How Often are Reward Seats Available from Frequent Flier Programs?
Many people are completely soured on frequent flier programs. They just don’t believe they’ll ever get any value. And in some cases they’re absolutely correct. In a recent study done by IdeaWorks, they found a huge disparity amongst the airlines in terms of how often they had seats available for frequent flier reimbursements. You have all those points – thousands and thousands of points – collected over years … and when you want to turn them in for a “free” plane ride, will you be able to?
If you’re flying with Southwest Airlines, your chances are extremely good. The study found that Southwest had reward seats available 99.3% of the time. Air Berlin ranked 2nd best with 98.6% availability. After Air Canada, Virgin Blue and Lufthansa, the likelihood of getting a reward seat starts to drop significantly. Delta Air Lines and US Airways were only able to provide reward seats 12.9% and 10.7% of the time.
