the capability to check domestic award availability on-line for AA, UA, AS, NW, and DL, it would appear that it is now possible to perform some direct comparisons on how award availabilty varies by program. This could be done by route, number of award seats, time of year, days in advance of travel date, etc.

I was wondering if there are any thoughts in the FlyerTalk community as to what a fair basis for comparison across airline programs would look like. For example, AA may fly a number of direct flights each day (as well as some connecting flights) from JFK-SFO, whereas someone like NW may have limited and only connecting service on the same route. Would one expect that NW should provide the same number of award seats on any given day on that route as AA? Would total number of award seats per scheduled flight on that route be a more applicable measure? Or perhaps total number of award seats available that day as a percentage of total seats flown that day on that route (to adjust for plane capacity)? Thoughts?

First of all, I think you have to define what you mean by "availablity."

Current availablity?

Maybe United has awarded a much higher percent of seats to Hawaii, but just because they have already been snagged and American still might have some, would not indicate anything valuable as far as overall statistics.

I don't think you can shop the current markets for any statistical indication of avaliblity (except maybe current availablity at a fixed point in time), and just what those numbers might mean.

Today's current stats could be invalidated the very next day by a revenue management adjustment in either direction (adding or subtracting inventory).

So, IMHO, I don't think any info we could gleen out of the airline's systems today, would mean a darn thing.

And BTW, most airlines have Standard Awards that are available on any flight that has seats available for sale. But I assume you are talking about the lower point requirement Capacity Controlled/Sale/Off-Peak or whatever a particular airline calls it's low point requirement awards?

Full Disclosure: I'd like to see a monthly chart of seats flown between each direct (non-stop) city-pair. How many of those seats were used by 'regular priced' frequent flyers. I'm not sure it's possible to show all connection possibilities.

Then I can see if it's worth trying to stay on one airline to earn miles.

I've done numerous tests of award seat availability on NW and posted it on the "comparisons" section of my web site.

Bob

www.InternetTravelTips.com

Since its after the fact info that is being requested for full disclosure, I can't figure out any airline objection...unless they have something to hide. Sigh.

PremEx, a few comments on your post:

1. Yes, I am referring to the lower mile, saver, capacity-controlled awards.

2. No, not necessarily current availability. I was thinking about availability in general.

You are correct that award availability changes day to day. My thoughts were along the lines of a "little" project conducted over a period of time, preferrably up to a year in duration. Each day assessing award availability on select, key routes to determine which airline programs have award seats available and how many. Contrary to your assertion that any information from the on-line systems wouldn't mean a thing, I believe a project of this type would have enormous value. It would go a long way towards supporting/refuting claims made by various people and the airlines themselves about award seat availability. My guess is it would also shed light on when certain airlines make additional seats available and how far in advance you need to book certain routes to ensure award seating. rcowen's site and the study performed on NW award seat availability is right in line with what I am thinking.

The purpose of my post is to look for suggestions on how best to approach such a study in order to maximize value and limit time investment. Then perhaps we can enlist support to carry out something like this.

I would love to have this information generally so I could plan my activity. In my market, I really only have a choice of 1 airline so I cant feasibly switch.

Still, I would like to know how many seats are ever available. Take ATL-SFO. Are there 2 seats max for award travel? Are there zero seats perhaps at peak business times, and more seats in the afternoon?

They way the airlines play the game you are really buying a pig in a poke.

re: after the fact "full disclosure"

No industry should be forced to show their cards & let the competition know what seats are available. However, how about telling us after the fact so we can decide what their pattern is? Then we can decide. Some creative person would make a nice chart for us to see direct & connecting flights.

While we're asking for the moon, how about being able to set-up a fare tracker/watcher to watch for FF seat availability?

Bob

www.InternetTravelTips.com

I'll be glad to furnish my experiences. Where? How? Plase advise.

Some airlines do release some limited data annually.

Here's some limited United data for the operating year 2000:

PremEx-

Thanks for doing the legwork.

However, the percentages and raw numbers don't reveal enough info.

UA could be offering 100% of the seats for award travel between low demand Cleveland-Green Bay and .05% between Chicago-Hong Kong, but from a RAW statisics standpoint, UA looks to be pretty generous. But when broken out on a route basis, UA could be stingy on huigh demand routs that really matter to us (and that they TOUT in their literature trying to get people to join MP).

From the OnePass website:
There is no breakdown of travel/upgrade rewards.