Southwest Best Airline For Frequent Fliers

May 26, 2011— -- Signed up for an airline rewards program and hoping to turn your hard-won miles into a free seat? If you're a U.S. traveler, you'll have the best chance if you're a member of Southwest Airlines reward program "Rapid Rewards."

The airline was ranked No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 2 in the world by the ezRez Reward Seat Availability Survey for finding a seat. Travelers in Southwest's program have a 99.3 percent chance of getting a reward seat when they want one, living up to the airline's promise of "unlimited rewards seats and no blackout dates."

"Consumers continue to feel the pinch of a difficult economy. More than ever, they expect a tangible reward for their loyalty to an airline, " says John Swanciger, chief commercial officer for ezRez Software, the sponsor of the survey.

"Rewards of all types, such as air travel, hotel accommodations, and retail merchandise, are the tools airlines use to fill that expectation. Social media has made the frequent flier world less of a mystery and savvy travelers have a better awareness of which airlines truly reward loyalty and frequency of travel, " Swanciger said in a statement.

In a survey based on 6,720 booking queries competitors, Delta Air Lines and U.S. Airways didn't fare as well. The two carriers were at the bottom for free seats using a frequent fliers rewards program – ranking 23 and 24, respectively.

Travelers signed up for Delta Airlines "SkyMiles" program had a 27.1 percent chance of finding a seat and US Airways "Dividend Miles" members had it even tougher, with a 25.7 percent chance of locating a free seat.

On the other hand, low-fare airlines fared well in the survey with GOL, a low-cost Brazilian airline, ranking number one. The carriers rounding out the top 5 included Air Berlin, Virgin Australia and Singapore Airlines.

There was some good news for U.S. travelers. Passengers that are a part of JetBlue's TrueBlue reward program have a 79.3 percent chance of finding a reward seat. Other airlines, like, United Airlines, Continental Airlines, Alaska Airlines and American Airlines were scattered around the list. United Airlines had a total availability rate of 71.4 percent and American Airlines had a 62.9 percent availability rate.

But, access to free seats isn't the only attribute for a good rewards program.

"Traditional airlines are seemingly more stingy with rewards but offer other benefits such as entry to airport lounges, upgrades to premium cabins and access to worldwide flight networks," according to Ideaworks.

Rank	U.S. rank	Airline	Program	% Total Availability	2011 vs. 2010
1		GOL	SMILES	100%	New for 2011
2	1	Southwest	Rapid Rewards	99.3%	No change
3		Air Berlin	topbonus	96.4%	-2.2 pts
4		Virgin Australia	Velocity Rewards	91.4%	+1.4 pts
5		Singapore Airlines	KrisFlyer	90.7%	+13.6 pts
6		Lufthansa/SWISS/Austrian	Miles & More	85.0%	-0.7 pts
7		Air Canada	Aeroplan	82.1%	-11.5 pts
8	2	JetBlue	TrueBlue	79.3%	New for 2011
9		LAN	LANPASS	75.7%	New for 2011
10		Qantas Airways	Frequent Flyer	75.0%	+2.1 pts
11	3	United Airlines	Mileage Plus	71.4%	+2.8 pts
12	4	Continental Airlines	OnePass	71.4%	No change
13		Iberia	Iberia Plus	70.7%	-5.7 pts
14		Cathay Pacific	Asia Miles	66.4%	-0.7 pts
15		Air France/KLM	Flying Blue	65.0%	+8.6 pts
16	5	Alaska Airlines	Mileage Plan	64.3%	-10.7 pts
17	6	American Airlines	AAdvantage	62.9%	+5 pts
18		British Airways	Executive Club	61.4%	-3.6 pts
19		SAS Scandinavian	EuroBonus	52.9%	-11.4 pts
20		Turkish Airlines	Miles&Smiles	49.3%	+14 pts
21	7	AirTran Airways	A+ Rewards	47.1%	-20.8 pts
22		Emirates	Skywards	35.7%	-0.7 pts
23	8	Delta Air Lines	SkyMiles	27.1%	+14.2 pts
24	9	US Airways	Dividend Miles	25.7%	+15 pts