Save on Summer Airfare with Rewards Seats

If high gas prices are putting a damper on your summer trip plans with this year's raised airplane ticket costs, take solace - the third annual Switchfly Reward Seat Availability Survey led by the IdeaWorks Company shows that airlines are offering more rewards seats than ever this summer.

According to the report, more "free" seats are being booked on flights this summer than last summer. Free seats can be earned through airlines' rewards programs and frequent flyer programs such as Southwest Rapid Rewards and JetBlue True Blue.

The most free seats were awarded through Southwest Airlines, AirTran, JetBlue, United and U.S. Airways. The survey reports that value airlines offer the most perks in the free seat department, with other airlines such as Delta showing no change over the previous year's amount of rewards. Southwest Airlines tied with Berlin Air for offering the highest percentage of rewards seats per flight.

"Frequent flier programs have been slowly but surely improving member rewards," said Daniel Farrar, CEO of Switchfly. "Nine airlines scored above 80 percent for 2012, which is much improved from five airlines above 80 percent in 2010, the first year of the survey," he said.

According to the Switchfly survey, airlines are more frequently releasing rewards seats for travelers closer to the flight dates. In other words, rewards redeemers previously had to book free flights far in advance, but it is becoming more common to be able to find rewards seats within two weeks or less of your flight. If you are flexible on your travel times, and if you can even be flexible on the exact travel days, you'll increase your likelihood of finding last-minute rewards seats.

So if you haven't already, sign up for frequent flyer and rewards programs with the airlines you travel on most frequently. Although third party discount sites like Priceline and Expedia offer airfare deals, if you want to earn free flights, you should sign up directly with value airlines such as Southwest. Additionally, many discount airlines like Southwest and JetBlue do not have partnerships with third party deal sites, so you can only book flights with them directly.

AirTran was bought by Southwest in 2011 but continues to operate independently right now so it's worth signing up for AirTran rewards as well as Southwest rewards.

The Switchfly survey findings are based upon 6,680 booking queries made by the IdeaWorks Company at 23 frequent flier programs' websites. Travel dates spanned June through October 2012.