Actually, that's a very common impression. I have gotten more than five emails asking "where is my XX (zone-based) award chart?"
After cheching out the new tool, I was also about to send you an email and thought I'd check here to be sure I couldn't find the answer.
Since this new tool is only for distance based awards, is there a way to use ANX to also compare with zone based awards? Here's my situation: I am looking at planning a pretty straightforward itinerary between two cities that are serviced but many carriers. I would like to know all of my options in terms of miles/points (e.g. AA, BA, CO, UA, SPG, AmEx, etc). Can I use ANX for this?
Thanks! I really appreciate all of your hard work.
Did a search just now, it used 14 points, but didn't find anything. There is 1 notice - "recovering from airline problem - session has been terminated due to inactivity".
Does this mean that the points were used but the search wasn't done? I can't complain, I didn't pay for my points, but you may want to look into this to avoid taking flak from premium members.
After cheching out the new tool, I was also about to send you an email and thought I'd check here to be sure I couldn't find the answer.
Since this new tool is only for distance based awards, is there a way to use ANX to also compare with zone based awards? Here's my situation: I am looking at planning a pretty straightforward itinerary between two cities that are serviced but many carriers. I would like to know all of my options in terms of miles/points (e.g. AA, BA, CO, UA, SPG, AmEx, etc). Can I use ANX for this?
Thanks! I really appreciate all of your hard work.
xlax
Well, I keep getting questions about why Distance Pricer doesn't zone-based pricing. You are the seventh person now.
I cannot comment on specific future features. However, zone-based award charts are significantly more difficult to price, due to the thousands of different pricing elements. However, be on the look out for another new tool, currently scheduled for release later this year, that will gives some reliefs on comparing zone-based award pricing.
Did a search just now, it used 14 points, but didn't find anything. There is 1 notice - "recovering from airline problem - session has been terminated due to inactivity".
Does this mean that the points were used but the search wasn't done? I can't complain, I didn't pay for my points, but you may want to look into this to avoid taking flak from premium members.
The notice is just to let you know that ANX had to recover from an airline issue. You may have noticed that the search took a little longer, due to the recovery. Regardless, if the search used 14 points, that means that all 14 days of searches were checked successfully.
The ANX backend has extensive safety checks in place, to ensure that your points are used only if a day of search is successful. You need not worry about points being wasted on airline site errors or connectivity issues.
The tool is improving fast. I already took advantage of it in the past, after some practice time.
Here are my questions. I do not send them to you privately because they might interest some others.
Does the new solution to the problems we got while searching for a F award with CO (showing two classes but pretending to show three) apply to our past dynamic searches?
When a search produces no result, is it absolutely certain there is no award available at that moment? And if that search producing zero results ends up costing points, is it because it could evolve in some finding later on? I know you already got that question, but the answer remained unclear to me (sorry about that).
A little supplement of canadian content would make me happy (for instance, regarding the Distance Pricer, but I understand I do not exactly represent the targeted market).
Thanks for your availability, courtesy, and nice tool.
Last edited by LearningToFly; Jul 24, 11 at 11:45 am..
Reason: mistake
The tool is improving fast. I already took advantage of it in the past, after some practice time.
Here are my questions. I do not send them to you privately because they might interest some others.
Does the new solution to the problems I got while searching with CO-two-classes-prentending-to-show-three apply to the past dynamic searches?
Why a search producing zero results ends up costing points, when no award at all is found? I know you already got that question, but the answer remained unclear to me (sorry about that). It happened tonight in my account.
A little supplement of canadian content would make me happy (for an example, in the Distance Pricer, but I understand I do not exactly represent the targeted market).
Thanks for your availability, tone check, and nice tool.
Thanks for trying out the new features.
The enhancement to Star Alliance (CO) came at the end of May. Now, when you specify Business, you will only get business class or 2-class first, while specifying First will get you 3-class first class.
It does not affect your past searches. Only new searches performed since then will have this new cabin detection logic in-place.
The reason points are used, even though no award were found, is because the lack of award is still a piece of useful information. For example, if you do a 14 days search, and only the last 2 days has the awards you want, you would still use 14 points, because now you know to limit your planning to those two days and not waste time checking the other dates.
I would love to add award pricing information for AC. Unfortunately, AC does not have a distance-based award chart, and the Distance Pricer only prices itinerary using distance-based award charts.
The reason why there is no "All Alliance" option is because that scenario is rarely needed. Most of the time, when you are redeeming an award, you are redeeming on a single alliance (plus maybe a few additional partners). It doesn't make sense for Route Explorer to return a route such as SFO-DFW on UA, DFW-FRA on AA, and FRA-CDG on AF, because there is no mileage program that I know which can combine airlines across alliance like that.
If you can think of an example where an "All" option would be needed, let me know.
