Best and worst airlines for free travel with miles – 2013
One of the most frustrating things about miles is the lack of availability of free seats when you want to travel, or more common today, availability, but at sky high mileage prices.
An annual study simulates what many of us try to do — book a free ticket for two on popular routes, hoping for the ‘low’ or ‘saver’ mileage level to have seats available. The results for 2013 are in from Ideaworks and there is a lot of variation, but the most reliable airline mile programs in the U.S. are:
- Southwest Rapid Rewards – Free flights available 100% of the time on the routes, days they checked
- United Mileage Plus – Free flights at ‘saver’ levels available 80% of the time on the routes, days they checked
| Airline | % Availability |
|---|---|
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | 100% |
| JetBlue True Blue | 89% |
| United MileagePlus | 80% |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 66% |
| Alaska Mileage Plan | 56% |
| American AAdvantage | 49% |
| US Airways Dividend Miles | 36% |
| Delta SkyMiles | 36% |
And the worst:
- Delta SkyMiles – Free flights at ‘low’ mileage levels available just 36% of the time, but an increase from just 27% in 2012
- US Airways Dividend Miles – Availability just 36% of the time
Which credit card works best
There is one card that lets you earn points in both of the top programs – the Chase Sapphire Preferred. It lets you transfer miles 1:1 into both United and Southwest at any time you like, so you can enjoy the best of the two top mile programs. Learn more about it here.Let’s dig into the top two programs and see their pros and cons…
Southwest Rapid Rewards
Pros
- Simple to understand – your points are worth 1.6 cents each toward travel on ‘Wanna Get Away’ fares
- Low priced flights cost few points — since the price in points is based on the price of the flight, cheap flights cost few points. A $200 flight costs you just 12,500 points versus a minimum 25,000 miles in traditional mile programs.
Cons
- Limited international options — Southwest doesn’t fly to many international destinations, nor does it have a lot of partners. If you want to buy an international ticket you will get a less attractive value for your miles than Southwest flights.
- No ‘jackpot’ values — Since the value per point is fixed at no more than 1.6 cents per point you’re never going to get an outstanding value free ticket, but you’ll always get a decent deal
Credit card options
- Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus – Earns miles directly in your Southwest account. Useful if you already have some flight miles from Soutwest to top off.
- Chase Sapphire Preferred - Transfer miles 1:1 instantly in your Southwest account. Earn 2 points per dollar on dining and travel spend. Also transfer miles to United, Marriott, Hyatt, and more.
United Mileage Plus
Pros
- Lots of global options – United miles will get you to more places than any other U.S. airline mile program. With good availability and a great web booking tool that shows lots of partner options finding options to global destinations is easier with United than any other. Partners include Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, US Airways, Air Canada, and more.
- First / business class – Southwest won’t get you anywhere in first class. So if you want premium cabin options go with United.
- ‘Jackpot’ value rewards – United miles aren’t based on the price of the ticket — they are based on where you want to travel. So for example a roundtrip to Europe can cost 60,000 miles regardless of whether the price of the ticket is $900 or $1,500. Business and first class travel can yield big bargains versus the cash cost of a ticket.
Cons
- Inventory controls. While United is the leader in availability among traditional mile programs, you will find they do restrict the number of seats available at ‘low’ mile levels, so no guarantees you’ll find a seat on the days you want to travel.
- High minimum price. Since United doesn’t set the price in miles based on the price in dollars, trips that cost relatively few dollars in cash are less attractive values in miles. For example, a domestic roundtrip ticket costs 25,000 miles regardless of whether the underlying ticket costs $250 or $500.
Credit card options
- United Mileage Plus Explorer – Earns 1 mile per dollar, plus 10,000 mile bonus when you spend $20,000 each year.
- Chase Sapphire Preferred - Transfer miles 1:1 instantly in your United account. Earn 2 points per dollar on dining and travel spend. Also transfer miles to Southwest, Marriott, Hyatt, and more.
- United Mileage Plus Club – Earns 1.5 miles per dollar, plus United Club membership.
So why did Delta and US Airways perform so poorly?
