Frequent fliers who are determined to find cheap traveloptions such as cheapairplane tickets, discounttravel deals, and cheap vacation packages oftendo their best to amass the greatest possible number of airline miles for futurefree travel only to be frustrated when trying to redeem those miles later forairline tickets.
The good news is that the worlds biggest airlines haveincreased the percent of flights with seats available for reward travel,according to the Switchfly Reward Seat Availability Survey.
In its most recent annual survey 74 percent of flightschecked had seats available for reward reservations compared to only 66 percentoverall reward availability in 2010.
The current 74 percent figure is the highest level ofreward seat availability recorded in the six years the survey has beenconducted.
Three factors appear to be contributing to the increase inreward seats:
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First,competition from credit cards that offer reward travel without blackout datesmay be pushing airlines to increase reward seat availability so that airlinefrequent flier programs appear more attractive.
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Second,since new accounting rules state that airlines can recognize some of theirreward program revenue only after the reward travel has actually been takenairlines are being encouraged to redeem frequent flier miles so that airlinescan receive credit for more of their reward program revenue.
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Third,experts believe airlines may eventually want to spin-off their frequent flierprograms. In that event, investors willwant to review how attractive frequent flier programs are for members.
Airlineswith the maximum number of flights with reward seats in the most recent surveyincluded the German discount carrier Air Berlin, Virgin Australia, Air Canada,and Singapore.
Thethree biggest U.S. airlines (American, Delta, and United) each increased theirreward seat availability over the past year by 12 percent, 4 percent, and 3percent respectively.
Theairline showing the largest increased in open reward seats compared with theprior year was Alaska Airlines, with 80 percent of its flights having seatsavailable for reservations made via the companys Mileage Plan program. Last year less than 60 percent of its flightsshowed reward seat availability.
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