that's just great...

Read an article today in the Wall Street Journal that compared frequent flyer programs.  It focused on which airlines had more available seats offered at the lower-priced award level.  Turns out that Us Air, which I have a huge amount of points with, is one of the worst.... that's just great.  Luckily, Continental, which I also use, is in the middle of the pack.  For one of the routes they used to compare the airlines with, USAir didn't have any flights at the lower-priced award level from now through November.  Wow.  Guess I better book our flight to Tampa for that wedding in November pronto.  Luckily, we can take Southwest Airlines as an alternative, but if I don't use these miles now, when will I?

What's even more frustrating is that even though I know this, I'm unlikely to switch frequent flyer programs.  With a hub in Philly, USAIr often has the cheapest &/or most frequent flights when I take business trips.  AND, since they are part of the consortium that includes Lufthansa, I can always use my miles on that carrier instead.... if nothing else, this will make me less likely to use my credit card that gives me USAir miles and instead will use my AMEX where I can transfer points to Continental -- might as well be smart about this.

For those that care, the two best airlines for availability of using frequent flyer miles were American and United.