Roughly half of frequent fliers satisfied with programs

Frequent-fliers earn nearly as many miles on the ground as they do by actually flying, and more think their airline loyalty programs are less likely to deliver on their promises than banks, cable companies and car insurance plans.

Forget fancy overseas trips. By a more than 3-to-1 margin, frequent-fliers who say they’re actively collecting airline miles say they’re aiming to use them for free flights within the lower 48 statesinstead of for international flights that would typically cost more.

Those are among the findings of the “2014 Mile Satisfaction Survey,” commissioned by MileCards.com, a website that lets users compare travel credit cards based on where they want to fly. The survey, released exclusively to USA TODAY, measured customers’ perceptions of the loyalty programs for the biggest U.S. carriers, querying 1,600 frequent-flier members who say they’re actively collecting airline points in hopes of redeeming them for an award.

FULL SURVEY RESULTS: 2014 Mile Satisfaction Survey
TODAY IN THE SKY: US Airways, Delta frequent-fliers take dimmest view of their mileage options

The survey looked at the programs of the five biggest U.S. airlines — American, Delta, Southwest, United and US Airways — programs that MileCards.com says represents 90% of U.S. frequent-flier membership among U.S. carriers.

The survey examining frequent-flier satisfaction comes as the nature of airline loyalty programs has evolved since they were first launched in the early 1980s. Though embraced by business and leisure travelers alike, airlines have been aggressive in using elite-level perks to woo high-spending corporate fliers.

“When these programs started over 30 years ago, miles were designed to retain the most frequent business travelers” says Brian Karimzad, director of MileCards.com. “Now airlines earn billions a year by selling miles, creating the challenge to please both frequent fliers and frequent spenders.”

Against that background, Karimzad says the survey offers a window into what the airlines are doing to keep their customers happy — and about what they could be doing better.

Among the survey’s notable findings:

• Overall, a slight majority of frequent-flier program users — 53% — said they were generally satisfied with their primary carrier’s loyalty program and that they’d recommend it to a friend.
• Nearly half (45%) of those surveyed say they earn more points from credits cards and other ground-based promotions than they do from actually flying.
  
• Awards that cost more miles or points than expected was by far the biggest frustration among the survey’s respondents. That was cited by half the respondents — far more than the No. 2 complaint: suddenly changing rules.
• Nearly a quarter (23%) of frequent-fliers surveyed say they do not “trust” their mile programs to deliver on their promises. That level of distrust was higher than those expressed for cable providers (21%), banks (11%) and car insurance firms (9%). Hidden fees and sudden rule changes were cited as the primary drivers for fliers’ distrust of airline programs.
• The airline with the top satisfaction rating: Southwest, with 62% of the airline’s Rapid Rewards members saying in the survey that they’d be “very likely” to recommend that carrier’s program to others.
• United is the carrier that had the highest number of frequent-fliers (40%) say they go out of their way to fly that airline so that they can earn miles.
• The lowest satisfaction rating in the survey was US Airways, with 43% saying they’d recommend the program. (US Airways is now merged with American) Delta — at 49% — was the only other carrier with a favorable rating from less than half of the respondents.

Many of findings of the MileCards survey were echoed by the frequent-fliers on USA TODAY’s Road Warrior panel, which advises the news organization on travel issues.

“The United one satisfies me,” says Saul Klein of San Diego about carrier’s Mileage Plus loyalty program.

Klein, a senior vice president at a large software company who flies about 100,000 mile a year, says he tries to stick with United with “whenever I can,” though he acknowledges that’s as much “for line privileges and airplane boarding privileges” as the miles.

“If you’re flying all the time, those little things really make a difference,” Klein says.

Scott Pankow of Waupaca, Wis.,also mirrored the preferences revealed in the MileCards.com survey.

Pankow, a consultant for a Wisconsin software company, racks up about 75,000 miles a year for business travel, but uses most of his miles for domestic U.S. travel.

“I am fairly satisfied,” Pankow says of Delta’s SkyMiles program, which he uses the most. “I know the airlines are raising what they charge for free tickets, but the price of those tickets is also going up if you would pay for them directly.”

Also like many of the MileCards.com survey respondents, Pankow says he doesn’t use his miles for international travel, but says he did splurge and redeem them for his upcoming honeymoon trip to Hawaii in September.

WHAT THE SURVEY FOUND

Key findings of the 2014 Mile Satisfaction Survey of frequent fliers:

Note: The survey sampled travel dates from December 2013 to September 2014.

Note: Lowest advertised round-trip award tickets begin at 25,000 miles on all airlines except Southwest. The lowest advertised awards for Southwest, which uses points, begin at 5,400 points. The survey sampled travel dates from December 2013 to September 2014.

SOURCE: 2014 Mile Satisfaction Survey, MileCards.com