Frequently Asked Questions

AwardTool is an award travel search engine for flights and hotel stays you can book with points and miles. It searches 28 airline loyalty programs, shows each award's points price next to its taxes and fees, and helps you compare programs, dates, routes and cabins. When you find the right award, you book it directly with the loyalty program.

Yes. Searching award flights and hotels on AwardTool is free. A free account includes 4-day real-time searches, multi-city and round-trip searches, 90 days of route data, 3 award alerts and access to flight deals. AwardTool Pro is an optional paid plan for travelers who want year-round searches, more alerts and an ad-free experience.

You can explore Panorama, Explore, route calendars, award hotels and Live Seat Map without signing in. A free AwardTool account unlocks full Real-Time Search and Mega Search results, award alerts, Award Wallet and your search history.

AwardTool helps you find and compare award space. Complete the ticket through the applicable airline loyalty program or its supported booking channel.

AwardTool puts live award searches across 28 loyalty programs, flexible-destination Panorama searches, route calendars that cover up to a year, award alerts, award hotel search and a transfer-partner cheat sheet in one place. Our comparison guide explains how the main award search tools differ, so you can pick the one that fits how you travel.

Most of AwardTool's award availability comes from established travel data providers, and some airlines share their availability with us through APIs. We don't run web crawlers to collect data from airline websites. Our engineers process and check the data continuously so your searches stay fast and dependable.

Yes. AwardTool is available for iPhone on the App Store and for Android on Google Play. Sign in with the same AwardTool account you use on the website.

AwardTool is available in 22 languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Arabic. Pick yours from the language menu at the bottom of any page, and AwardTool remembers it on that device. Loyalty program and airline names keep their official spelling.

AwardTool searches 28 airline loyalty programs: Aeromexico Club Premier, Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Alaska Atmos Rewards, American Airlines AAdvantage, Avianca LifeMiles, Azul TudoAzul, British Airways Executive Club, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Copa ConnectMiles, Delta SkyMiles, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Finnair Plus, GOL Smiles, JAL Mileage Bank, JetBlue True Blue, Lufthansa Miles & More, Qantas Frequent Flyer, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, SAS EuroBonus, Singapore KrisFlyer, Spirit, TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go, Turkish Miles & Smiles, United MileagePlus, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, and Virgin Australia Velocity.

Use Real-Time Search when you know your airports and dates. Use Panorama when your destination or dates are flexible: it explores award space across regions, countries, cities and airports. Explore shows recent award deals for inspiration, route calendars show the award dates on one route across the year, and Mega Search runs many routes and dates in one search.

AwardTool's real-time results are usually ready in about 10 to 20 seconds. International routes, and searches across many dates or airports, can take a little longer.

In AwardTool, one origin, one destination and one date make one entry. A 36-entry search can cover one route on 36 dates, or one airport to two airports on 18 dates, and so on. Free accounts can search 36 entries within a 15-day period; AwardTool Pro members can search them anywhere in the next 365 days.

Mega Search runs one real-time search across up to 35 route and date combinations in the loyalty programs you pick, out of 20 it supports. Free accounts can pick 2 programs per search and run a few Mega Searches a day; AwardTool Pro members can pick up to 6.

Yes. AwardTool searches for up to 9 travelers, counting adults and children aged 2-11 together, in economy, premium economy, business or first class, or in combined cabins such as business and first. Awards are priced per traveler, so check that the program shows enough seats for your whole group.

Some awards combine cabins: a long flight in business class can connect to a short flight in economy, and the loyalty program prices the trip as a business-class award. Open the itinerary in AwardTool to see each flight's cabin, and use the premium-cabin percentage filter, where it's available, to keep only the coverage you want.

Try nearby dates or airports, remove optional filters or compare another loyalty program. When your plans are flexible, Panorama can show where awards are open instead. When your dates are fixed, set an award alert and AwardTool keeps checking for you. An empty search doesn't prove that no award exists for your trip.

Taxes, fees, and carrier surcharges are separate from the points price. AwardTool shows estimated cash amounts when available; confirm the final total during booking.

Award seats change quickly: another traveler may have booked them, or the program may have changed the price since AwardTool last saw it. Panorama, Explore and route calendars start from stored data and show how recently each award was seen, so refresh a promising result and confirm the seats and price with the loyalty program before you transfer points. Most point transfers can't be reversed.

Panorama, Explore and route calendars start from award data AwardTool has stored for more than 50,000 routes, and they show how recently each award was seen. You can ask AwardTool to refresh a route: free accounts get one route request or refresh every three days, and Pro members get three prioritized ones every day. Real-Time Search checks the loyalty programs live.

