Welcome to AwardFares! Traveling on a lie-flat business class seat, champagne in hand, on your way to a dream destination is much closer than you think – all booked using points and miles. AwardFares is your expert co-pilot, designed to make finding and booking those valuable award flights easier and more efficient than ever before.

It doesn’t matter if you’re new to the world of points and miles or looking to maximize your existing balances; this guide is your launchpad. Today we’ll walk you through the essentials of AwardFares, transforming you into a pro award travel hacker in no time.

Understanding Award Travel: Fly Better, For Less

Before we explore AwardFares, let’s briefly touch upon award travel. Simply put, it’s the art of using points or miles, earned through loyalty programs (from airlines, credit cards, hotels, etc.), to book flights.

Why is it so popular?

• Fly Premium for Less: Experience Business or First Class cabins that might otherwise be prohibitively expensive.
• Save on Economy: Use points to cover economy flights, freeing up cash for other travel expenses.
• Unlock Flexibility: Some award tickets offer more generous change or cancellation policies.

AwardFares helps you navigate the complexities of finding which flights have seats available for booking with points, often in real-time.

Getting Started with AwardFares: Your First Steps

Embarking on your award travel journey with AwardFares is simple.

1. Sign Up: If you haven’t already, create your AwardFares account. Our Free plan is a great way to start exploring. You can see award availability on routes recently found by other users, giving you a taste of what’s possible.
2. The Search Dashboard: Once logged in, you’ll find yourself at the heart of AwardFares. From here, you can easily access all our powerful tools.

Core Feature 1: Award Search Dashboard - Finding Your Perfect Flight, in Real-Time

This is where the magic happens! AwardFares’ powerful search interface helps you find specific award availability across multiple loyalty programs on any route and any date. For Gold and Diamond members, many searches provide true real-time award availability. Diamond users can refresh availability as often as every minute, while Gold users can refresh once per hour.

The Basics: Initiating Your Search

1. Select Your Loyalty Program(s): Choose the frequent flyer program(s) you have points with or are interested in. AwardFares supports a growing list of programs! If you’ve set a primary program in your profile, we might pre-select it for you.
   • Pro Tip for Gold/Diamond Users: You can select multiple programs at once to compare availability side-by-side. Even for unsupported loyalty programs, results may still indicate availability for airlines within the same alliance.
2. Enter Your Route:
   • Origin & Destination: Type in your departure and arrival points. You can use airport codes (e.g., JFK), city names (e.g., London), countries (e.g., Japan), or even continents/zones (e.g., Europe to Asia for broad searches to quickly scan existing results).
   • Multiple Airports/Areas: Search with up to 6 airports or city areas at once (e.g., 1 origin + 5 destinations, or 3 origins + 3 destinations, subject to plan limits).
3. Choose Your Dates:
   • Specific Date: If you know when you want to travel, select a specific date. This often triggers a live, up-to-the-minute search for subscribed users.
   • Multiple Dates (Timeline View): Use the Timeline view to search multiple dates at once. Simply click the Search icon (🔎) for each date you want to query.
   • Flexible Dates/No Date: Broad searches show recently found availability, perfect for exploration.

Understanding Your Search Results

• Flight List: Shows flights matching your criteria.
• Availability & Pricing: See available cabin classes, the number of award seats, and points required.
• Redemption Prices: AwardFares makes it easy to find the best redemptions. Sort and filter by price to find the cheapest alternatives.
• Mixed Cabins: Clearly see detailed information for mixed cabin flights, including which segments are in a lower cabin and the flight time for each.

Diving Deeper: Expanding Flight Details

Click the arrow icon next to a flight:

• Key Information: Aircraft type, duration, layovers.
• Prices & Taxes: See redemption prices and taxes (not supported on all programs). For supported programs, use the booking link to go directly to the selected flight on the airline’s site.
• Live Seat Maps (Gold/Diamond): View the actual seat map to see available, blocked, and occupied seats. (More on Seat Maps below!)
• Track This Flight: Quickly set up an Alert directly from promising search results (more on Alerts below!).

Powerful Search Tools & Filters

• Timeline View: Visualize availability across dates. Gold/Diamond users see color-coded bars by cabin class.
• Map View: Discover routes geographically.
• Advanced Filters (Unlock with Gold/Diamond):
  • Cabins (including an “All First Class” filter to effortlessly find those rare redemptions).
  • Number of Stops (AwardFares supports searches with stops).
  • Airlines, Max Price, specific flight numbers, and more!
  • With Award Search, you can also Build Journeys, track availability with Alerts, and view live Seat Maps!

Core Feature 2: Award Alerts

Found your ideal route but no seats yet? AwardFares availability alerts are your 24/7 automated search assistant. Alerts will automatically search the route for you and notify you by email and push notifications (on supported devices) as soon as new award availability appears.

Creating & Customizing Your Alerts (Gold/Diamond):

1. From Search: When you search a specific route and date, you’ll see an option to “Track” the flight. The timeline also clearly shows dates you’re already tracking.
2. From Alerts Section:
   • Specify Loyalty Program(s), Route, Date, Cabins.
   • Advanced Filters:
     • Wide Search: Check +/- 1 day (or more) to cover multiple days with one alert.
     • Filter by number of passengers, airlines, number of stops, max price.
     • Limit mixed cabin results or monitor specific flight numbers.
3. Save your alert! You’ll receive an email summary when an alert triggers, with a direct link to the result.

Core Feature 3: Journey Planner

Planning a multi-city trip or complex routing? The Journey Planner is here to help you organize flights and map out multiple segments.

Key Journey Planner Capabilities:

• Multiple Segments: Easily add and remove flights to construct your desired itinerary.
• Find Connections: Automatically search for valid connecting flights (max 24-hour layover) before, after, or in-between existing flights in your journey.
• Multiple Journeys: Keep track of different trips simultaneously.
• Share & Copy: Easily share your planned journey with friends or family, or copy it as text for spreadsheets or notes.
• Book Round-Trips: For some programs and routes, you might be able to initiate booking for round-trips directly from the journey.

Core Feature 4: Live Seat Maps

Knowing if a seat is available is one thing; knowing which seat is another. AwardFares integrates Live Seat Maps for many flights (primarily for Gold/Diamond users), showing you:

• Available, blocked, and occupied seats.
• Detailed seat information: Premium seats, extra legroom, blocked seats, and paid seats.
• Works with all major airlines and some low-cost carriers.

Important Notes on Seat Maps: Availability is not guaranteed and can become unavailable closer to departure (sometimes days before), depending on the airline.

Understanding Our Plans: Free, Gold, and Diamond

AwardFares offers three tiers to accommodate to different travel requirements and needs:

• Free: Explore with the Award Calendar and see cached Award Search results.
• Gold: Unlock real-time Award Searches, create Alerts, access advanced filters, view live Seat Maps, search multiple loyalty programs, and use the Journey Planner. The go-to for serious award travelers.
• Diamond: All Gold benefits plus higher search/refresh rates (real-time up to every minute), more alerts, increased limits, and priority access. For the ultimate power user.

Visit our Pricing Page for current details.

Next Steps & Further Learning

Now that we’ve covered the basics, keep on reading the following in-depth guides!

• How to Find Award Flights
• Award Availability Alerts (Tutorial)
• Seat Maps: Getting The Perfect Seat Even Before Booking
• Journey Planner: Building Perfect Award Trips To Difficult Destinations

Questions?: Visit our FAQ or contact support.