As we all know, at times it can be challenging to find award availability, especially for travel in first and business class. Many people assume that airlines will always open some award seats as soon as the schedule first opens, but that’s not the case at the most airlines.
However, there are a few airlines that have award seat guarantees, whereby they promise that a certain number of award seats will be made available as soon as the schedule opens. In this post I wanted to go over the airlines offering that, and talk about what the guarantee entails.
In this post:
The airlines that guarantee award seats
Currently there are three frequent flyer programs that guarantee a certain number of award seats as soon as the schedule opens. These include British Airways Executive Club, Finnair Plus, and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Let’s take a look at the details of each of these.
With British Airways’ award seat guarantee, the airline promises 12 to 14 award seats per flight:
- On short haul flights, you can expect at least eight economy (Euro Traveller) award seats and four business class (Club Europe) award seats
- On long haul flights, you can expect at least eight economy (World Traveller) award seats, two premium economy (World Traveller Plus) award seats, and four business class (Club World) award seats; there are no guarantees for first class awards
With Finnair’s award seat guarantee, the airline promises six to eight award seats per flight:
- On short haul flights, you can expect at least four economy award seats and two business class award seats
- On long haul flights, you can expect at least four economy award seats, two premium economy award seats, and two business class award seats
With Virgin Atlantic’s award seat guarantee, the airline promises 12 award seats per flight:
- You can expect at least eight economy award seats, two premium economy award seats, and two business class (Upper Class) award seats
There are a few things to note about these opportunities:
- The guaranteed award availability is loaded as soon as the schedule opens, which is 355 days out with British Airways Executive Club, 361 days out with Finnair Plus, and 331 days out for Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- The award seat guarantee is a minimum, so in many cases you’ll find that more award seats are actually available
- These guarantees only apply through the “native” frequent flyer program, so often won’t be bookable through partner frequent flyer programs
- In the case of Finnair Plus, the award seat guarantee only applies to flights that are to and from Helsinki (HEL), and doesn’t include the Doha (DOH) route
- In some cases these awards have high surcharges, especially with Virgin Atlantic, but also with British Airways in some situations
I should also mention that even for airlines without award seat guarantees, typically the best time to redeem miles is either as soon as the schedule opens, or close to departure, when airlines make a lot of unsold seats available with miles.
Other airlines have different types of guarantees
The above are the three frequent flyer programs that I’d consider to offer the most useful guarantees when it comes to award availability. However, there are some other points that should be highlighted.
For one, there are lots of frequent flyer programs that are revenue based, where you can redeem points for any seat on any flight. This includes programs like JetBlue TrueBlue and Southwest Rapid Rewards. Obviously these airlines also have an award seat guarantee (in the sense that there will always be space), but it won’t necessarily be a good deal, so I don’t think it’s worth highlighting in the same way.
For that matter, even airlines with loyalty programs that aren’t revenue based largely have award seat guarantees nowadays, whereby you can redeem points for any seat on a plane. This includes programs like American AAdvantage and Delta SkyMiles. However, this isn’t typically a good value, since in many cases an award will cost many hundreds of thousands of points.
Bottom line
Award availability can be tough to come by nowadays, especially for premium cabin travel. That’s why I think it’s worth highlighting the few programs that have an award seat guarantee, whereby a certain number of award seats are made available as soon as the schedule opens.
This can be worth understanding for situations where you want to lock in an award in advance on a particular flight, since that’s not an assurance you can have with most other programs. I wish we’d see more airlines offer an award seat guarantee.
Have you ever benefited from an airline award seat guarantee?
Lucky, I have been tracking the DFW --> HEL route fairly actively. I can tell you with absolute certainty that they are not currently opening up two business seats on that flight ever (could be an IT issue I guess, but just reporting actual results vs airline messaging)
Also, while they are very consistent with opening up one business seat for that flight, I have never seen it 361 days out, currently, the latest you can grab a single seat is 353 days out
Iberia use to offer 2 business seats per flight, now it appears only one seat is offered. It’s a shame.
As Lufthansa HON Circle member you have a guarantee for up to 4 seats in business or eco until 14 days before the flight as long as there are seats for sale available. This is one of the most important advantages of this status. But there is no such guarantee for First Class.
Ben, thanks. I assume so because, from my research, Iberia follows the Finnair rule (4-2-2 - eco, premium eco and business), although it is possible to find more than two seats in business using the married segment technique, just connecting in Madrid and continuing on to other destinations, including outside Europe (such as, for example, Morocco).
Hey slight error Ben - Emirates actually opens their schedule 357 days in advance. I can currently book through 5/17/25
I think Iberia also have award seats guarantee.
@ Henrique -- Good point, though Iberia is really strange with it. Unless I'm missing something, this is all the airline promises:
"Iberia guarantees a minimum number of seats that can be exchanged for Avios on all Iberia Group flights."
The airline doesn't seem to guarantee any specific number of seats though, right? So just one economy seat per flight would fulfill that requirement? I should have probably included Iberia in the list, though...
@ Henrique -- Good point, though Iberia is really strange with it. Unless I'm missing something, this is all the airline promises:
"Iberia guarantees a minimum number of seats that can be exchanged for Avios on all Iberia Group flights."
The airline doesn't seem to guarantee any specific number of seats though, right? So just one economy seat per flight would fulfill that requirement? I should have probably included Iberia in the list, though I'm not sure one economy seat per flight is necessarily that widely useful.
A few years ago I tried to book 3 seats on Iberia long haul. A quick phone call verified that they plan to offer only two business class award seats per widebody.
I have three business class award seats booked on a widebody Iberia flight in three weeks. Just anecdotally though, it does seem as though when they release >2 J seats, it's largely for connecting itineraries and not direct to MAD flights.
Ben, thanks. I assume so because, from my research, Iberia follows the Finnair rule (4-2-2 - eco, premium eco and business), although it is possible to find more than two seats in business using the married segment technique, just connecting in Madrid and continuing on to other destinations, including outside Europe (such as, for example, Morocco).
Another airline BS.
When you guarantee something, you have to back that up with some accountability.