Originally Posted by
mileshound
Great points and I thought of most of these. I am going into this with my eyes wide open but realize it can not solve every issue, nor will I try. I envision this as a 1 stop reference guide. For example, you may not know if you get a high,med or low tier with DL or US, but the chart could reference what the possibilities are. It also will not tell you that BA and AA are the same miles but AA has a lower out of pocket cost.
It is all about identifying possibilities. If airline A offers seats for less miles than airline B, I want that identified. I still have to do the legwork to see if seats are available and at the lower price.
Also, I do not want to keep going to 10 different airline websites to see their award charts. I would have one reference guide. This alone is a time saver.
I will start this week with some *A carriers. Also, I am only going to tackle originating in North America. It will not have all carriers since I do not have miles or can transfer miles to all carriers. Version 1 is for me so it will be very specific. We can see about expansion if I even get version 1 up and running.
It will be an excel spreadsheet.
Bolding Mine, I completely agree with that. It drives me crazy having to check all the different charts. Also, while the flexibility of having so many different airline partners with my SPG card is amazing, in some ways it is also a huge pain b/c now I drive myself crazy trying to check all the different charts to make sure I am transferring to the most logical choice for my particular itinerary.
I think going with *A carriers and only originating from North America are also wise decisions, you've got to find a way to cut the work down into manageable chunks and I think that's a good starting point.
I'm decent in Excel so if you have ideas or questions you want some help on feel free to PM me and I'll do what I can