How AwardTool collects and publishes award flight data

AwardTool's award pages summarize its cached award searches across 29 loyalty programs. Each price is the lowest one-way award observed in the last 30 days for departures up to 365 days ahead, shown with taxes and the time it was seen.

Page last changed Oct 15, 2026. These definitions apply to every AwardTool award data page.

Where the data comes from

AwardTool searches award space in 29 airline loyalty programs and keeps recent results in a cache. The award pages are built from a snapshot of that cache: for each tracked route and program, it records which departure dates had open award seats in each cabin, the lowest price seen, its taxes, stops and seats, the airlines on the itineraries, and when each value was observed.

The snapshot holds summaries only. The date-by-date calendar stays in the app: a limited window on the free plan and 365 days with Pro. Pages show dated examples only for departures in the next 60 days.

Definitions

Lowest observed price: The lowest one-way award, per passenger, that a program showed for the route and cabin among the observations in the window. It is a record of what AwardTool saw, not a quote.
Points and taxes: Points or miles are in the program's own currency. Taxes and carrier fees are in USD, as the program showed them.
Open date: A departure date on which AwardTool observed at least one award seat in the cabin. "Dates seen" counts open dates.
Seats: The seat count the program reported on the lowest award; some programs report at most 9, shown as 9+.
Nonstop: An award with no connection. A route can show a lower connecting award and a separate nonstop price.
Mixed cabin: A premium-cabin award where part of the trip is in a lower cabin.
Airlines seen: Airlines that appeared on the award itineraries a program showed. An airline that appears isn't always the airline of the lowest award.
Data as of: The newest observation time among the values on a page, in UTC. Your browser may add the time elapsed since then.
Last changed: The date a page's data last changed materially: prices, cabins, nonstop space, airlines or open dates by month. It can be older than the newest observation.

Observation window and horizon

A value counts only when AwardTool observed it in the last 30 days; older cached values are left out, never carried forward as if they were new. Departures are scanned from the data date up to 365 days ahead. Each page states when its newest value was observed.

What “not seen” means

Not seen means AwardTool hasn't observed this cabin on this route in the last 30 days. It doesn't mean the airline has no seats. Programs release seats at different times, AwardTool tracks each program on its own set of routes, and a seat can be booked minutes after it was seen. A price AwardTool saw may be gone, and space it hasn't seen may exist.

Headline numbers

Titles, descriptions, summaries, highlight tiles and answers use a program's price only when that program showed award space in the cabin on 2 or more departure dates. Prices below 5,000 points in business or first, or below 2,000 points in economy, never appear in headlines, and when 3 or more programs cover a route and cabin, a price below a quarter of the others' median is left out of headlines too. Tables still show these values, so real sweet spots stay visible.

Which pages exist

A route page is published when at least one program showed award space on 2 or more departure dates in a cabin. Departure and arrival guides need 3 or more published routes; airline pages need a known airline name and 3 or more routes. When a page no longer meets its rule, it returns "not found" until award space is observed again.

Update cadence

The pages are rebuilt when a new snapshot is available, normally once a day. A page's "last changed" date moves only when its data changes materially, so it can be older than the newest observation on the page.

Limits

AwardTool observes cached searches, not a program's full inventory.
Program coverage differs, so counts between programs aren't directly comparable.
Prices are one-way, per passenger, in each program's own points or miles; taxes are in USD.
Transfer ratios and times come from AwardTool's transfer partner list and its review date; banks can change them at any time.
Nothing on these pages is a forecast or a promise of availability.

Corrections

If a page looks wrong, report a data problem with the page address and what you expected to see. Corrections to data follow the next snapshot; corrections to this page change its last-changed date.