Airlines more generous with offering reward seats, says study

Frequent flyer miles are only worthwhile if passengers get a chance to use it. Earlier, there were few airlines that would offer customers reward seats. The situation has now changed after five years now and people can now fly with cheap airfares. Here’s good news for frequent flyers. A recent study has said that there are more airlines willing to offer reward seats to their customers.

According to the study, of the 25 airlines in the United States and other countries the average availability of reward seats is now 74 percent. This also meant that reward seats were available for booking with loyalty miles or points with nearly three-quarters of the airlines for total number of flights checked. The study said that the reward seats had significantly gone up from 66.1 percent in the past five years.

The study also said that global network airlines have also significantly improved their rankings for long-haul reward seat availability. The study further said that now there is no need for booking reward seats much in advance in North America.”The availability of close-in reward seats is firmly entrenched as reality,” the study indicated.

The study pointed out that airlines in North America such as American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and Air Canada have been making meaningful improvements with regard to offering more seats for scheduled departures only days or weeks away. During the course of the study it was found out that Southwest Airlines and Airberlin overall ranked highest, with reward seats available on both of them whenever required. Chicago-based United Airlines ranked best among the large U.S. carriers, with availability rate of 75 percent. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines ranked second and third, with 67.1 percent and 57.9 percent respectively.