The Points Guy believes that credit cards can transform lives, helping you leverage everyday spending for cash back or travel experiences that might otherwise be out of reach. That's why we publish a variety of editorial content and card comparisons: to help you find a great card to turn your goals into reality.
Our site may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened with our partners, and this may impact how or where these products appear. While we don't cover all available credit cards, our editorial team creates and maintains all of the analysis of these cards, and our content is not influenced nor subject to review by any credit card company, bank or partner prior to (or after) publication. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.
Advertiser disclosure
The Points Guy believes that credit cards can transform lives, helping you leverage everyday spending for cash back or travel experiences that might otherwise be out of reach. That's why we publish a variety of editorial content and card comparisons: to help you find a great card to turn your goals into reality.
Our site may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened with our partners, and this may impact how or where these products appear. While we don't cover all available credit cards, our editorial team creates and maintains all of the analysis of these cards, and our content is not influenced nor subject to review by any credit card company, bank or partner prior to (or after) publication. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.
News
Exclusive data reveals the airlines with the best award availability
Benji Stawski is a former reporter for the site, covering all things points, miles, credit cards, travel and aviation.
March 16, 2021 • 15 min read
The cards we feature here are from partners who compensate us when you are approved through our site, and this may impact how or where these products appear. We don't cover all available credit cards, but our analysis, reviews, and opinions are entirely from our editorial team. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
Comments
By commenting, you agree to our Community Guidelines to help create a positive space for conversation. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, our partners, or The Points Guy (“TPG”). They have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these parties. All responses are submitted by individual contributors, and neither the bank advertiser, our partners, nor TPG are responsible for ensuring that all posts and/or questions are answered.
Related stories
Quick summary
A recent analysis compared saver award seat availability across major U.S. airlines, focusing on domestic and international routes and different cabin classes.
Delta showed the highest overall saver award availability, especially for domestic and international economy seats, but the sample size for Delta was smaller than for other airlines.
American and Alaska still publish fixed award charts, while others use dynamic pricing, impacting how easily travelers can find low-mileage redemptions.
Availability varies significantly by route, direction of travel and class of service, with some airlines offering better access for elite members or select cardholders.
What to consider
Saver award seats are not always the lowest-mileage option, as some airlines offer special web-only deals or dynamically priced awards.
Partner airline programs can sometimes provide better redemption rates for the same flights, but not all saver awards are available to partners.
Some airlines grant enhanced award access to elite status members or select cardholders, but these seats must be booked directly and are not available through partners.
What you'll miss from the article
A detailed breakdown of award seat availability by airline, route and cabin, plus practical strategies for maximizing frequent flyer redemptions.
Generated by AI with support from our editorial team.
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Many airlines allow you to redeem miles for flights with no blackout dates. This means that if there's a seat available for sale, then you'll be able to book it with miles. The problem is, you'll sometimes need to pay a hefty premium for this luxury.
Typically, to get the lowest rates, there needs to be saver-award space available. And with many airlines shifting toward more dynamic pricing, they've been making less of these awards available.
Today, we're going to analyze exclusive data from ExpertFlyer (owned by TPG’s parent company, Red Ventures) to uncover which airline offers the best saver award availability. We're going to break down our findings by type of route (domestic vs. international) and class of service.
First things first, for this analysis, we're only looking at data pertaining to American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Delta and United as these are the only major U.S. airlines that differentiate saver and standard awards. When saver space is available, you'll generally also be able to book the award through partner programs. Meanwhile, the "standard" no-blackout awards aren't available to partners.
The concept of saver space is irrelevant for airlines like Southwest and JetBlue as they offer just one type of award. With these airlines, every available seat is bookable with points and is priced dynamically based on the actual cost. As such, you'll always get a fairly consistent value from your points with these airlines. This makes these programs especially appealing for families and beginners who don't want to deal with availability limitations or calculating whether a specific redemption is a good deal.
Related: 12 tips for using frequent flyer miles for family travel
We’re using the same overall methodology we’ve used in prior posts, looking only at unique flight searches. We considered the overall success rate for searches conducted from Jan. 1 to March 1, 2021, and all were for travel at least 14 days out.
As mentioned above, the data is based solely on searches conducted through ExpertFlyer. For the uninitiated, ExpertFlyer is one of the most powerful tools out there for frequent flyers. One of its features is the ability to search for award inventory from most major airlines with a pretty clean user interface. While the data serves as an indicator of overall award inventory, it doesn’t cover every flight on every airline across the entire booking window. So, your searches may differ from the overall trends.
Search results from ExpertFlyer beta available to premium members. (Photo courtesy of ExpertFlyer)
All in all, we looked at data from a total of 256,503 unique flights and found an overall success rate of 11.7% across all of the airlines. That's probably much lower than you'd expect, especially considering the current drop in airfare, so let's dig a bit deeper.
