1. Search for Frequent Flyer Award Availability Like a Pro

Award Ticket Strategies

Unfortunately, there is no magical tool that lets you easily search for award availability across every possible airline. If you want to check all your options, you are going to have to use several different websites. And for some airlines, you’ll have no alternative other than calling in and talking to a phone representative.

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Key websites to search
One site to search them all
Award search tips
Searching for space on additional airlines
If you are having trouble finding availability

If you have transferable credit card points, you can book award tickets on American, Delta, or United Airlines—and over a hundred foreign airlines. Amex’s Membership Rewards, Chase’s Ultimate Reward, Citi’s ThankYou Rewards, Starwood’s Preferred Guest, and Diner’s Club Reward points transfer to programs that are members of all three of the big alliances. With any of these points, you can book awards on over a hundred different airlines, including Alaska, American, Delta, and United.
For international flight, you’ll need to search each alliance separately. There is no good tool for searching all the major airlines. But, there are tools that do a good job of searching across all, or nearly all, of the airlines in each alliance. When you use one of these tools, you’ll be searching dozens of airlines at a time.

For domestic flights, the most straightforward approach is to search for availability directly on each airline’s website. You can easily check Alaska’s, American’s, Delta’s, and United’s website, and any other airline for which you have points (such as Frontier).
For international flights, you should focus on the best websites for searching, not necessarily the frequent flyer program you want to use, or the airline you want to fly. In general, the same awards are available to all partner programs. But, some program’s websites search all or most partner airlines, and other websites will only search a smaller number of programs. You want to concentrate on the most comprehensive websites, that have the best user experiences. Once you find availability, you can book your award using any of the airline’s partners, not just the site you used to find it.
When you use these websites, try hard to ignore the points and fees (except to determine if regular (“saver”) space is available. You aren’t necessarily going to be using that program’s points to book your flight. The required number of points and fees will be different for the frequent flyer program you do wind up using. You are only using the website because it is better at searching than the alternatives.

Star Alliance

United Airline’s website provides the best experience for searching Star Alliance availability. It has a nice user interface, doesn’t require you to have an account, and allows you to view two months of information at a time. Unfortunately, it isn’t always completely accurate—it may not show all the available award space, and it may show award availability that doesn’t really exist. If you are having difficulty finding what you are need, make sure to try Air Canada’s site as well.

It also doesn’t always find available award space on Singapore, Shenzhen, and Swiss. So, if you might want to utilize these airlines, make sure to check Air Canada's site as well.

Air Canada’s Aeroplan website isn’t quite as convenient to search as United, returns more "phantom award space" (that doesn't really exist), and sometimes has a harder time finding connections. But it has the advantage of searching all the Star Alliance airlines. The major downside is that you’ll need to be logged in with an Air Canada frequent flyer account to search for flights. Fortunately, joining only takes a minute.
Only Singapore's own site will find business and first class space on Singapore Airlines.

SkyTeam

Delta’s website is a good option for searching for SkyTeam availability. If you will be using Delta miles, it conveniently searches many of Delta’s non-alliance partners (like Hawaiian Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Australia). However, Delta doesn’t search for availability on a few of the smaller SkyTeam airlines, so you might miss available space on Kenya Airways, Czech Airlines, TAROM, and Air Europa. For these airlines, make sure to search Air France as well.

Air France is the most comprehensive option for searching for SkyTeam award availability. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always do a good job of searching for connecting flights, and because of their dynamic pricing scheme, it is difficult to tell when regular ("saver-level") space is available, that you could book through other programs. We suggest checking Delta as well, and searching segment-by-segment on Air France, if you are having trouble finding space. You’ll need to be signed in with a Flying Blue account, in order to search for availability.

Oneworld

While American Airline's award searching functionality is well designed, they don't search enough airlines to be universally useful on international trips.

British Airways is the most comprehensive way to look for Oneworld availability. It searches most Oneworld partners, with the exceptions of LATAM Ecuador, LATAM Argentina, and Japan Transoceanic Air. You will need to be signed in with a British Airways frequent flyer account. It doesn’t always do a great job uncovering routes with connections, so try to concentrate on searching for individual segments.
Your other option is Qantas. They search most Oneworld airlines, but exclude Japan and Malaysian Airlines. While you can start searching without being logged-in, you will wind up needing to log-in with a Qantas Frequent flyer account before you can see any results. Qantas is also a good site for searching Emirates.

