Awardfares: A Complete Guide to the Tool for Finding the Best Award Tickets

Introducing AwardFares

AwardFares is an online platform designed to simplify and optimize the search for award tickets. By centralizing information from different loyalty programs, this tool enables both novice and expert travellers to find award tickets at the best possible price. Its integration of the major airline alliances and its advanced search options make it a very interesting tool for planning complex trips.

AwardFares is distinguished by several unique features:

• Real-time results: Unlike some tools that rely on cached data, AwardFares provides up-to-date information when you launch a search.
• Intuitive interface: With its modern, accessible design, the tool is suitable for everyone, even novice users.
• Customized alerts: Set up notifications to be informed as soon as an award ticket matching your criteria (routes, dates, cabin class) becomes available.
• Trip planner: Plan complex itineraries with several segments, saving them for an overview of your journey.
• Search by metropolitan area: Perform a global search covering several airports at once, or by travel area. For example, a search from YUL to NYC includes all Montreal and New York airports (JFK, EWR and LGA) and EUR will give you many options to Europe.
• Timeline View: View availability on a colour-coded monthly calendar, making it easy to quickly identify days when award seats are available by cabin class.
• Multi-program comparison: Compare availability between several loyalty programs in a single search.
• Global searches: Access recent results from other users saved in AwardFares, enabling you to explore itineraries between an entire region and a given airport.
• Spanish language: AwardFares is currently the only premium ticket search tool available in Spanish.

Although other tools, such as ExpertFlyer, Point.me or Seats.aero, offer similar specific features, I find that AwardFares stands out for its real-time results and chronological view. Secondly, the tool combines the speed and breadth of global searches with advanced customization and planning tools, meeting the needs of a wide range of travellers.

Why Use AwardFares?

The use of AwardFares is justified for several reasons. Firstly, saving time is a major argument. Rather than browsing airline or loyalty program websites individually, AwardFares lets you carry out a centralized search, bringing together all available options in one place.

Secondly, the real-time results save us from frustration, as there should be no ghost results when we arrive to book. Then, the tool offers additional precision by highlighting options often ignored by traditional search engines, such as the “saver” price search.

Finally, its flexibility means it can meet the varied needs of users, whether they are looking for direct flights or are prepared to accept stopovers to save points, unlike other programs where you can only search on a route where there are direct flights.

AwardFares – Key Features

Search for Award Tickets

AwardFares simplifies an often tedious and time-consuming process, especially when faced with the slowness of some airline websites. With this tool, all you have to do is enter your departure airport, destination and desired dates to access an overview of available flights. This approach eliminates the need to search date by date manually. You can also select up to five frequent flyer programs to compare options.

When a specific search is performed (for example, from airport X to airport Y on a specific date), AwardFares retrieves the data directly from the airlines. On the other hand, broader searches, including multiple dates or regions, do not activate this real-time process, but rely on results previously found by other users.

To select a date range, hold down the “shift” key to select an entire period rather than a single day. This feature is particularly useful for flexible travellers looking for the best rates.

Expanded searches allow you to specify a country, continent or entire region as your destination. As mentioned above, they do not launch new searches for every possible route. These results come only from searches performed by other users. For example, if flights between Montreal and Paris, Brussels or Madrid have recently been searched for, these options will appear in the list when you explore fares to Europe from Montreal.

To obtain up-to-date data directly from the airlines, it is necessary to specify specific airports or metropolitan areas, such as BRU, MAD or PAR (including CDG and ORY for Paris).

AwardFares also offers open itinerary searches, allowing you to explore options without a fixed destination, i.e. from “anywhere” to “anywhere”. This is a promising feature, but I found it difficult to filter results effectively. For example, when searching for all possible flights from YUL, error messages frequently appeared. Although some affordable results are displayed (such as FRA to ARN), they lack relevance if you’re not already in FRA.

Nevertheless, it is possible to define a departure airport with a filter, or to search for a destination “anywhere”. However, results are only displayed if they have been previously found by other users.

