News and Research

The Best Seats Airlines Hold Back from Frequent Fliers
Wall Street Journal
Consulting firm IdeaWorks did 3,600 searches for two business- or first-class awards on 18 different airlines. It found Turkish Airlines had the highest availability at 98% and Scandinavian Airlines the lowest at 2%.  United had two seats available at the Saver level on only 4% of the queries made. Jay Sorensen, president of IdeaWorks, calls that result “a heart-stopping statistic.” Delta was only slightly better, at 14%, while American came in at a somewhat more respectable 28%.  Bottom line: The ability for most members of frequent-flier programs at United, Delta and American “to take a business-class trip to Europe has gone,” Mr. Sorensen says.