Many frequent fliers well versed in the ways of find cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, and cheap vacation packages have become disgusted over time trying to redeem airline miles for free travel because so often there is no seat availability.
Finally there is some good news on this front. The overall average of first try redemption of frequent flier mileage rose five percentage points compared to last year to over 50 percent. The findings are based on an annual Switchfly reward seat availability survey.
The survey measured how often test bookings could be completed for two coach seats on at least one flight for specific dates at the lowest saver mileage aware requirement level on some of each airlines most popular routes. The searches were conducted in March for travel dates between June through October of 2012.
The following were some of the resulting:
United scored an outstanding 87 percent success rate, tops among North American based airlines. Air Canada came in at 77 percent, followed by Alaska at 59 percent, American at 46 percent, US Airways at 34 percent, and Delta at 27 percent. Most rates were up significantly over the prior years survey results.
Rates for North American discount airlines were ever higher: 87 percent for AirTran and 86 percent for JetBlue.
Most major international airlines scored very impressively, with GOL Brazil Airlines at 97 percent, Lufthansa at 92 percent, Singapore and Virgin Australia both at 90 percent and British Airways, LAN and Qantas at 79 percent. The only low scoring international airlines were Turkish at 39 percent and Emirates at 33 percent. International airlines tend to add significant fuel surcharges to what would otherwise be free tickets.
The survey found that most airlines offer more free seats closer to departure time, with one week availabilities significantly higher on American and US Airways, almost the same on United, and down only on Delta. www.cheapfares.com