Airlines Increase Reward Seat Availability But They Could Be More Costly
Skift Take
Having plenty of rewards seats means nothing if airlines don't make it easier for travelers to redeem their rewards points, something that's becoming harder to do as programs become more revenue-based.
Global airlines continue to increase their rewards seats and North American and European carriers account for the most reward seat availability, a new IdeaWorksCompany survey finds.
The average reward seat availability for all airlines is about 74% this year for travel June to September 2015, up from 66.1% in 2010. Southwest Airlines and Airberlin both have 100% availability on their flights, the survey found, while Virgin Australia (96.4%), Air Canada (90.7%) and Singapore Airlines (90%) follow.
Southwest and Airberlin also held the top spots last year and along with Virgin Australia have placed within the top six airlines for most availability since the first survey in 2010.
These findings come after several air