Cathay Pacific availability on British Airways and Qantas website is not always comprehensive. If you want to make sure you are seeing all the Cathay Pacific availability, you should check the Japan Airlines website. You will need to be signed in with a JAL Mileage Bank account.

Alaska

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If you have Alaska miles, make sure to check their well-designed website. They have some unique partners, and some unique limitations, such as only supporting each partner for certain regions. The best way to be sure you can book tickets with your Alaska miles is simply to use their site. However, Cathay Pacific and LAN are both important partners of Alaska Airlines, and aren't fully supported on the Alaska website. You’ll need to use a Oneworld search site to check for availability instead, and then call in to Alaska.

If you are willing to invest some extra effort, it is a good idea to search multiple sites for each alliance. Each site may uncover some options that another site doesn’t.
Take the time now, to make sure you are signed up for the key programs. Many airline websites only allow frequent flyer members to search for award tickets. You should register for accounts at Air Canada, Air France, British Airways, and Qantas, so that you are ready to search for awards. If you put off signing up, there will be one additional obstacle to conducting a more comprehensive search, when it is time to look for award space. You can wait to sign up for ANA and Japan Airlines until you need them.
Use AwardWallet to easily manage your loyalty program information. If you follow our advice, you'll wind up with frequent flyer accounts for a bunch of different programs—the programs you choose to earn miles with, the programs you need to belong to in order to search for award space, and the programs you need to transfer your credit card points to in order to book tickets. Fortunately AwardWallet provides a simple, free, and powerful tool for keeping track of all your loyalty account information, so you don't have to. Use AwardWallet to Easily Manage Your Loyalty Program Information.

One site to search them all

Award Flights is a tool that makes it easier to search several different websites or dates. You enter your information just once into the Award Flights tool, and it searches up to 8 different frequent flyer program websites, looking for award space on all their partner airlines. Each website's results are then displayed on a single screen. It will even search a range of dates (up to 30), and/or multiple origin and departure cities,, across the 8 different sites, as part of a single search.

Award Flights opens multiple browser tabs on your computer, and searches each frequent flyer program, using your own personal accounts. You can either enter the account information, for each frequent flyer program, into the Award Flights tool; or just make sure you are signed into each frequent flyer website, ahead of time.
The major drawback is speed. It can take some time to get results back from each of the different websites, especially if you are searching multiple dates, and it frequently has trouble getting results from at least one of the underlying websites.
It currently supports many of our recommended frequent flyer websites: Air Canada and ANA for Star Alliance, Air France / KLM for SkyTeam, and British Airways and Qantas for Oneworld. It also searches JAL, Singapore, and Etihad.
Awards Flights doesn’t provide the most polished experience, and it can be buggy. For example, you’ll need to enter 3-letter airport codes, rather than being able to enter city names, and you can’t easily see or sort the results by duration. But, it is way more convenient than entering the same search over and over again for different dates on different websites.
Award Flights is a “Chrome Extension”. That means it doesn’t run on mobile devices, and requires you to have the Chrome Browser installed. To get started, you have to click on a little icon on the right side of the address bar.
Award Nexus is a similar, more established, more stable, and slightly more polished tool, that searches mostly the same websites. It adds support for Cathay Pacific, but doesn’t support Singapore or Etihad. But, it costs money to use. Easier Award Search Using Premium Award Searching Tools.

To Be on the Safe Side

In order to search for flights, award.flights require your user names and passwords to sign into several different airline websites. Rather than giving them your real account information, you can set up "dummy" accounts to use with the tool. By logging in with the dummy account information, instead of your real information, they will still be able to search for award availability. But, you don't have to worry about an unknown company having access to your real account, your accumulated points, and your personal information.

