Here's how the airlines fared in low -
level award seat availability (which is 12,500 miles each way):
Not exact matches
Delta hasn't shown us their new
award chart yet, so this could all be a trap, with greater
seat availability offset by even higher
award redemption
levels.
However, the big drawback is that they often restrict
availability of
award seats, or at least charge a lot more miles than the minimum
levels.
These are the high -
level awards that offer no change fees, access to preferred
seating, and last
seat availability.
So the results of a recent study by consulting firm IdeaWorks, which ranks airlines by
award availability should come as no surprise — it shows that Delta ranked last (23rd out of 23) with the fewest low -
level award seats available based on the nearly 7,000 queries it conducted.
Reduced the
availability of premium SAAver
Award availability on its own aircraft to levels where most travelers are having trouble finding a single award seat on routes they tr
Award availability on its own aircraft to
levels where most travelers are having trouble finding a single
award seat on routes they tr
award seat on routes they travel.
Paying with cash, therefore, has to be compared not just to capacity - controlled low -
level seats, but also to more expensive last -
seat -
availability awards.
And Korean Air has access to Air France
award seats on the same
level as other partners, without blocking, which in my experience means better
availability than you can get using Delta SkyMiles.
High
level airline elite status comes with many valuable perks such as free domestic first class upgrades (when available), elite security lines, waived fees (such as free checked bags, and free changes to
award bookings), improved
availability of
award seats, and more.
Availability is unfortunately always going to be an issue with
award seats — that's the constraint in the system I try to preach flexibility above all else, so you usually can come by the Saver
Level seats needed to book the 35k Singapore miles on United flights.
But because some of its
award seat prices exceeded the saver -
level award price, the airline's
availability rating was listed at 87.1 %, not 100 %.
You may find that providing information about an alternate routing can enable the agent to view the
seat availability and book a ticket at the standard
award level.
The site assigned various weights to all the categories of perks that come with elite status
levels, ranging from 25 percent for in - flight perks like upgrades, preferred
seats and free amenities to 5 percent for special reservations treatment (priority phone line and enhanced
award availability).
If you use United MileagePlus as your primary airline rewards program, it can even be worth signing up for one of their co-branded credit cards just for access to last -
seat «Standard» -
level award availability, even if you never spend a dollar on the card, since access to those Standard
awards can increase the value of Ultimate Rewards points transferred in from Chase.