"I think award availability remains the elephant in the room," he said.
US Airways also has "a lot of partner award availability, but not as much on their own flights," he said.
He noted that ExpertFlyer.com, which keeps track of airlines' seat inventories, is a useful tool for tracking award availability.
And many carriers have been making it easier to search for frequent-flier award tickets by displaying award availability at a glance, over a range of days.
In fact, one study comparing award availability on different airlines found that it has actually gotten a little easier to find seats in recent years.
"After they sit down and work out all of their synergies, the bottom line will be that international capacity and award availability will be cut," Mr. Kelly said.
"The travel slump has not resulted in any increase in award availability, and in fact, if anything my sense is that people are having a more difficult time now".
"We have many Executive Platinum American Airlines clients, and the reservation agents have been with American for 20-plus years and know the traveler intimately, secure upgrades immediately, always find award availability and accommodate changes while in transit".
"American in the last year has really scaled back on the amount of advance award availability on their own flights," Mr. Kelly said, but with greater availability on international flights like those operated by its partner British Airways (which might include a fee of up to $350 one way).
"When the economy does poorly, cash bookings go down, and that creates more opportunity for reward travelers," said Jay Sorensen, president of the IdeaWorks Company, a travel consulting firm that compiles an annual ranking of award availability based on thousands of attempts to book seats on popular routes.