Award search tips

When possible, search one direction at a time. Most frequent flyer programs allow for one-way awards. As with regular airfare searches, searching for one direction at a time, makes it much simpler to track the various flight options to and from your destination. You might also find space there with one program, and space back with another.
As with searching for regular airfares, make sure to try alternate dates and airports. The more flexibility you have with your travel dates, the easier it is to find award space. Maybe you can leave or return a day or two earlier or later, or travel one of several different weeks.
You can’t entirely trust the award search calendar—search for each date individually. Some websites have calendars that show whether award space is available on other days of the week or month. These seem convenient, but they just aren’t that reliable. Some site’s calendars only show availability on the airline’s own flights. Even when the calendar shows partner availability, they don’t always show award availability on all the days where award tickets are really available. And when they do show availability, it may be for a horrible routing. Calendars can give you a rough idea of what to expect in terms of availability; but if you want to be sure, you need to check each date individually.

Be careful about award space you see on the airline’s own flights. If a website shows availability on a partner airline, you should be able to book it using any other partner’s frequent flyer miles. However, if it shows availability for its own flights, these may not be bookable elsewhere. For example, if you are searching on United Airlines, and you see availability on Lufthansa, you should be able to book those tickets with miles from any Star Alliance program. But, if you see availability on United itself, you may not.

Only the flights at the regular (saver) level are ever available at partners, and not always then. Sometimes airlines make additional award space available to their own members, or only allow their own members to book first class tickets. Whenever you see availability on the airline’s own flights, and you are planning to book your tickets with another program, you need to double-check that the award space is available to a partner program.

Be careful about award space you see on non-alliance partners. Each of these websites searches a few additional partner airlines, not just the airlines that are part of the alliance. Award space on non-alliance partners may not be able to be booked with miles from another program. For example, if you are searching on Qantas, you may uncover availability on Jetstar, that you could book with Qantas miles, but wouldn’t be able to book with your Ultimate Rewards or Membership Reward points.

If you have elite status (or the airline’s credit card), make sure to sign-in before searching for awards. You might have access to additional award space that the general-public does not. Remember that this extra space is only available if you are going to be booking with the airline’s own frequent flyer miles.

Airlines sometimes make new award seats available for a flight, so it can be worthwhile to keep checking. Usually, an airline will make a certain amount of space available when they start allowing seats to be booked (a little less than a year ahead of time). But, as they see how things are going, they may make additional award space available. Or someone might cancel an award ticket, and their seats may become available again. For business, and especially first-class tickets, the airline may not make space available until shortly before the flight dates.
Flights become available for booking at different times with different programs. One program may let you book award tickets 365 days ahead of time, and another program may only let you book 330 days ahead of time. However, the underlying airline may not make their award space available as early as a program will let you book them. If you are booking a year ahead of time, you’ll want to search with a program that offers earlier booking of award tickets.

Searching for space on additional airlines

Searching the key airline websites (listed above) WON’T search all the airlines that you can book with your points. They only search the airlines that are part of the big alliances, plus a set of additional partner airlines. Because you can transfer your credit card points to a large number of different frequent flyer programs, and each of those programs has a large number of airline partners, there are dozens of additional non-alliance partners where you can book award tickets, that aren't being searched by our recommended frequent flyer program websites.

Find all the unaffiliated airlines that fly where you want to go. There is no sense in searching every single airline that you can book with your points. The first step is to figure out which airlines offer flights to where you want to go. You can use several different tools described in our guide to Find All the Flight Options to Your Destination.

Narrow down the list to just those airlines you can book with your points. Check our List of Which Miles Work for Which Airlines to see which of the airlines that fly to your destination can be booked with the types of miles and points that you have.
Cross off any unaffiliated airlines that you already searched with the key websites above. If you've started with the major sites, you don't have to search any airline that belongs to the three big alliances. In addition, each of our recommended websites also searches some of that program’s non-alliance partners. If you already used the listed website, you don’t have to individually check the partner airlines listed below.

United Airlines

British Airways

Qantas

Delta

Air France

Aer Lingus

Aeromar

Air Dolomiti

Cape Air

Edelweiss

Germanwings

Hawaiian Intra-Island

Island Air

Silver Airways

AerLingus

FlyBe

Meridiana

Aer Lingus

Air Niugini

Air North

Air Vanuatu

El-Al

Emirates

Fiji

Jetstar / Valuair

GOL

Jet

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Australia

Aircalin

Hop!

