Service to find award flights?

A

arbcat

Junior Member
Joined
May 26, 2011
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Are there any services to engage to find FF flights? Or tools that one can use

So I've points all over the place, you all know the story..
- Asiamiles
- Qantas
- Amex
- Others

Trying to find a large multi-segment journey at the best value is a bit of a nightmare?

An example of the difference is:
- BA charge 100% more for PE, CX charge 20%?
- Some routes fees are a little insane, eg, BA LHR-HKG >>> CX LHR-HKG
- CX availability is a bit garbage right now
- Some direction make lots of sense (MEL-TYO) is only 31k QF + ~150 tax.

While starting the process to decipher all of this, has anybody either used a paid service of somebody does this stuff day-to-day, or used any tools they found very useful, or have made any tools?

For a laff, I put this into chatgpt. Chatgpt(4) doesn't even think CX flies MEL-HKG..
 

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arbcat said:
Are there any services to engage to find FF flights? Or tools that one can use

So I've points all over the place, you all know the story..
- Asiamiles
- Qantas
- Amex
- Others

Trying to find a large multi-segment journey at the best value is a bit of a nightmare?

An example of the difference is:
- BA charge 100% more for PE, CX charge 20%?
- Some routes fees are a little insane, eg, BA LHR-HKG >>> CX LHR-HKG
- CX availability is a bit garbage right now
- Some direction make lots of sense (MEL-TYO) is only 31k QF + ~150 tax.

While starting the process to decipher all of this, has anybody either used a paid service of somebody does this stuff day-to-day, or used any tools they found very useful, or have made any tools?

For a laff, I put this into chatgpt. Chatgpt(4) doesn't even think CX flies MEL-HKG..
Click to expand...
I find the easiest tool to search for awards is https://seats.aero/
I have only trialled the free app however the interface makes it very user friendly compared to ExpertFlyer.
 
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Freq Flier 2013 said:
This is also another alternative
www.iflyflat.com.au

iFLYflat - The Points Whisperer

IFLYFLAT – Australia’s #1 Points Travel Experts. The smart way for business owners to fly Business Class. Unlock your ultimate travel and lifestyle advantage by purposefully using points to access Business Class for a fraction of the price — and NEVER FLY ECONOMY AGAIN.
www.iflyflat.com.au www.iflyflat.com.au
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$3,800 to find points flights for me and Mrs D?? Don't think so.
I could take a fortnight off for that money and do it myself, at average weekly wage
 
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I've never used the AFF service and I'm sure it's great but just noticed that with the 'new' Award Flight Assist service comes some 'new' pricing....it's now 10% of the fare price.

This would mean assistance with a return Business Class flight to Europe or the Americas could now cost upwards of $1000 per person (10% of 10k flight tickets). Obviously it's a business so charge whatever you like/value it at and what people are willing to pay - but this does seem like a substantial increase over the 'old' published prices and into the realm of iFLYFlat pricing

Is there a reason for this? More costs? Better Service? Lack of reward seats? The new AFF owners?
 
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freqflyer77 said:
is there a reason for this? More costs? Better Service? Lack of reward seats?
Click to expand...
Yes, I also noticed the enhanced pricing. I’m pretty sure it reflects firstly the absolute amount of time needs to be put in to fulfil a request ( which could be quite specific in terms of routes and times) and also as you say the scarcity of reward seats at the moment.

And again I value my own time, so if I had a request, I’d get a quote and then consider whether I want to pay what they want to charge
 
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Yep totally agree - time is a valuable commodity and outsourcing it can be a good idea. Was just wondering if there were any specific reasons for the jump in prices as I was looking at asking for help. I guess inflation hits everywhere!
 
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Freq Flier 2013 said:
You know how to look for award flights but not everyone does. There are only a few services that help book flights on points and it’s about options for the OP
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Indeed it is. And I was helpfully pointing out to the OP that your suggestion will cost them 75 hours wages.... i could learn VCE French in that time, let alone booking a few fights :D:D:D
 
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AFF Editor said:
Just a heads-up that the Award Flight Assist service has been replaced by a new one which is run by AFF called Frequent Flyer Concierge. :)

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Oh! That’s a bit confusing because iflyflat also call their service ‘concierge’ :(

Very happy the AFF site uses google flights for the cost comparison and fee schedule. Most other blog sites and services value redemptions on a sector by sector one way walk up fare, which is not an accurate valuation.
 
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Duffa said:
Indeed it is. And I was helpfully pointing out to the OP that your suggestion will cost them 75 hours wages.... i could learn VCE French in that time, let alone booking a few fights :D:D:D
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:) it’s taken me considerably longer to learn French. 1 year in school and hours via the various apps over the years. However, I do admit I should put more effort into it.
 
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Thanks all for the feedback.

So I've started with seats.aero and signed up. It honestly saved me hours right off the bat (a single 2day lot of CX J in 3 months found in seconds. (Thanks @KSC!) Transferring points to AA was a great idea also, the surcharges as just so much less.

I'd pay ~500 PP for the service, but more than that means it's more satisfaction to do it oneself even if you don't find "the best".

Also rewardflightfinder looks the best for BA flights if you have lots of avois, but beware of the stupid costs to egress UK in J.
Post automatically merged:

Thanks all for the feedback.

I'd also say, do look at the points value. Some airlines are 2x Y = J, some are way worse.
 
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Would just like to recommend Seats.aero as well. Paying customer here, no free shilling but it's helped me secure 4 flights recently with their notification stuff, pretty sweet!
 
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trendwhore said:
Would just like to recommend Seats.aero as well. Paying customer here, no free shilling but it's helped me secure 4 flights recently with their notification stuff, pretty sweet!
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Downloaded and tried it AKL-SYD in Mar and Aug 24, no flights then tried setting up a log in and it tells my email is invalid.
Any ideas what I may be doing wrong?
 
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cambriamarsh said:
Downloaded and tried it AKL-SYD in Mar and Aug 24, no flights then tried setting up a log in and it tells my email is invalid.
Any ideas what I may be doing wrong?
Click to expand...
Do you have a BigPond email? I did and it also gave me an error. I contacted them and they said yes, have issues with BigPond and to redo it with another email and it then worked fine.
 
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