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The Best Airlines for Scoring Award Seats

Diane Alter

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July 14, 2020

When you want a good seat at a restaurant, schmooze with the maître d’. When you want a great seat at a concert, it helps to know the performer. When you want a seat on a plane, however, no amount of schmoozing or name dropping works. Moreover, no amount of points or miles can get you on a flight without available award seats.

IdeaWorks’ recently released 6th annual survey of award availability revealed that Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways offered abundant award seats compared to rivals. Southwest Airlines had seats available on 100 percent of the survey’s searches, making it the number one domestic airline. JetBlue Airways, meanwhile, had availability on 87 percent of the survey’s requests.

IdeaWorks, a consulting firm in its 20th year, based the survey results on over 7,000 booking queries on 25 airline frequent flyer program websites. The survey reflects the availability of saver-style awards if the airline offers them.

The top five spots for overall award seat availability went to: airberlin and Southwest with 100 percent; Virgin Australia with 96.4 percent; Air Canada with 90.7 percent; Singapore with 90 percent; and JetBlue and Lufthansa tied for fifth place with 87.1 percent.

Southwest and JetBlue also stand out among other airlines in that their award ticket prices are based on the current cash value of the seats. Dallas-headquartered Southwest and New York-based JetBlue use points as their program currency instead of miles. Frequent customers earn points which translate into some type of award, such as a discount, freebie, special customer treatment or an award seat.

The table summarizes the overall reward availability results of the 2015 survey — Award availability rankings for 2015

The higher the seat’s price tag, the more points needed to snag it. What that means is that there’s no capacity control or limits on those airlines. If a traveler is short points for a certain flight, chances are a seat will be found within their point balance on another flight. Airlines using mileage-based programs, on the other hand, limit award seat available and often only offer them at a fixed price: i.e., 25,000 miles for a domestic trip.

Southwest’s average price was 9,457 points per round-trip award ticket. The average for JetBlue was 18,003 points. For Delta, American and United, the number was 23,214 miles, 26,607 miles and 27,393 miles, respectively.
Southwest switched to an awards program based on cash ticket prices in 2011, and customers liked the change. The number of people enrolled in Southwest’s Rapid Rewards program has swelled 65 percent since the shift.

Average reward prices chart — Average prices for award flights under 2,500 miles

United and Delta are also making the shift from purely distance-based programs by basing the miles earned on flights on how much the tickets cost. The move has benefited customers paying higher fares, leaving cost-conscious travelers racking up much fewer miles for their trips. Additionally, award seat availability is still very closely controlled on both airlines.

When looking at the big U.S. airlines, United had the best availability among the three. United had saver seats open 75 percent of the time. American was next with 67.1 percent, followed by Delta with 57.9 percent.

When looking into long-haul flights of 2,500 miles or longer, the number of available award seats greatly diminished. Here again, United came out on top with seats on 67.1 percent of IdeaWork’s long-haul reservation requests. American again scored second, but availability fell to 55.7 percent. Delta didn’t fare so well in this category, scoring near the bottom of the 25 airlines surveyed with seats available only 31.4 percent of the time. The sole airline rating lower in long-haul availability was Scandinavian.

The top five airlines for long-haul availability were: Air Canada with 90 percent; Singapore with 84.3 percent; China Southern with 81.4 percent; Lufthansa with 74.3 percent; and Emirates with 68.6 percent.

Travelers can take comfort in the fact that award availability at the saver level is increasing. Seats were available on 74 percent of all 2015 queries. That’s up from 66 percent five year ago, according IdeaWorks.

Editorial Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.

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Oneworld and Other Best Business Class Redemptions to the Middle East and India

Andy Shuman

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July 7, 2020

American Airlines business class level between the U.S. and the Middle East/India has only increased by 2,500 miles, but the first class rate, which wasn’t cheap to begin with, is now a whopping 25,000 miles more. It’s hard to recommend spending 230,000 miles just to get pampered, especially since all airlines flying to India and the Middle East offer lie-flat seats in a business class cabin.