Transavia

Search each remaining airline for availability. Unfortunately, you usually have to search them one-by-one.

The most convenient way to search for additional availability is to use ExpertFlyer. This premium service provides a consistent experience for searching for award tickets on many different airlines. Because it only searches one airline at a time, we prefer to start our searches with the key websites discussed above. But, when you need to search any remaining individual airlines, it is easier to use ExpertFlyer than it is to use the airline’s own websites. The main drawback is that you’ll need to pay to use the service. However, you can always just temporarily subscribe when you need to plan a trip that is hard to book. Easier Award Search Using Premium Award Searching Tools.

You can usually search for availability on the airline’s own website. Most airlines let you search for availability for their own flights, even if they don’t do a good job of searching partner airlines. If you aren’t willing to pay for an ExpertFlyer subscription, or you need to search an airline that ExpertFlyer doesn’t support, your best bet is to go directly to the airline’s website, and look for an award search feature. Remember, go to the website of the airline you want to fly, not the website of the frequent flyer program you want to use. Be careful that you only look for regularly-priced (saver) awards.
If you don’t see an award searching option on the home page, make sure to check the frequent flyer section of the website. Sometimes, you need to go to the part of the site about “using miles” to find the award booking functionality. In most cases, you will also need to join the frequent flyer program, before you can search—even though you are eventually going to book with another airline’s program.
Sometimes, you just need to get on the phone, and talk to someone. Theoretically, you can call the airline directly, or call any of their partners. We prefer utilizing a partner based in an English-speaking country (if possible), and ideally one where we already have an account.

If you are having trouble finding availability

You may not find any award availability on the dates you want to travel. Or, you may only find availability for flights which are too inconvenient to be interesting.

Make sure you are checking all your options. Don’t forget to search alternative airports, alternative dates, and alternative airlines.
Look for availability for your long-haul flight, and work from there. There may simply be no award space between your home city and your destination. However, it may be possible to book an award ticket for the main part of your trip, and then purchase an inexpensive additional ticket to get to the departure city and/or your final destination.
Search for award space segment-by-segment. Award searching sites will look for award space on many different combinations of flights to your destination. But, they never search all your options. If you are having trouble finding space, you can try to construct your own itinerary by combining available award space on individual flight segments. Perhaps you can find award space that travels through a more out-of-the-way connecting point, that has a longer-than-normal connection time, or that makes an additional stop. Search Segment-by-Segment to Find Hidden Award Space.
Make sure to check the available airlines directly. If you have enough points with, or can transfer points to, the frequent flyer program of an airline that you can fly to your destination, you probably want to double-check the airline’s own website for availability. Many airlines offer additional award space to members of their own frequent flyer program.

For example, if you use the Air Canada website to search for awards across the Star Alliance, you will find any Singapore Airlines award space that is made available to partner programs. But, when you search on Singapore Airlines’ own website, you might find additional availability, that is only available when redeeming Singapore Airline miles.

Keep trying. People cancel award tickets. Airlines periodically make new awards space available. Just because you couldn’t find any award availability today, doesn’t mean that you won’t find any tomorrow. If you don’t mind spending some money, you can take advantage of ExpertFlyer’s availability notification service. They will send you an alert if new award seats become available for a flight. Easier Award Search Using Premium Award Searching Tools.
Especially if you are looking for premium tickets, you might find availability once it gets close to your departure date. Airlines often postpone making premium award tickets available, until they see how many business and first-class tickets they can sell. It may make sense to book alternative flights, and then look again when you get closer to booking. This happens with economy award space as well, but much less frequently.
If you need space for more than two people, you might need to book the tickets in chunks. Sometimes airlines will only have a limited number of available award seats at any given time, but will add additional award space once that space is gone. For example, they may never show four seats available, but two additional seats might become available as soon as the existing two seats are booked. Depending on the costs of cancelling the award, you can book whatever seats that are available, and hope that additional space opens up.