The Free Flight Primer is a series of posts which will show, step by step, how to earn and then redeem frequent flyer miles. We’ll start at the very beginning of the process and work our way through every step, from picking a destination all the way up to booking the ticket. In between we’ll talk about tips for figuring out how many miles are needed for a certain flight, how to earn those miles, how to find seat availability, and much more. I’ll be providing links to tools and websites that are helpful, tons of screenshots of various steps that may prove confusing, and of course, my own thoughts and opinions on the process. It will be broken in to multiple sections and multiple posts, which will make it easier to read and easier to use as a reference at a later date. I’ll also be providing a real-life case study using an actual client to better illustrate the process.
Award Nexus is one of a few paid subscriptions tools (KVS and Expert Flyer are the other two main ones) that many frequent flyers will use to search for award availability. For most people, using the tools I showed you in Parts 3 and 4 are enough (and they are free). However, if you plan on earning a good amount of miles and redeeming them fairly often, it might make sense to look in to paying the small fee for one of these sites. While it does the same thing as the airline’s websites, it allows you to search ALOT quicker and ALOT more efficiently, as you’ll be able to see both OneWorld and Star Alliance flights at the same time, and compare and contrast them on the same screen.
While I’ve dabbled a little bit with the other two, and found them useful, I use Award Nexus most often. Best of all, it is free for a certain amount of searches and your points can be replenished, so if you aren’t using it heavily, you’ll never have to pay.
The video below shows you exactly what you have to do to use Award Nexus. I’ve also provided some written instructions, and as always, if you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to comment below.
In order to sign up for an Award Nexus account you must be a member of Flyertalk. If you are not already a member of Flyertalk, you probably should be anyway, so go there first to sign up. You’ll then have to enter your exact Flyertalk handle (screename) in the box and your email. Your Award Nexus account may not be active right away (I can’t remember the steps that occur) but if it isn’t, it should be shortly.
Step 2: Find Awards Now
There are a lot of tools to dabble around with on Award Nexus, so when you get a chance, have a look around. For searching availability, click on “Find Awards Now”.
Step 3: Enter Your Information
Most of it is straightforward except for the boxes that you have to check. Whichever box you check determines which airline’s search function Award Nexus uses. To understand which ones you should choose, you can click on “Help & Info” and then the “tips” link. For Star Alliance, I have found that CO (which is Continental) and ANA work the best. However, don’t check both, as this will just give you duplicate results but cost you more points. For OneWorld, I only use QF (Qantas).
Step 4: Tailor the Results to Your Liking
Other than saving tons of time, Award Nexus is also great for allowing you to tailor the results exactly how you want. If you only want to see Star Alliance flights, then unclick QF box and it takes away all the Qantas (OneWorld) flights. If you want to sort the flights by departure time, click on the Depart heading and it resorts it. Want to see the results in a calendar view, then click on any of the numerous tabs at the top of the page. I usually like to use list or list (detailed) but anything is fine.
Step 5: Write Down All Your Details
If you find a flight you like, click on it and it will bring up a box with all the flight details, including total time, layover time, cities in and out of, etc. Remember, you can’t book on Award Nexus, it is only for searching, so write down all the details of the flight you like and call up the airline you have points with to book your ticket.
A few months ago, I was just like you; hesitant to use shopping portals for miles and points.
I thought it would be difficult, take up too much time, blah blah blah.
I’m making big points off credit card signups anyway, so how can a shopping portal even be worth my time? I mean, why would we need the wheel when we could walk?
What a caveman mentality!
The truth is, outside of credit card signup bonuses, using shopping portals is the second best way to accrue miles and points and to do it in chunks.
And that’s what we want, chunks. Nice, big chunks of points with minimum effort.
The turning point for me? Christmas, 2011.
My siblings decided they wanted to buy my parents a hot air balloon ride. Would I want to chip in?
Having just received an email from Groupon, which was offering a WHOPPING 30 Chase UR Points per $1 spent, you bet I wanted in.
I signed in to the Chase Ultimate Rewards mall, redirected to Groupon’s site, and bought a $300 hot air balloon ride for my folks.
Just like that, I was 9,000 points richer. I was officially a convert!
Ok, ok, ok, you’re convinced that big points can be had, but it must be time consuming to find deals, right?
WRONG!
Evreward.com Makes it Easy
Enter Evreward.com, an amazing little site that shows you exactly how many points you’ll get per $1 spent at each merchant and for each reward programs online portal.
Since not all reward programs are created equal, I use Evreward.com every time I decide I’m going to purchase something online.
When buying flowers, Teleflora may offer 10 points/$1 if you use Chase’s Ultimate Rewards mall but 20/$1 if you use United’s online mall.
You better bet I’m going through United and doubling up on the points! $50 worth of flowers is giving me 1,000 United miles, as opposed to only 500 Chase points.
Thanks Evreward!
Below, I’ve made a short 3 minute video that explains how to use Evreward.com to search for the best deals.
I won’t say it’s so easy a caveman could do it, but…it’s pretty easy. From this time forward, may your shopping be full of miles and points!
