Can't Use Frequent Flier Miles for a Flight?

Airlines now offer plenty of other ways to cash in those frequent flier miles.

ByABC News
March 25, 2010, 11:35 AM

July 23, 2010— -- Got frequent flier miles? If you're planning to redeem them for free flights this summer, the forecast calls for elevated levels of frustration and disappointment.

Free seats are fewer and farther between, at least partly because the airlines are flying full.

For June, Delta's load factorthe percentage of seats occupiedwas 87.7 percent overall, and 89 percent on Delta's mainline domestic flights. And that's not just the summer crush. For the first half of 2010, including the normally slack winter months, the carrier's load factor averaged 82.4 percent.

Southwest filled 81.9 percent of its seats in June, up 2.4 points from June 2009.

US Airways filled 86.9 percent of its seats in June, just edging out American, which flew 86.8 percent full.

And Hawaiian's load factor for the month was 85.9 percent.

Full flights mean fewer award seats for loyalty program members trying to use their miles for free trips. And the award-seat scarcity is exacerbated by the airlines' ongoing financial distress, which creates an incentive to defer releasing seats for mileage-users until the last minute, when it's nearly certain that award travelers won't displace paying customers.

While that's a deadly combination for travelers hoping to redeem their miles for free flights, it's hardly proved fatal for the programs themselves.

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Although there are signs that the airlines' loyalty schemes have lost some of their luster in the hearts and minds of travelers, the largest programs still boast memberships in the tens of millions.

And for the airlines that operate them, the schemes are cash cows, generating a billion dollars or more annually for the largest airlines from the sale of miles to their credit card partners and hundreds of other businesses that use frequent flier miles as marketing incentives.

In short, although less rewarding, mileage programs will remain a central fact of travel life for the near future.