The business and first class awards from the U.S. to the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent cost:

Oneworld Awards	Business	First
Middle East and Indian Subcontinent: Old Rates	67,500	90,000
Middle East and Indian Subcontinent: New Rates	70,000	115,000

There are three American Airlines partners that can take you to the Middle East or the Indian subcontinent on AAdvantage miles: Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, and Royal Jordanian. Only Royal Jordanian can be searched on the American Airline website.

Qatar Airways

Since Qatar is a oneworld member, you can search for availability on either the British Airways or Qantas websites. We prefer the British Airways site since it’s not as prone to errors as Qantas. It’s quite straightforward, although you have to have an account with British Airways. If you can’t find a flight to your final destination, search segment by segment. For example, if you try to search a flight from New York to Delhi, the British Airways search engine will keep pushing connections with British Airways.

However, if you search flights between New York and Doha and between Doha and Delhi separately, you will find the flights you’re looking for.

Qatar flies between Doha and the following U.S. cities: Atlanta (from June 1), Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York (JFK), Philadelphia, and Washington (Dulles). Qatar flies mostly A350s in two-class configuration (economy and business), and its business class is fantastic: semi-enclosed pods, fully lie-flat beds with aisle access and excellent food and service. And availability is quite good if you look far in advance.

Royal Jordanian

Royal Jordanian flies between Amman and the following U.S. cities: Chicago, Detroit, and New York (JFK). Its aircraft of choice is the Dreamliner with 24 lie-flat beds in the 2x2x2 configuration, which is not as comfortable as what you would have on Qatar, since you will be forced to climb over your seatmate if you’re in a window seat. You may search for the flights on AA.com, and availability is pretty decent.

Etihad Airways

If you are looking for an excuse to spend 115,000 AAdvantage miles on a 12-15 hour flight, this is it. The new Etihad Airways First Apartment on the upper deck of an A380 is an amazing product that will blow you away. It has a chair and a separate bed. There is an in-flight chef and onboard shower. And it is probably the only first class suite in the sky aside from the other Etihad product – the Residence – that’s not only big enough to walk in but also do some exercise.

If the above sounds like an informercial, there is no harm done. Getting this seat on a Saver award from the U.S. is almost impossible. However, you can get it on the way back to the U.S. if you are planning way ahead.

Etihad Airways is a UAE carrier based in Abu Dhabi, from where it flies to Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York (JFK), San Francisco, and Washington, although New York – Abu Dhabi is the only route featuring the A380 First Apartment.

Etihad Airways is not a oneworld member, and you can’t search for availability on the American Airlines website, but looking for Etihad’s award space is very easy.

Navigate to Etihad.com and click Etihad Guest in the top menu.

Find Book your next reward flight and click Book now.

Enter your search parameters. Unless you’re leaving in the next few days, the outbound flight availability from New York in any premium class is usually abysmal. Instead, find your outbound flight with another carrier (or from another U.S. city) and search for the inbound New York availability, where you stand a much better chance of getting what you want.

The Etihad search engine is user-friendly, and it’s very easy to use. You can see the calendar one week at a time, and the mileage cost at the top of the table hints whether or not you have Saver, or as Etihad calls it, “Guest” award level availability during that week. A flight between NYC and Abu Dhabi, for example, should be around 117,000 miles and between NYC and India around 147,000 miles. If you don’t see similar levels during the week in question, just move to the next week.

Of course, in reality, these levels mean nothing to you, because you will book with American and not Etihad.

In our screenshot here, every day of the week has availability, so pick the date you need and note the flight number. Make sure your flight is on an A380.

If you want to travel to India or other Indian subcontinent countries rather than the Middle East, you’re in luck, since American Airlines charges the same, be it India or Middle East. Try to search your Abu Dhabi – New York flight first, and then the connecting flight from your city.

Etihad flies between Abu Dhabi and the following Middle East and Indian subcontinent cities: Bangalore, Chennai, Colombo, Dhaka, Islamabad, Jaipur, Karachi, Kathmandu, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lahore, Malé, Mumbai, Peshawar, and Thiruvananthapuram.

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