USAirways may be #1 on time, but they are last in award availbility...

[PHL]

Iberia placed #1 with an 83% success rate booking TA online award bookings. AA is the top US airline with 58% success. USAirways falls at the bottom well below CO, UA and DL at a meager 4%.

http://www.ideaworkscompany.com/press/2009...ewardReport.pdf

 

[az_wild727]

Iberia placed #1 with an 83% success rate booking TA online award bookings. AA is the top US airline with 58% success. USAirways falls at the bottom well below CO, UA and DL at a meager 4%.

http://www.ideaworkscompany.com/press/2009...ewardReport.pdf

Actually, I find US, NW and AA to have the highest sucess for using miles. CO and UA are the very bottom. UA has StarNet filtering which makes Star Alliance redemptions hell. Furthemore, their silly rule when redeeming miles for premium classes to Asia, you are only allowed to fly in Business/First across the Pacific leg to the partner hub. Then you must take Coach to your final destination even if J/F is available to other airlines. Ridiculous! There's also the fact that on certain routes, UA doesn't let you redeem your miles on a partner carrier if they fly the route themselves (LAX-LHR is an example of this, no redemptions on NZ flts for UA members.)

US is by far the most tolerant when it comes to using miles. Much better availability than UA and AC and also requires less miles then UA and LH on the same routes. One example:

This summer I'm doing a LAX to MRU (Mauritius, Mauritius- Africa) trip using miles in First. US will do any routing that is available at your choice (like a proper airline does) so I'm flying LAX-FRA-MUC-ZRH-JNB-MRU-JNB-FRA-ZRH-JFK-LAX on Lufthansa, Swiss, South African Airways and United in a mixture of First/Business. The award cost me 150,000 US miles.

If I wanted to do the same thing with UA miles, I couldn't. UA has ridiculous rules about so many miles you can fly to your destination. That means the whole connection via Europe is out. UA would force me to fly to JFK or IAD and fly SA directly to to JNB and on to MRU. Even on the days that LH/LX was available via Europe, but SA wasn't available, they would say, sorry nothing available on SA! When I pointed out that there was availability via Europe on LH/LX United would say that they need me to fly directly and it's not available directly so it's not available at all! They "need" me to fly? What kind of response is that. Obviously not a real airline FFP response!

One last thing to add: even if I was able to book the award to MRU, UA would charge me 160K miles which is more than US and from what I read online, UA is thinking of increasing its award levels yet again!


What else I wanted to say? People who complain about the minimum US Airways $1400 coach fare requirement for upgrading to Envoy are not thinking clearly. Not only is this the most customer friendly INTL travel upgrade policy of ALL the carriers our there, but it's quite a steal in the summertime. The fact that the the fare req of $1400+ includes taxes and is not just based on US segments is fantastic. Many summer fares to Europe to smaller cities w/ less flts easily reach and pass that amount. US doesn't care what airlines are included in the mix or the final destination so I could be flying to Asia or the Middle East and I still get the upgrade on the US flts, because my fares was $1400+.

Compare that to DL, CO or UA that require you to purchase most expensive Economy fares so you can upgrade.

I would not read that report even if I was stuck sitting in a penalty box for 9 hours, let alone pay $2500 CA$H! HA!

-Kinglobjaw

 

[PHL]

Actually, I find US, NW and AA to have the highest sucess for using miles. CO and UA are the very bottom. UA has StarNet filtering which makes Star Alliance redemptions hell. ...

The fact that the the fare req of $1400+ includes taxes and is not just based on US segments is fantastic. Many summer fares to Europe to smaller cities w/ less flts easily reach and pass that amount. US doesn't care what airlines are included in the mix or the final destination so I could be flying to Asia or the Middle East and I still get the upgrade on the US flts, because my fares was $1400+.

Compare that to DL, CO or UA that require you to purchase most expensive Economy fares so you can upgrade.

King, your experience are purely anecdotal. But you get an A for effort and are probably the admiration of your college classmates (you are in college now, aren't you?) for taking such exotic trips.

Look, you certainly didn't book that lengthy itinerary with a few mouse clicks on usairways.com. What you, like any savvy traveler on FT or USAviation did, was probably use the *A booking tool on ANA to seek out your flights. It's a great tool, but too bad USAirways.com has nothing remotely like it (nor does UA or any of the *A carriers for that matter).

