Rewarding Sites

FMV caught up on some reading over the weekend, so we'll share the wealth with you. First, we present a review of the new reward booking sites at Continental.com and Delta.com.

One interesting note, author Ed Perkins found that he could not access all of Delta's new functionality without logging in as a SkyMiles member:

"On Continental, you can search for seats without logging in as a OnePass member. On Delta, however, you can get yes/no answers to flights on specific dates without logging on, but you must enter your frequent-flier number and PIN to use the new flexible-date system."

Why would this be? Perhaps most likely, Delta is trying to keep their IT costs down. Or could it be that Delta wants to gather information about where their most valuable customers would like to travel for free? FMV would be shocked, but certainly applaud that effort.

Overall, Perkin's has a common gripe about almost all Frequent Flier programs:

"Sadly, however, improved search capability doesn't increase the number of available seats; it merely makes it clearer, more quickly, how scarce those seats really are."

This may be true since airines typically offer somewhere around 8% of seats available for award redemption, but cusomers now have more ways to earn miles as ever. However, improving the online capabilities are still crucial for airlines because the call center times needed to address award travel are staggering. FMV has heard averages of 20 minutes - so there are huge cost savings here by automating this functionality. Even if it means a little more transparancy on the dearth of seats.

Kudos to both carriers (and American Airlines) for investing in functionality to help users find reward flights. Especially if customers find some surprising rewards they may not have originally considered.