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Tool For Finding Least Mileage Needed For Paricular Award Travel?

Tool For Finding Least Mileage Needed For Paricular Award Travel?

Old Jan 1, 2011, 11:12 pm
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Tool For Finding Least Mileage Needed For Paricular Award Travel?

It seems to me that there are almost as many different award "fares" as revenue fares for any given route.What I mean is that, since each loyalty program has its own reward chart, territory definitions, etc., the cost -- in miles/points -- for any given route varies widely. Is there are tool out there that tells you which programs charge what amount for a particular itinerary so that one doesn't have to check each program (or memorize it all as gleff seems to have done)? If not, if someone creates such a tool, I will be the first to sign up.

xlax
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Old Jan 2, 2011, 1:16 am
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This should help you:

http://www.frequent-flyer-miles.info/award-tickets/
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Old Jan 2, 2011, 9:22 am
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Originally Posted by 1k650
Thanks,that's a pretty awesome chart. It would be nice to have non-US airlines too though.
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Old Jan 2, 2011, 10:08 am
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The chart's wrong on AA to Europe, which starts at 40k round-trip.
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Old Jan 2, 2011, 10:31 am
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The 40K to Europe is off peak. I notice Hawaii is listed as 45K but it is 35K when off peak as well.
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Old Jan 2, 2011, 10:42 am
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You might want to try using the award search function at awardnexus:
http://p1.awardnexus.com/user/login?url=%2Fuser
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Old Jan 2, 2011, 4:24 pm
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F-F-M Chart is Overoptimistic About CO Award Travel

The 20,000 miles listed at http://www.frequent-flyer-miles.info/award-tickets/ for CO travel within the U.S. applies only to distances <750 miles. Longer trips cost the usual 25,000 miles.

Ref: http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...ardTravel.aspx
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Old Jan 3, 2011, 11:59 am
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Has anyone ever considered getting a group of FT'ers together and putting together a comprehensive chart that lists all major airlines rather than just US carriers?
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Old Jan 3, 2011, 3:25 pm
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Originally Posted by HoKo
Has anyone ever considered getting a group of FT'ers together and putting together a comprehensive chart that lists all major airlines rather than just US carriers?
that would help

one question is do all the airlines in the same Alliances have to accept the miles from another member of the same Alliance or can they save the seats for their customers only ?

RB
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Old Jan 3, 2011, 10:33 pm
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Originally Posted by FlyingBoat
The 40K to Europe is off peak. I notice Hawaii is listed as 45K but it is 35K when off peak as well.
The chart caveats that off-peak is less for some travel but not for AA to Europe, and therefore it's wrong. Not useless, but wrong.
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Old Jan 5, 2011, 12:13 pm
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Originally Posted by redondo-beach
that would help

one question is do all the airlines in the same Alliances have to accept the miles from another member of the same Alliance or can they save the seats for their customers only ?

RB
Yes. Generally speaking, award seats on one airline can be redeemed by any other mileage program in the same alliance (plus any other airlines that may be partners).

Occasionally, an airline may choose to make more seats available to its own members, but even that only applies to a minority of seats available.
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Old Jan 5, 2011, 12:19 pm
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I wrote a tool many years ago, it's now hosted at:
http://www.slfft.org/0.95022/award.htm

Some of the zones are out of whack now, but you can search by airport: eg.
JFK MRU

I've been working on writing a new app, I have the latest
DL, US, LH, SK, AA, CO, UA mileage zones

Last edited by hauteboy; Jan 5, 2011 at 12:29 pm
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Old Jan 5, 2011, 12:32 pm
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Originally Posted by hauteboy
I wrote a tool many years ago, it's now hosted at:
http://www.slfft.org/0.95022/award.htm

Some of the zones are out of whack now, but you can search by airport: eg.
JFK MRU

I've been working on writing a new app, I have the latest
DL, US, LH, SK, AA, CO, UA mileage zones
Cool tool, very useful. Have you published access to the new tool with updated zones yet or are you waiting till it's completed?

Also, how are you dealing with airlines such as DL that have low,medium, high award prices depending on date?
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Old Jan 5, 2011, 12:43 pm
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Originally Posted by ckpeter
Yes. Generally speaking, award seats on one airline can be redeemed by any other mileage program in the same alliance (plus any other airlines that may be partners).

Occasionally, an airline may choose to make more seats available to its own members, but even that only applies to a minority of seats available.
Some airlines open seats to their own members sooner than to partner members. In at least one case this has been justified by saying the airline's own system allowing bookings a year (maybe minus a day or two) in the future while the partner's system only goes out eleven months - but whatever the real reason, it has the effect of locking partners out of the most desirable award flights.
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Old Jan 5, 2011, 1:24 pm
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Originally Posted by HoKo
Cool tool, very useful. Have you published access to the new tool with updated zones yet or are you waiting till it's completed?

Also, how are you dealing with airlines such as DL that have low,medium, high award prices depending on date?
I don't have a site to host anymore so haven't published anything new (SLF took over the old app years ago)

The tool doesn't check availability or routing it just shows how many points are needed between two airports (it works best for zone-based awards). The miles required for distance based awards (eg. oneworld) can be calculated but you must put in the intermediate airports. It does show both offpeak/peak AA awards though for example.
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