Not necessarily. A seat for sale, or an open seat on the cabin map, doesn't mean the loyalty program offers it as an award. Search AwardTool for your number of travelers and confirm the award seats with the program you'll book with.

Yes. AwardTool works with its data providers and with airlines to add loyalty programs, and new programs appear in the search filters as soon as they're ready.

Save the routes, dates, cabins, programs, points, and tax limits that matter to you. AwardTool checks for matching availability on a regular basis and notifies you when a match is found.

AwardTool checks flight alerts every 3 to 6 hours, and more often for Pro members. When it finds a match, AwardTool emails you, and Pro members can add a phone number to get SMS notifications too. Panorama alerts scan AwardTool's stored award data regularly instead of running live searches.

Free AwardTool accounts include 3 award alerts. AwardTool Pro includes 100 advanced award alerts with SMS notifications, plus unlimited Panorama alerts. You need to be signed in to create an alert.

AwardTool has real-time flight alerts, which actively check the loyalty programs for your routes, dates and cabins; Panorama alerts, which watch whole regions and long date ranges in AwardTool's stored award data and need a maximum points price per traveler; hotel alerts for the hotels you choose; and United upgrade alerts.

No. An AwardTool alert tells you when matching award space appears, but it doesn't reserve it. Award seats can go quickly, so check the result and book with the loyalty program soon after you're notified.

Not by default: an AwardTool alert turns off after its first notification. AwardTool Pro members can turn on Infinite mode, which keeps an alert running after a match so you keep receiving updates.

Yes. AwardTool Hotels searches award nights at Marriott Bonvoy, IHG One Rewards, World of Hyatt and Hilton Honors hotels by city, landmark or address. It compares points and cash rates, shows the value you get per point, and opens a calendar of award rates for each hotel so you can find the nights that work.

Not always. Check every night of your stay in AwardTool's hotel calendar, then confirm the full stay, room type, number of guests and total price with the hotel program before you book or transfer points.

Yes. Create a hotel alert in AwardTool, choose the hotels you want and set the most points you'd pay per night. AwardTool lets you know when award nights open up at that price.

AwardTool's transfer partners cheat sheet compares 6 transferable points currencies, American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One Miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, and Wells Fargo Rewards, across 27 airline and 9 hotel loyalty programs, with each transfer ratio and its estimated transfer time.

The points or miles amount is the award price shown by the airline loyalty program. If you plan to use transferable bank points, confirm the transfer partner and ratio before moving points.

No. Find an award on AwardTool first and confirm with the loyalty program that the seats and price are still available. Then check the current transfer ratio and any transfer bonus before you move points, because most transfers can't be reversed.

Award Wallet keeps your airline miles, bank points and hotel rewards balances together in one private view in your AwardTool account. You enter each balance yourself, so AwardTool never asks for your loyalty program passwords. Check a balance with its program before you book.

AwardTool's Live Seat Map shows a flight's cabin layout and which seats are standard, extra comfort or unavailable, so you can see where you'd sit before you book. It doesn't show how many seats the program offers as awards, and it doesn't reserve a seat. AwardTool Pro includes unlimited Live Seat Map.

AwardTool Pro costs $12.99 a month or $109.99 a year on the AwardTool website. The yearly plan works out to $9.17 a month, 29% less than paying monthly. Prices in the iOS and Android apps can differ.

AwardTool Pro adds 36-entry real-time searches anywhere in the next 365 days, 365 days of Panorama data with a 90-day search range, 100 advanced award alerts with SMS notifications, unlimited Panorama alerts, three prioritized route refreshes every day, unlimited Live Seat Map, unlimited yearly hotel data and flight deals, and an ad-free experience.

Sign in, open Settings and choose Cancel Plan on your plan page; Manage Subscription on the same page handles your billing. Your Pro access continues until the end of the period you've paid for. If you subscribed in the iPhone or Android app, manage the subscription in the App Store or Google Play.

We don't offer refunds for AwardTool Pro subscriptions. If something isn't working as expected, please email us at team@awardtool.com. We'll work with you to make it right.

Yes. The AwardTool enterprise API offers real-time award search, Panorama availability cached across more than 50,000 routes, award hotel data and seat maps for travel products and businesses. Request access on the API page; an API key is issued once your request is approved.

Email team@awardtool.com for questions and support, or partnership@awardtool.com for advertising, partnerships and API access. The AwardTool team replies within 1-2 business days.