I have a ton of miles in different programs. When I decide to book an award, I always review the award charts to figure out the sweet spots. However, that takes quite a bit of time. I know a lot of redemption charts off the top of my head, but sometimes I miss something. I found out about AwardAce on the weekend and I’m quite impressed with the tools they have.
What is AwardAce?
AwardAce compiles the award charts of multiple programs. When you search a city pair, it’ll spit out the miles required to redeem for such an award. I’ve previously used milez.biz, but I like the information display on AwardAce a lot more. You have the option to select class of service, one-way or round trip, and filter by alliance and transfer partners.
The results list the lowest and highest miles required for a redemption with different programs. For example, a search from Toronto to Dubai, one-way, in business class, yields the following results:
AwardAce Search – Toronto to Dubai
The image above shows Krisflyer requiring with the fewest amount of miles, at 57,500, followed by Elevate at 60,000. That surprised even me! As you can see, that’s a lower price than the 82,500 and 75,000 miles charged by Aeroplan and AAdvantage respectively.
Keep in mind that some miles are worth more than others. For example, I’d say 1 Elevate mile would be worth at least 1.5 Aeroplan in some circumstances. Thus, with the city pair above, the 60,000 miles required by Elevate may not be a better deal than Aeroplan.
As well, they have an approximate indicator of the taxes and potential fuel surcharges you have to pay, depending on which airline you’re flying. The taxes and fees display isn’t 100% accurate, but it’s a good guide if you have no idea and want to minimize your out of pocket cost.
When looking at the details with Aeroplan, for example, you can see:
- Transfer Partners are SPG and AMEX (but not Chase or Citi)
- Ethiopian (which is wrong), Lufthansa, and Austrian have higher surcharges than Turkish or United
AwardAce – Taxes and Fees Display
Unfortunately, the engine isn’t advanced enough to give the cheapest redemptions for a complex multi-city award. When booking those awards, you’ll have to do some sleuthing of your own. I think this is tremendously useful for looking up the award prices for less common city pairs that I might need in the middle of a multi-city trip – for example closing an open jaw between SIN and DXB.
Check out AwardAce today!
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Interesting to have Awardace as a new tool, but it is far from complete. I checked out an itinerary I know – Chicago to Capetown in first class – and it found the best award price listed to be 155K miles with JAL. But you can book Cathay on this route via HKG in first for 140K miles.
You’re wrong, because Cathay doesn’t fly to Cape Town…
I’m not wrong. You fly CX between HKG and JNB and SA between JNB and CPT. I have done this a number of times. Before you make ignorant ‘corrections’, you should get your facts straight. And as an award redemption, it’s 140K miles in first class with Alaska Airlines. Like I said.
Why so defensive about Awardace? Have you an ownership interest in this? If so, it still needs considerable work. In addition to not mentioning the cheapest award on this route, it failed to mention other direct awards, like BA. Room for improvement.
As I said, Cathay does not fly to Cape Town, nor can you redeem Alaska miles on the HKG JNB CPT routing as you describe. It’s 140k to JNB only, which Awardace displays. I’m not defensive – just explaining that the comment you wrote was erroneous. I have no involvement with Awardace, nor am I being compensated for this post.
You can, and I have done it in the past
We’ll agree to disagree, then. I’ve talked with multiple friends who say it’s definitely not possible now.
Suzanne, CX does not fly to CPT. They only fly to JNB in South Africa. While British Airways, another Alaska Airlines award redemption partner indeed flies between JNB and CPT, you aren’t allowed to mix carriers on an Alaska award ticket. Therefore, it is not possible to use Alaska miles on one ticket to fly on CX to CPT.
SA is not an Alaska partner, and Alaska miles cannot be redeemed for their flights.
There’s also award hacker. But this is also a good tool.
So i just checked YYZ – TLV in MAY and it shows that its 20k one way using MileagePlan with American Airlines Partner – When i go to alaskan to book though I dont see an American Airlines Partner – it just shows Executive Club for 50k eventhough Award Ace shows 32.5k for BA through Alaskan. Cant find a route to TLV from YYZ or YUL on Alaskan ever for 20K
Its likely there’s no space – AA is only 20k during off peak.
From what I remember , AA have eliminated all the off peak awards out of
Canada , (starting last March 21st ).
@Suzanne, you did NOT redeem 140k AS miles in F to fly to CPT, because CX does not fly there. It is possible to redeem those miles to fly to JNB.
Thus, YOU are wrong, so get your facts straight, stop spreading wrong information, making erroneous and ignorant “corrections” and accusations, and being so hostile. If not, we all would be better served if you stop commenting.