Which Airline Rewards Programs Are the Most Rewarding?

The airlines' mileage schemes are routinely referred to as rewards programs. But how rewarding are they? And how do they compare, rewards-wise?

We know a lot about the airlines and the details of their business. How much revenue they generate, and how much they spend in the process. How many bags they mishandle. How many passengers they fly, and how many miles they fly them. The average cents per mile made on every ticket. The percentage of their seats sold and unsold.

What we don't know is how they deliver on the promise implicit in their mileage programs. What are the odds that an airline's frequent flyer program member will be successful in redeeming miles for an award flight?

Nobody knows.

It's not in the airlines' annual reports. And if you ask the airlines directly—as I have on many occasions—they will claim that they don't have the data.

There are around 100 million Americans who participate in one or more airline programs. All of them would like to know how their program performs, and how that compares with the performance of other programs.

Such transparency is at the very heart of what makes capitalism benefit consumers. Give us all the information we need to make informed buying decisions, and let companies compete for our business.

With frequent flyer programs, however, all consumers have to go on is their own experience, and whatever anecdotal evidence they can gather through water-cooler reports.

That's hardly a solid basis for choosing to focus one's mileage-earning in one program rather than another.

There is, however, a new study by ezRez Software and IdeaWorks that shines some light on the airlines' relative generosity in making seats available to award travelers.

Over a two-month period, the companies made 6,160 test bookings on the websites of 22 of the world's largest frequent flyer programs. Their success rates in booking award flights varied enormously, from a high of 99.3 percent to a low of 10.7 percent.

If it were widely known, such a pronounced disparity would clearly affect the value that consumers expect from participating in these programs, and should push travelers away from the underperforming programs and toward programs that offer a better return on their loyalty.

Following are the report's results for the nine largest North America programs, ranked from most generous—Southwest, which had award seats available for 99.3 percent of the award trips—to the least:

1. Southwest (99.3 percent)
2. Air Canada (93.6 percent)
3. Alaska (75.0 percent)
4. Continental (71.4 percent)
5. United (68.6 percent)
6. AirTran (67.9 percent)
7. American (57.9 percent)
8. Delta (12.9 percent)
9. US Airways (10.7 percent)

Is this the final word on award availability? Hardly. As such studies must be, this is just a sampling of routes, during one particular slice of time. Choose different routes, at different times, and the results might be different. The picture would also change if test bookings by phone were added to the online bookings. And important players like JetBlue, Spirit, and Virgin America weren't included.

But this is a down payment on the kind of information travel consumers need and deserve.

Long term, I've called for the government to require the airlines to collect and report data on their programs' award availability. That's the only way full transparency will be achieved.

Without it, airline passengers' loyalty is just a leap of faith.

Reader Reality Check

How do the report's findings compare to your own experience?

Should the government force the airlines to fully disclose the success rates of their program members in redeeming their miles for free flights?

What information would be helpful in assessing your mileage program's value?

Comments

[jmat]

UA Mileage Plus program - upgrades for international flights are easily achieved IF, and this is a BIG IF, If a frequent flyier is working 8 or more months in advance. Try 1 month in advance -- no way, especially to Asia! So 68% -- this is a very high number. I doubt it's veracity. My questions are: how many replied and to what part of the world and how soon in advance did they get seats. All these are variables that make quite a difference in obtaining upgrades and/or mileage seats. And I've been doing this for many years!

[Bruce Smith]

I can book a flight on Frontier and fly the next day. I have done this several times, they are the best in the sky.

[md]

I do very well getting seats on Delta but I also book many, many months ahead....as far as the 330 day window. I have even got up to 12 family members going with me. You just have to PLAN AHEAD.

[MD Mike]

Agree..I tried booking a hawaii trip on usairways and tried a several month window and could not secure a first class flight, although booking a non reward flights shows all seats available. That seems like 0% in my book. I have chairman status and can't make use of the miles.

[Dr Bob]

Full disclosure would certainly put an end to all the hyperbole that the airlines put out rearding their "rewards" program.

I have found Alaska and American to work well for us. Booking a Hawaii trip with Alaska miles on Delta recently was a really easy.

[SK]

I tend to agree with the findings - have no problem finding an award flight using my Alaska or Southwest miles, but somehow I have around 80,000 miles still lying around in my Delta account cause I can never find a flight whenever I have looked and the times I have found something, it comes at a much higher cost. Delta - are you listening?