Viewing Calendars

Viewing availability in calendar format is one of the key features of AwardFares. It allows you to quickly identify the days when award tickets are most available, and to see the number of seats available. This view is particularly useful for families looking to book multiple tickets.

Users can adjust their dates according to availability and compare a large period at a glance, a major advantage for long-term planning. However, this function requires users to manually click on each date to obtain detailed results, unless these are already stored in the tool’s database.

To speed up the process, you can launch several searches simultaneously by selecting the dates of interest and letting AwardFares work in the background; the “magnifying glass” icon above each date in the calendar view allows you to relaunch searches in real time for precise, up-to-date results.

Seats.aero also offers a Calendar view that shows you the cheapest award for each day, across every program. See what it finds in our test of the Seats.aero Calendar view on Montreal–Paris.

Results Display

The results are clearly presented, making them easy to read and analyze. For example, the availability and quantity of award tickets in the various classes of service are colour-coded for easy identification. Detailed information, such as flight schedules, flight numbers and partner airlines, gives users the tools they need to make informed decisions, especially if aircraft choice is an important criterion for you. Additionally, itineraries can be saved for later analysis simply by clicking on the little “+” box to the right of each line.

One of the greatest assets of AwardFares is its ability to compare options between different loyalty programs. Comparing points costs between different programs is a major advantage, enabling travellers to quickly identify the most economical options and the best program to transfer their Membership Rewards points to.

I took the time to cross-check the results provided by AwardFares with the official airline websites.

Here are the results I found with AwardFares:

The results on the Flying Blue website for the same flight are as follows:

The points-based fare is identical for economy class, but there is a slight difference for economy privilege and business class. What’s more, the fees associated with Flying Blue are in US dollars. So always check with the official website to be sure you’re getting the right information.

Access to Airline Alliances

AwardFares simplifies access to the availability of major airline alliances, including Star Alliance, Oneworld and SkyTeam. By pooling this information, it’s easy to take advantage of airline partnerships and compare all your options.

However, it is not possible to search directly for Oneworld flights with programs using the Avios currency. To find these flights, it is necessary to select American Airlines AAdvantage or Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards (formerly Mileage Plan) in the tool. This is a significant disadvantage for Canadians, as the main way to earn AAdvantage miles is via RBC Rewards, which is much more limited compared to Avios. The latter has a direct accumulation method, more transfer partners and rates that are often more advantageous, i.e. with generous bonuses. Additionally, unlike Avios, there is no solution for earning Atmos Rewards points directly via credit cards in Canada.

Although this tool allows you to explore the availability of Oneworld flights via these programs, the prices and fees displayed will not always be perfectly accurate if you use Avios to finalize the booking after a search carried out with another program. However, it remains a practical solution for locating availability, even if the final Avios costs may differ slightly.

Here are the air programs available on AwardFares:

This tool also lets you quickly find flight times and availability in each fare class, so you know how many passengers are on the plane. This is a very interesting feature, as it helps to temper expectations. Indeed, if the business class cabin is already full, even if you set an alert, the chances of finding a seat are slimmer.

What’s more, this feature is handy for determining your chances of upgrading with an upgrade wager or upgrade credits.

AwardFares – Other Functions

Availability Alerts

AwardFares’ availability alerts save you precious time, and prevent you from having to repeat the same searches. Once set up, they alert you as soon as an award ticket meeting your criteria becomes available, giving you a decisive advantage when it comes to booking the most coveted seats.

Since August 2025, AwardFares has completely rethought this system with the launch of “Intelligent Alerts”, comprising two formats:

• Live Alerts – For travel planners. They follow precise itineraries with defined dates, and can now monitor multiple routes and date ranges in a single alert. AwardFares proactively searches availability for you and sends a notification by email or push.
• Flex Alerts – For exploratory travelers. They use artificial intelligence to find high-value opportunities according to broad criteria: entire regions, “Anywhere”, “Anytime” or multiple loyalty programs. Ideal for open plans or travel inspiration. Notifications are sent by push only, so you can react quickly to the best offers.