So, tell us King - what routes on your itinerary were booked on USAirways metal as saver award seats (coach or biz)?? And please tell me when I can snag the next coach award seat (at the basic/saver level) is available from PHL to any European destination for 2 people between now and the end of October. Then go to aa.com and search for European routes they fly from ORD, DFW and JFK to random destinations flown on AA metal. As a total percentage of flights (since AA operates many, many more than US), you'll find they still beat US in that regard. I know from my own experiences recently, and that's why I'm flying them across the Atlantic in Biz on the 767-300 over and 777-200 back. It would have been nice to leave right out of PHL instead of connecting over in ORD, but that will just give me more time to enjoy their premium class service.

As for upgrades on the other airlines, you are incorrect that only high coach fares must be purchased to use miles to upgrade. I'm not going to go to each airlines' web site and pull in their upgrade charts, but they are all more flexible than US. I think the customers on this airline would probably accept mileage upgrades with a co-pay now, though, as that seems to have become the nickel and diming strategy. But instead they make a blanket requirement that the RT cost at least $1400 and then bilk you for 30,000 miles each way.

The above linked survey certainly isn't scientific, but it set up some good parameters by which to measure the airlines' flexibility in booking award seats like searching out of the respective hub cities with the most available seats per airline, etc. And, based on what I've read on FT from US customers trying to redeem decent intl. award tickets, I'm not surprised by the ranking.

 

[dash8roa]

I find aa almost all the times are able to meet my dates for award tickets.Ua and us are just the opposite.Just my results over the past few years.

 

[az_wild727]

Couples of things I wanted to add:

-The report has to do with availability and not the easy of finding awards. How someone finds them is entirely up to themselves. True, it would be nice to plug in the cities and browse through the flights, but I find the challenge enticing given the free tickets.

-The ANA tool is like no other, I agree, but Air Canada has a similar tool if you sign up for AEROPLAN (Air Canada's FFP). ExpertFlyer also has certain carriers you can browse for awards online. Also, US Airways has repeatedly stated that the new USAirways.com will have functionality to browse and book partner mileage awards online which sounds very cool!

-I've been away from FlyerTalk for a while now, but most of the award related posts highlight the sucess of booking a premium and creative routing using US miles. If you visit the UA portion of the FlyerTalk site you will notice so many people complaining about STARNET and how you can only get 1 SQ F seat.

-United's future upgrade policy of co-pay will be more lenient than the current one, thus probably more customer friendly than US' current policy. However, with DL you need to have a Y, B or H fare which is like $2200+ r/t to Europe. US, also requires less miles. R/T mileage upgrade confirmed at time of ticketing for 60K is very decent. Sure an 80K award makes more sense, but for those who want to earn miles it's a great option.

Like I said, I believe US and NW and AA have the best of award availability while CO, DL and UA are towards the bottom. With all the bookings I've done for myself and people- the difference is very clear. I won't go on to compare upgrade policies w/ INTL carriers since it's irrelevant, but they are even more restrictive.

-Kinglobjaw

 

[BoeingBoy]

-The report has to do with availability and not the easy of finding awards.

The report really is all about the ease of finding the awards - it's based on award availability found and booked through the airline's own website, not award availability if one uses all the outside resources to find availability then has to call res to book it. That's why the airlines that don't show partner availability on their website were at the bottom except AA.

No doubt the rankings would be somewhat different is the ratings were based on getting award seats after the individual has done all the work to identify availability on the various codeshare/alliance carriers.

Jim

 

[SS255]

I think we can attribute US's last place ranking on this list to their horrible website, and the fact that they do not make any award inventory available for many flights.

But I would certainly not categorize US's award redemption options as last place. Savvy US Flyertalkers know that the key to *A partner award redemption success is to utilize the ANA tool, and to do all of your own research. US does not block award availability for partner flights (as UA does!), so according to the prevailing conventional wisdom on Flyertalk, if an award shows as available on the ANA tool, its yours for the taking, as long as you know the specific flights and can feed the information to the US agent making the booking.

I only used the ANA tool once, to book a 50K mile F award on UA's ps from LAX-JFK. The exact flights I wanted were available 2 months out, in late June no less! It was easy, painless, and I was able to pull up my confirmation on usairways.com. I was extremely pleased.

