While several airlines, including United, Japan Airlines, and All Nippon Airways, offer direct flights between New York and Tokyo, Korean Air offers the most frequent
flyer award availability — useful for us, since we only had a little bit of schedule flexibility — and is a transfer partner of Chase, whose points we had already started to earn.
Not exact matches
You may be able to find
award availability for those airlines on the Flying Blue website (the KLM and Air France frequent
flyer program) or by calling Delta Reservations.
I'm a little concerned about
award availability this year given American's hub in Dallas and the likelihood that regular American
flyers from Dallas might be interested in using some miles to see the Cowboys play, so it's up to Jaguars fans to act quickly to take advantage of this deal.
So which airlines are the most or least generous when it comes to frequent
flyer award seat
availability?
The good news is, these
award flights remain relatively unknown to many
flyers, so
availability tends to be fairly good.
That means plenty of
award seat
availability in frequent
flyer programs.
You're tied to redeeming through one frequent
flyer program, and if there isn't any
award availability on the dates you want, or if the redemption rates are bad, there's nothing you can do about it.
Despite the dramatic devaluation in terms of earning and redeeming miles in 2014, United MileagePlus remains one of the most valuable U.S. frequent
flyer programs with the biggest number of airline partners and a generally good
award availability.
EXPERT
FLYER LOSES STAR ALLIANCE
AWARD DATA…ExpertFlyer.com, a popular tool used to research flight availability and search for award seat space, has lost the ability to access award space data to Star Alliance carr
AWARD DATA…ExpertFlyer.com, a popular tool used to research flight
availability and search for
award seat space, has lost the ability to access award space data to Star Alliance carr
award seat space, has lost the ability to access
award space data to Star Alliance carr
award space data to Star Alliance carriers.
It is known for its limited saver
award availability and an
award booking website that is not always accurate, so many frequent
flyers scorn the airline on principle.
If you have miles in a specific frequent
flyer program with plans to go to a specific destination, your dreams could be spoiled by a lack of
award availability or a devaluation.
Luckily, travelers with an All Nippon Airways frequent
flyer account can still log in to see complete Star Alliance
award availability and then phone United to make their reservations.
If you're looking to redeem frequent
flyer miles, there are several new routes to take note of for potential
award availability.
To check
award availability, I logged into Cathay Pacific's frequent
flyer programs website: AsiaMiles.com.
The latest evaluation of frequent
flyer programs comes from U.S. News & World Report, which studied the offerings of 10 leading U.S. airlines, looking at their «earning and redemption values, benefits, network coverage and
award flight
availability,» among other things.
In addition, you do not have to worry about
availability as you do when booking
award flights with frequent
flyer miles or hotels with loyalty points.
The problem Cathay Pacific is experiencing is high demand for its first class
award seats from those with AAdvantage miles, with these seats often booked soon after the
award calendar opens, leaving no
award availability for its own Asia Miles frequent
flyer members who may seek to book just a few months before the date of departure.
But in recent years, it dropped its frequent
flyer partnership with El Al, canceled its own flight to Tel Aviv from Philadelphia, and vastly curtailed
award availability to connecting points in Europe.
This week we already learned that the combined United - Continental frequent
flyer program will have expiring miles and that last seat
availability for standard (additional miles)
awards would be restricted to elites and credit card holders, plus that cardholders who are elites would be eligible for complimentary upgrades on domestic coach
awards.
Delta is actually the best for booking Australia business class
awards, one of the toughest frequent
flyer awards out there, because of their partnership with Virgin Australia (which has the best
availability non-stop between the U.S. and Australia, especially on their Los Angeles — Brisbane flight).
The common mistake that many people make is that if they have a frequent
flyer program with a particular airline, they will simply go to the airline website and search for an
award availability.
Partner
award seat
availability may be different for Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan members than for members of the partner's own loyalty / frequent
flyer program.