Sam Ellenport of Belmont has tried twice in the last six months to fly on American Airlines using his 103,000 frequent-flier miles, and each time he has come up empty.
In both instances, Ellenport said, he was told no frequent-flier seats were available on flights to Los Angeles and London, even though he called three months before he wanted to travel and was flexible about travel dates.
Both times, Ellenport said, the American customer service representatives were quick to suggest he could get where he wanted to go by taking advantage of a program that would allow him to snare any available seat if he redeemed twice the number of miles required for a standard frequent-flier award.
"I feel I played by the rules and am getting no satisfaction," Ellenport said. "Indeed, I feel I am in the midst of a true bait-and-switch tactic."
Ellenport's complaint is familiar. As airlines issue more and more miles in more and more ways, passengers are complaining there are not enough seats to go around. The relatively new airline programs that let frequent fliers gain access to any open seat for twice the miles (50,000 for a domestic flight) strike many travelers as a backdoor price increase.
The airlines don't do much to dispel such skepticism, refusing to release detailed statistics on the accessibility of their frequent-flier programs.
"I wonder how many seats are actually available on flights, how far in advance seats can be booked, and how the airlines intend to pay off their liabilities," Ellenport asked.
Tim Wagner, a spokesman for American, said there are frequent-flier award seats on each flight, but that the airline doesn't publicly disclose how many. He also indicated there's no "best way" to land one.
Sometimes, it's best to try to find a seat when the flight first appears on the airline's computer system, usually about 11 months in advance. But Wagner said more seats often become available as the flight nears takeoff.
Frequent fliers trying to redeem their miles are going to find this summer especially tough, Wagner and officials at other airlines said. They say passenger loads are particularly high, making it very difficult for airlines to free up many award seats on each flight. The strong demand also means more competition for the few award seats available, they said.
In 2003, American said it issued 2.5 million free travel awards, representing about 7.8 percent of all its passengers. The industry average is 7.7 percent.
The 2003 numbers were down slightly from 2002, when 2.6 million awards were issued, representing about 8.1 percent of passengers.
At the end of last year, American estimated its total frequent-flier-mile liability was about $1.2 billion, or about 18.8 percent of its total liabilities.
An internal American Airlines memo posted in April on FlyerTalk.com, a website devoted to frequent-flier issues, increased skepticism about the airline's program. The memo, addressed to reservation agents, said some domestic flights don't have any award seats on them. It also said seats "are not likely to become available" on flights to hot vacation destinations at prime times. In other words, it's not easy landing a seat to the places you really want to go.
InsideFlyer.com, another site devoted to frequent fliers, did its own study recently that offered a bit more hope. It hired its sister company AwardPlanner, which is a travel agency that specializes in booking flights for travelers with frequent-flier miles, to find two coach awards to top destinations.
The imaginary travelers had to be flexible enough to fly anytime during an entire week. Bookings were attempted during the first week of July for one week out, one month out, three months out, six months out, and 11 months out.
InsideFlyer said it was able to get the seats it wanted 73 percent of the time.
AwardPlanner had less luck getting business-class awards, succeeding only 54 percent of the time. American topped all airlines with a 92 percent award rate, while Northwest was the worst, at 15 percent.
Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.