Combine the two to maximize your chances. Create a “target” Live Alert for your ideal itinerary, a broader one to cover other options, and a Flex Alert to detect surprise offers.

To create an alert, go to the “Alerts” page and click on “Add Alert” on the right-hand side of the screen. You can then select your loyalty program, define the route and the date for which you wish to create an alert.

You can also apply all AwardFares filters during creation: cabin, number of passengers, airlines, maximum price in miles, number of stopovers, maximum duration, stopover time, flight number, etc.

For example, I’ve set up alerts for business class flights to France from Montreal with Flying Blue, for a trip in March.

Cabin Layout

“Seat maps” option in AwardFares allows you to view the location of seats that are free, occupied or blocked by the airline. Although the results are generally accurate for flights within the next 24 hours, the seat map does not necessarily reflect the actual number of tickets sold. Indeed, many passengers don’t pay to choose their seats in advance, or simply wait until check-in to do so, so an empty seat plan doesn’t necessarily mean the flight is empty.

This AwardFares feature comes in handy because you don’t need to find the right aircraft model with your date and flight number; the tool does it for you!

AwardFares – Subscription Plans

AwardFares offers a range of subscription plans to suit different user needs.

• Free plan: Access to basic searches with limited results.
• Gold Plan: Personalized alerts and multi-program searches for CA$13.99 per month (CA$139 per year).
• Diamond Plan: Full functionality with unlimited alerts for CA$27.99 per month (CA$279 per year).

The free plan is ideal for getting to know the tool. Paid plans, meanwhile, unlock advanced features such as personalized alerts and multi-program searches. These options enable regular users to further optimize their experience. The Diamond plan also includes priority access to customer support for specific questions or problems related to premium ticket searches.

Tips and Best Practices

Search Optimization

To maximize results, it is advisable to remain flexible on travel dates. By adjusting plans slightly, a user can gain access to award tickets that are difficult to obtain at other times. AwardFares lets you do this very quickly with its chronological view. Furthermore, doing your research well in advance (ideally a year in advance), especially for high-season periods, greatly increases your chances of success. Or very last minute if you’re very flexible with your plans!

Understanding Limitations

Although powerful, AwardFares depends on data provided by frequent flyer programs. Some flights may not appear in the results, due to airline restrictions. Also, although the search is carried out in real time, errors may creep into the results. So it’s always a good idea to check directly with the frequent flyer program before making up your mind or finalizing a booking.

AwardFares – Steps to Find a Low-cost Award Ticket

1. Configure search

• Choose your loyalty program(s) (e.g. Flying Blue).
• Enter your departure and arrival airports. For greater flexibility, use metropolitan area codes such as NYC to include all airports in a city.

1. Explore Availability

• Use the Timeline View to quickly see which days have seats available, thanks to the colour-coded calendar (green = high availability).
• Adjust your dates, by clicking on them, to maximize your options.

1. Filter and compare options

• Refine the results according to your preferences (number of stopovers, duration, airline, price).
• Compare costs in points between several programs to identify the most economical option.

1. Setting up alerts

• If the flight you are looking for is not available, create an alert to receive notification as soon as a corresponding award seat becomes available.

1. Finalize reservation

• Once you’ve found a flight, confirm availability and book directly on the relevant loyalty program website.

Bottom Line

AwardFares stands out as an essential tool for travellers wishing to maximize the value of their points. Thanks to its many features, ease of use and customization options, it can meet the expectations of even the most demanding users. Whether you’re an occasional traveller or a loyalty program regular, AwardFares is a great resource that will save you time and energy when planning your travels with points.

Plus, AwardFares offers impressive flexibility to explore travel options according to your specific needs. For example, it is possible to search for itineraries based on a specific number of points, a particularly useful feature for optimizing your bookings. While there is room for improvement, such as simplified navigation to quickly access available dates without having to click on “show more” and scroll through the results to find what suits you, the AwardFares team continues to refine its tools to better meet user expectations.

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Frequently Asked Questions