Just looking at the numbers, Delta ranked as the best airline for domestic award availability, both for economy class and first class. 49.8% of domestic economy searches were successful and 30.8% of domestic first class searches were successful. However, there are other factors that need to be considered.
While we had data for nearly 70,000 domestic American Airlines flights, 93,000 United flights and over 20,000 Alaska flights, there were only about 2,100 Delta flights searched — about 1,200 for first class and 800 for economy. You'll also want to note that with Delta, in particular, saver availability doesn't guarantee that it's bookable through all partners. With Virgin Atlantic not being a part of the SkyTeam alliance, Flying Club's availability doesn't always fully match that of other partners, such as Air France-KLM Flying Blue.
Some of the most-searched Delta routes for economy awards included Atlanta (ATL) to Orlando (MCO) (28% success rate), Austin (AUS) to New York-JFK (91% success rate) and Los Angeles (LAX) to Maui (OGG) (24% success rate).
For first class, popular routes included Atlanta to Las Vegas (LAS) (22% success rate), Atlanta to New York (LGA) (73% success rate) and Austin to New York-JFK (58% success rate). However, the most-searched routes for first class were San Francisco (SFO) to Atlanta, Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) to Honolulu (HNL) and Los Angeles to Maui and no first class availability was found on these routes. No saver availability was found for Delta One on transcontinental routes like New York-JFK to Los Angeles or San Francisco either.
Although a short flight, Charlotte (CLT) to Atlanta was popular among both economy and first class searches and had an impressive 100% success rate for both cabins.
Moving on, American Airlines was the next best airline for domestic award availability, both for economy class and business/first (American is the only U.S. carrier to offer both business class and first class). American's overall success rate was 34.8% for economy, 24.6% for business/first class and 2.9% for Flagship First on three-cabin planes.
Here's a look at some of American's most-searched routes:
Miami (MIA) to Los Angeles - 71% success rate for economy, 34% for business, 40% for first
Los Angeles to Maui - 19% for economy, 55% for business
New York-JFK to Los Angeles - 58% for economy, 22% for business, 0% for first
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) to Los Angeles - 63% for economy, 38% for business
Los Angeles to Chicago (ORD) - 11% for economy, 10% for business
Dallas/Fort Worth to Chicago - 99% for economy, 72% for business
Alaska offered a fair amount of economy availability but was a bit stingier with first class. Alaska's overall success rate was 27.6% for economy and 8.6% for first class.
Here's a look at some of Alaska's most-searched routes:
Boston (BOS) to Seattle (SEA) - 1.8% success rate for economy, 0.8% for first class
Seattle to Maui - 59.8% for economy, 0.6% for first class
Portland (PDX) to San Francisco - 93.3% for economy, 0% for first class
San Francisco to Seattle - 95.7% for economy, 22.6% for first class
Seattle to New York-JFK - 28.7% for economy, 0.6% for first class
(Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Even before United removed its published award charts, the carrier had the reputation of releasing little saver award availability. And the data supports that. 23.9% of domestic economy searches were successful and just 5% of first class searches were successful.
Here's an overview of the most popular United searches:
Newark (EWR) to Orlando - 15% success rate for economy, 0% for first class
San Francisco to Los Angeles - 24% for economy, 0% for first class
Houston (IAH) to Los Angeles - 15% for economy, 0% for first class
Newark to San Francisco - 9% for economy, 9% for business class
San Francisco to Houston - 45% for economy, 16% for first class
Newark to Los Angeles - 86% for economy, 1% for business class
Now, let's take a look at international availability. For this section, we're only going to compare availability between American, Delta and United as Alaska has a much smaller international network.
Delta SkyMiles
(Photo by Benji Stawski / The Points Guy)
On paper, Delta once again came out ahead with the best overall international award availability. The data revealed a 59% overall success rate for international coach awards and 3% for business class awards. Interestingly, Delta performed much better for international flights departing the U.S. than returning to the U.S.
Popular searches included Atlanta to Paris (CDG) (58.3% success for economy, 0% for business), Minneapolis/St. Paul to Paris (100% success for economy, 0% for business) and New York-JFK to Tel Aviv (TLV) (50% success for economy, 5.6% for business). A number of popular searches, such as Minneapolis/St. Paul to Amsterdam (AMS) and Detroit to Paris didn't have any.
All that said, as with the domestic awards, these numbers are a bit skewed as there were a lot fewer searches than with the other airlines. Based on anecdotal evidence, international Delta award availability can sometimes be the hardest to come by.
While United was slacking domestically, it was the next best airline for releasing international saver awards. United's overall success rate was 32% for international economy awards and 4% for business class. While Delta performed better with U.S. departures, United offered better availability for flights originating outside of the U.S.