Two reasons…
- Lousy partner search on websites. Both do not display availability on most of their partner airlines via their websites. That means many options are hidden unless you call an agent and know where to prod them.
- 3 tier award pricing. Instead of 2 levels like United — ‘low’ and ‘high,’ Delta and US Airways have a ‘mid’ level price. That means they offer fewer awards at the very low level, and more at the mid level which was not counted in this study.
At the end of the day, if you have a stash of miles built up in a ‘bad’ program, go ahead and top them off with a credit card to the point where you can use them for a free flight. Then, start earning miles from one of the better programs going forward.
Hello
Presently have Cap 1 visa signature card with 100,000 miles available. Fly out of DFW. If I get, for instance, an AA card can I use the Cap 1 miles to pay the AA card and get AA miles or is that not possible?
Fly domestic primarily.
Want to fly to Greece next summer, my wife and I.
Like the priority boarding and free bag AA offers. Confused as to what will work best for me. The United offer looks good as you explained it.
PLEASE HELP!
@Emmett-
Here’s the challenge. To use your Capital One miles for a ticket you need enough miles to cover the full price of a ticket. Your 100,000 miles are good for up to a $1,000 ticket on any airline, including American. Problem is a ticket to Greece in the summer will usually be more than $1,000. So perhaps best to save those miles for some other trips where the ticket is less than $1,000.
To get to Greece next summer on an award ticket, your best bet will be with United miles. The Lufthansa flight from Dallas to Frankfurt opens up some great connection flights to Athens and has good availability for 2 seats even this summer. It will cost 60,000 miles for each ticket roundtrip. You can earn 70,000 miles pretty quickly yourself with a couple of bonus offers described here. If your wife also applies for those cards separately using her own income you could double that to 70,000 miles each.
http://milecards.com/2863/80000-united-bonus-miles-with-credit-card-strategy-continental-too/
AA miles don’t have good availability to Athens when we checked on AA.com.
Which is the best card to use for flights to Australia from New York? We were trying to find a card that we could put all our monthly expenses on each month ($4,000.) and pay it off each month. We have to travel to Australia every 2 years (5 people) and my goal is to rack up enough miles/points to greatly reduce the cost of the flights. Which card do you think could get me to this goal? There are so many ……..I am very confused.
@Heather – It’s pretty much a tossup between United and American, as they have access to the most flights to Australia. In our experience their availability of economy seats is pretty similar. And both charge 75,000 miles roundtrip for a ‘saver’ economy miles ticket. It’s easier to earn United miles more quickly with credit card spending because the cards that earn United miles have more bonuses. Recommend the following to get started:
1. Get a Chase Sapphire Preferred – it earns points that can transfer to United instantly. And you get 40,000 points as a bonus for spending $3,000 on the card.
2. Get a United Explorer – you get a 30,000 mile bonus the first time you use it.
So right there you have 70,000 miles quickly.
Then, for your spending, put $25,000 per year on the United Explorer. You’ll get a 10,000 mile bonus for doing that. Then use the Chase Sapphire Preferred for the rest of your spending…it also earns 2x points for dining and travel.
With all that you can earn in 2 years the 70,000 mile intro bonus + 2 United Explorer 10,000 mile bonuses + 96,000 or more miles from your spending. That’s over 250,000 miles, potentially enough for 3 free economy ‘saver’ tickets.
This page has details on how to apply for the bonuses:
http://milecards.com/2863/80000-united-bonus-miles-with-credit-card-strategy-continental-too/
We are planning a trip to Puerto Vallarata soon and would like to buy tickets by this weekend.
Would it work or be smart to request a United Credit Card tomorrow to purchase the two
tickets. We have good credit & lots of Southwest Rapid Rewards points but does not work
for Mexico. Would a card be even approved by this Sat. or Sun. for use in ticket purchase??
If not, about how long does it take for approval and issue?
Thanks in advance
Benny & Diane Coulston
@Benny- Unfortunately the miles points won’t post for another month or so – you have to meet the spending requirement for the bonus (a single purchase for some, a dollar threshold for others), and then the miles post after the statement for that month is generatEd.