Peter Greenberg: Frequent Flier Seats

 

In a word, Eugene, no. With most airlines, the release date for frequent-flier seats seems to vary by market and season. The earliest it might happen is about one year out, as that's when airlines put their tickets on sale (for example, Continental starts selling tickets 337 days out, while it's 331 for United). Generally speaking, the airlines do begin offering award seats as soon as they put tickets on sale for a flight. That said, changes in capacity, cancellations, and demand can lead to award seats being opened up, closed, or shifted.

 

One useful Web site is Yapta.com, an airfare search engine which has recently begun tracking award seats. Travelers perform a standard Yapta search and simply click "include award tickets" to be informed via e-mail whenever a reward seat becomes available on the designated route. The airlines they currently cover are Alaska, Continental, Delta, United, and US Airways. A similar, subscription-based service is available from ExpertFlyer.com.