For all of US's faults, I certainly cannot fault them for their mileage redemption options -- as long as you are redeeming for travel on a partner carrier!

 

[phlus2]

And this is a surprise why? The airline tha despises customers makes the "free" tickets the hardest to get - imagine that!

 

[700UW]

Wow, how many threads are you going to start/post on complaining about a policy that is explained to you when you purchase a ticket?

 

[ClueByFour]

Like I said, I believe US and NW and AA have the best of award availability while CO, DL and UA are towards the bottom. With all the bookings I've done for myself and people- the difference is very clear. I won't go on to compare upgrade policies w/ INTL carriers since it's irrelevant, but they are even more restrictive.

How many non-US bookings have you done versus US bookings?

For the average Joe, it's extremely difficult to book a TATL or Hawaii standard (low mileage--I refuse to buy into the bullsnot of calling the lower tier awards "saver" when that's how the airline pimps credit cards and such) award, impossible to get a standard Envoy award in the summer, and lots of other things. "Use the ANA tool and hope to redeem on partners" is not an answer.

And I have news for you--if that continues, your buddies at Tempe will limit it, just as UA has. Since the IT department in Tempe is mildly retarded, I'm assuming the only reason they don't limit it is the lack of ability, not the lack of want.

Wow, how many threads are you going to start/post on complaining about a policy that is explained to you when you purchase a ticket?

Want to know one of the major reasons why your wages got slaughtered in BK? Your thinking matches past and current US executives in terms of being customer-focused. Lots left. You lost a ton of wages and benefits. Think about it.

 

[Travelpro72]

The attitude I see from management towards customers is astounding. But the attitude I see from some of our employees towards customers and certainly our VFF's is even more shocking. I personally understand what VFF's go through in order to get that "FREE" ticket. There isn't ANYTHING free about it. I cringe when I hear a flight attendant say, "oh first is just filled with a bunch of upgrades". Of course I go in for the kill. Sorry just had to get that off my chest. Ok anyhow,
If you have enough miles to redeem them for a ticket they shouldn't make it so hard. The process you go through to redeem miles on certain flights is insane. For those that don't understand it, think of having a ton of credits banked in your grocery store "fuel perks" card or whatever your store calls it. You go to get that 5 cent a gallon gas but have to go through a maze and flaming hoops to find that deal. That's how I see it anyway. I'd find no "thrill" in the search.

 

[SS255]

I have learned to think of miles as "airline currency" to subsidize travel. I paid 40,000 miles and $2,000 in coach fare + co-pay to CO, and as a result I'll be flying in the front cabin EWR-FCO-EWR. (The LAX-EWR & LAX-FCO legs are still waitlisted.) It would have cost me $4,500 to buy a business class ticket, which I can't afford to do. I am happy with the end result, even though my two transcon legs have not cleared yet, and may not clear at all.

I think that if people stop thinking of airline miles as tickets to "free" travel, there would be a lot less complaints.

Edited to add:

One area where US can really improve upon their mileage redemption policy is to allow transatlantic upgrading from all fare classes with co-pays based upon the fare class. If my mileage upgrades had not cleared in either direction to FCO, my miles would have been re-deposited into my account, and my co-pay would have been refunded. It's win-win for everyone, and US would not have to "give away" it's Envoy product to people who are flying on $350 el cheapo fares to Europe.

US, on the other hand, requires a minimum fare of $1,400 for transatlantic upgrades. If the upgrades do not clear, the customer is stuck with a higher fare, and feels ripped off. I presume that the miles get re-deposited at no charge......but since I have not flown transatlantic in a few years, I cannot say.

Both UA and CO have migrated to co-pays for international mileage upgrades. If US followed suit, there would at least be consistency among the U.S. *A carriers.

 

[700UW]

Bob,

I was pointing out just a particular poster who has issues.

 

[PHL]

From the way I read it, you were pointing out the poster who started the thread, which would be me.

But, if that's true, I don't see how you would infer that I have issues by simply linking a study about FF redemption...

 

[YVINTERN]

From the way I read it, you were pointing out the poster who started the thread, which would be me.

But, if that's true, I don't see how you would infer that I have issues by simply linking a study about FF redemption...

Its not you...it's someone else.