The Worst Airline Frequent Flier Programs
A new study looks at which airlines are the best and worst for free flights.
May 21, 2010— -- The airlines' mileage schemes are routinely referred to as rewards programs. But how rewarding are they? And how do they compare, rewards-wise?
We know a lot about the airlines and the details of their business. How much revenue they generate, and how much they spend in the process. How many bags they mishandle. How many passengers they fly, and how many miles they fly them. The average cents per mile made on every ticket. The percentage of their seats sold and unsold.
What we don't know is how they deliver on the promise implicit in their mileage programs. What are the odds that an airline's frequent flier program member will be successful in redeeming miles for an award flight?
Nobody knows.
It's not in the airlines' annual reports. And if you ask the airlines directly -- as I have on many occasions -- they will claim that they don't have the data.
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There are around 100 million Americans who participate in one or more airline programs. All of them would like to know how their program performs, and how that compares with the performance of other programs.
Such transparency is at the very heart of what makes capitalism benefit consumers. Give us all the information we need to make informed buying decisions and let companies compete for our business.
With frequent flier programs, however, all consumers have to go on is their own experience, and whatever anecdotal evidence they can gather through water-cooler reports.
That's hardly a solid basis for choosing to focus one's mileage-earning in one program rather than another.
There is, however, a new study by ezRez Software and IdeaWorks that shines some light on the airlines' relative generosity in making seats available to award travelers.
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