Here's a look at some of United's most-searched routes:
San Francisco to Tahiti (PPT) - 19.1% success rate for economy, 0% for business class
Newark to Tel Aviv (TLV) - 0% for economy, 1.9% for business class
San Francisco to Frankfurt (FRA) - 100% for economy, 5.3% for business class
Houston to Cancun (CUN) - 36.5% for economy, 11.5% for business class
Newark to São Paulo (GRU) - 65.2% for economy, 14% for business class
Houston to Puerto Vallarta (PVR) - 36.4% for economy, 9.1% for business class
San Francisco to Shanghai (PVG) and Newark to San Juan (SJU) were popular among both economy and business class searches, but both had 0% success for both cabins.
American's overall success rate was 26% for economy, 2% for business class and 0% for first class. Unlike United, American performed better for flights departing the U.S.
Here's an overview of the most popular American searches:
Los Angeles to London Heathrow (LHR) - 100% success rate for economy 2.6% for business class
Charlotte to Cancun - 5.3% for economy 1.8% for business class
Dallas/Fort Worth to Puerto Vallarta - 50% for economy, 0% for business class
Toronto (YYZ) to Chicago - 13% for economy, 0% for business class
Rio De Janeiro (GIG) to Miami - 0% for economy, 0% for business class
New York-JFK to London Heathrow - 100% for economy, 6.1% for business class
Based on the data analyzed for this post, Delta technically had the best overall award availability. That said, it's important to remember that Delta had a lot fewer searches than the other airlines and anecdotal evidence suggests that Delta doesn't release much saver availability, particularly in Delta One (business class on premium transcontinental and long-haul international routes).
Ultimately, the best airline will vary by route and class of service. For instance, while Delta fared better than American, Delta had no saver business class availability from New York-JFK to Los Angeles, while American had a 22% success rate. Similarly, while Delta performed better than United for international flights departing the U.S., United offered better availability for flights originating outside of the U.S.
Here’s a summary of the overall success rates:
Airline
Domestic economy
Domestic business
International economy (from U.S.)
International business (from U.S.)
International economy (to U.S.)
International business (to U.S.)
American Airlines
34.8%
24.6%
31.4%
1.8%
15%
1%
Alaska Airlines
27.6%
8.6%
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Delta
49.8%
30.6%
65.4%
2.9%
39%
3%
United
23.9%
5%
30.3%
2.9%
35%
6%
Things to keep in mind
Saver awards aren't always the cheapest
Of the airlines discussed today, American and Alaska are the only ones that still publish award charts. As such, they're the only ones that still have set prices for saver-level awards.
With American in particular, you can sometimes redeem fewer miles by booking a Web Special award instead of a saver award. For instance, most domestic saver awards usually cost 12,500 miles one-way in economy, but we often see Web Specials from 5,000 miles.
Typically, when saver space is available, you should be able to book the same award through partner airlines. Doing so can often save you miles and offer greater flexibility.
If you want to fly on American Airlines or Alaska, you might be able to save miles by booking through British Airways Executive Club. Plus, since it's a 1:1 transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you can book your flight using points earned with a card like The Platinum Card® from American Express or the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.
If you want to fly on United, you could book your award through Avianca LifeMiles or Air Canada Aeroplan. Both programs have fixed rates for United awards and don't charge close-in booking surcharges, so they can often be cheaper than booking through United. Avianca partners with all the major transferable points programs, except for Chase Ultimate Rewards, meaning you can boost your balance with cards like the American Express® Gold Card, the Citi Premier® Card and the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card. Aeroplan partners with Amex Membership Rewards and Capital One.
United offers hidden saver awards
MileagePlus elites and holders of select United credit cards, such as the United Explorer Card, get access to enhanced economy award availability. Premier Platinum and Premier 1K members also get better access to saver availability in premium cabins. This benefit could potentially unlock lower rates and access to flights not available to general members.
To see this perk in action, sign in to your MileagePlus account when searching for award tickets. Just note that the only way to book these awards is directly through United — you can't book these through partners like Aeroplan or LifeMiles.
Data shows that finding low-level awards is sometimes tricky and some airlines are better than others when it comes to releasing saver space. That said, availability varies greatly by route and class of service, so your findings may not match what the data is showing. For families, in particular, it can be hard finding multiple saver seats together on the same flight. So it could make sense to stick to fixed-value frequent flyer programs where all awards are priced dynamically.
Comments
By commenting, you agree to our Community Guidelines to help create a positive space for conversation. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, our partners, or The Points Guy (“TPG”). They have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these parties. All responses are submitted by individual contributors, and neither the bank advertiser, our partners, nor TPG are responsible for ensuring that all posts and/or questions are answered.