If, on the other hand, what you mean is you want to see options for each specific alliance (e.g. limiting each individual route to a single alliance), then I can see why that would be nice. However, you can already do that by running 3 separate route explorations.
Yes, I meant the latter - To go from point A to point B, what are the
options in each specific alliance.
You are right, u can get this by running separate explorations, but i was
just being lazy
Yes, I meant the latter - To go from point A to point B, what are the
options in each specific alliance.
You are right, u can get this by running separate explorations, but i was
just being lazy
Make sense.
It's just that on some of these explorations, even just a single alliance already returns dozens of options, so I don't want to overwhelm the searcher with too many options from all 3 alliances. It's better to focus on the alliances one-at-a-time.
On limited tries I'm having no luck with TATL Oneworld awards. From the ANX Tips I think this is due to BA not providing any pass-through of partner award availability? I just tried a very simple off-season STL-CDG search that has tons of direct availability on aa.com and ANX came up empty. ANX finds domestic US awards no problem, so I think I'm doing it right.
Anyone else have this problem? I'd like to use the tool if it works for OW partners, but if BA effectively makes it not work then I'll stick with EF.
Thanks for any additional hints!
Edit: Just had good results STL-MAD for next April, so now not sure why STL-CDG failed.
Last edited by siankaan1; Jul 26, 11 at 7:01 am..
Reason: Add more info
On limited tries I'm having no luck with TATL Oneworld awards. From the ANX Tips I think this is due to BA not providing any pass-through of partner award availability? I just tried a very simple off-season STL-CDG search that has tons of direct availability on aa.com and ANX came up empty. ANX finds domestic US awards no problem, so I think I'm doing it right.
Anyone else have this problem? I'd like to use the tool if it works for OW partners, but if BA effectively makes it not work then I'll stick with EF.
Thanks for any additional hints!
Edit: Just had good results STL-MAD for next April, so now not sure why STL-CDG failed.
I think that is most likely the reason. If your search has a NOTICE message that says "BA-only," then BA.com didn't offer any partner coverage, and you won't see any AA flights as a result.
Normally, ANX will try to force BA partner coverage for you, by trying several start dates. However, on rare occasion BA.com persists on not offering partner options, so you will see that "BA-only" notice.
In your case, STL-CDG is also a route well-covered by Oneworld (QF), so I would use that instead. In fact, the usual recommended approach is to select all relevant airline sites (in this case, Oneworld (BA) and Oneworld (QF)), because this allows you to compare availability easily and discover any additional awards.
I think that is most likely the reason. If your search has a NOTICE message that says "BA-only," then BA.com didn't offer any partner coverage, and you won't see any AA flights as a result.
Normally, ANX will try to force BA partner coverage for you, by trying several start dates. However, on rare occasion BA.com persists on not offering partner options, so you will see that "BA-only" notice.
In your case, STL-CDG is also a route well-covered by Oneworld (QF), so I would use that instead. In fact, the usual recommended approach is to select all relevant airline sites (in this case, Oneworld (BA) and Oneworld (QF)), because this allows you to compare availability easily and discover any additional awards.
Including OW-QF turned up a lot of options. I'll just do that routinely. Thanks.
Including OW-QF turned up a lot of options. I'll just do that routinely. Thanks.
Yes. I generally recommend people select all relevant airline sites for that reason, as its striking to see how each site differ. If you use only one site, you are potentially missing out on lots of interesting options.
I also wrote a guide on how to do award searches effectively. You can read it at:
Programs: AA (Executive Platinum), SPG, BA Executive Club, Hilton (Gold), Hyatt (Platinum)
Posts: 29
Just tried all the new tools for the tool promotion. I think the Route Explorer is the most useful but super bummed I can't seem to find any flights to DAD (Da Nang, Vietnam). I'm trying to plan for a friend's wedding next year and finding the best route options to DAD would be very helpful as it seems multiple stops are in order and figuring out the best options for stopovers along the way is getting time consuming. I was hoping to be able to use this tool...but alas, no dice.
Just tried all the new tools for the tool promotion. I think the Route Explorer is the most useful but super bummed I can't seem to find any flights to DAD (Da Nang, Vietnam). I'm trying to plan for a friend's wedding next year and finding the best route options to DAD would be very helpful as it seems multiple stops are in order and figuring out the best options for stopovers along the way is getting time consuming. I was hoping to be able to use this tool...but alas, no dice.
Just to confirm, are you picking the right airlines/alliances?
DAD is not served, at all, by Oneworld, and only very minimally served by Star Alliance (I think Silk Air/SQ serves it). On the other hands, it is well-served by SkyTeam members VN and a few others. Therefore, unless you pick SkyTeam, you are very likely not going to get any route returned.
If you can post your origin city and what alliance you are trying to redeem for, I can give further suggestion.