The Free Flight Primer is a series of posts which will show, step by step, how to earn and then redeem frequent flyer miles. We’ll start at the very beginning of the process and work our way through every step, from picking a destination all the way up to booking the ticket. In between we’ll talk about tips for figuring out how many miles are needed for a certain flight, how to earn those miles, how to find seat availability, and much more. I’ll be providing links to tools and websites that are helpful, tons of screenshots of various steps that may prove confusing, and of course, my own thoughts and opinions on the process. It will be broken in to multiple sections and multiple posts, which will make it easier to read and easier to use as a reference at a later date. I’ll also be providing a real-life case study using an actual client to better illustrate the process.
After rolling out the video tutorial style for Part 3 of the Free Flight Primer and asking for your opinions, the “masses” have spoken: they love it! That means that we’ll continue the trend, and today, I’ll be showing you two more video tutorials to help you find Star Alliance Award Availability. The first way to search will be using Continental, as the video below will show. Then, we’ll explore using ANA’s search tool. Enjoy the shows!
Using Continental to Search for Star Alliance Award Availability
Continental’s search function will find almost all of Star Alliance partner airlines, leaving out a few. It is not as inclusive as ANA’s website, but it is WAAYYYYY easier to use, which is why we are starting with it. If you find what you need on Continental, you won’t even have to deal with ANA. Also, you do not have to be a member of Continental’s frequent flyer program to use the award search function, a HUGE plus.
Step 2: Enter Your Preferred Itinerary
Make sure “Reward Travel” is clicked when you hit search. The first thing that shows up on the list of results will be any non-stop flights on Continental or United (they are merging, so they are considered the same airline). If there is no non-stop flights, then it will show Continental/United flights with stops, and after you scroll down, it will show the Partner flights.
I love the ease of the search page for Continental, as it not only provides the extra fees for the ticket but also gives you all the information you need in a really clear, easy to understand format. Just make sure to remember that the price in miles is for ONE WAY. After you select an outbound ticket, you’ll then go to another screen to select your return ticket.
Case Study: The best ticket we can find for Rob from Philadelphia to Rome is a 30k SaverPass that has a layover of 7 hours in Frankfurt. Not awful, but….not great. Everything else has an even longer layover. We’ll write this down as an option but play around with the dates and departure city to see if we can find something better.
Step 3: Enter Other Possible Itineraries
Another great thing about Continental’s search website is that it is really easy to switch around dates and cities. Scroll down to the bottom and in the left hand corner you can “Start New Search”. You don’t even have to leave that page and it will update you with the new results for your search. Hooray for intuitive design!
Case Study: Ok, now we are getting somewhere. We have two interesting possibilities. There are economy MileSaver tickets for 30k from both JFK (pictured below) and EWR, and both with layovers of 2 hours or less. Not bad. There is also another possibility that you can see on the screenshot below; a business class MileSaver for only 50k with only a short layover in Brussels. My client has mentioned that he wants to fly economy, but this illustrates a good point to remember: If you can’t find saver tickets in economy for the flights you want, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS check saver business class tickets. They will most likely be less than the standard (anytime) economy tickets, and you’ll be flying in style! I’ll mention both the 2 economy options and the business option to Rob and see what he prefers.
Notice that the second flight listed has a standard economy ticket (the second column) listed for 55K and that the first flight has a business saver ticket for only 50k (the third column). Always, always check business saver availability if you can't find the economy saver availability you want!
Step 4 (if necessary): Book Your Ticket
If you are using United or Continental miles than you can book the ticket directly on the website. After picking your outbound and return flights, you’ll be asked to enter your OnePass number and password (if you haven’t already done so). If you are just using Continental as a search engine and booking using miles that you have with other Star Alliance members, then you need to write down all the information and call the airline that you have miles with and book with them directly.
Case Study: We have found some decent tickets going in and out of New York, but we can’t book them yet because Rob does not have any miles in a Star Alliance carrier. First, we’ll have to “earn” him the miles, and then book. But we’ll write these options as down as good possibilities.
Using ANA to Search for Star Alliance Availability
If you didn’t have any luck with Continental, then the next place to look is ANA. While this is a much bigger pain, it certainly isn’t impossible. You will have to trick the computer in to letting you search Star Alliance partners if you don’t have any miles in your ANA account (like me). The video takes you through step by step, but in case you’d rather read it or get confused, I’ve also written it out for you.
I searched for 20 minutes on ANA’s homepage, clicking through every conceivable place, and still was unable to get directed to their awards booking page that you need. Don’t fall in to the same trap. Just bookmark the page that I link to above and use it each time. Trust me, you’ll add years to your life.
You’ll need an ANA Mileage Club account to search, so if you don’t have one, you need to sign out of the Awards Booking Page (but bookmark it first!) and then go back to it once you have an account number and password.
Step 2: Trick the System
If you miles in your ANA account, then you don’t need this step. Simply click on the “Use Star Alliance Member Airlines” button and begin your search.
If you don’t have miles, you’ll first have to the “ANA International Flight Awards” button.
Enter any award flight you know ANA flies. I always use JFK in the from field and NRT (Narita-Tokyo) in the to field. Use any date and click next.
It will give you results for your search, but you don’t care about that. Scroll down and on the right hand side you’ll see the “Use Star Alliance Member Airlines” button again, but this time it will be blue and you’ll be able to click it. So…click it!
Now, you are in the system and able to enter any date, departure city and destination city that you want! You’ve tricked the system!
Step 3: Enter Your Preferred Itinerary
When you get to the search results page, ANA will only automatically show you the flights that fly non-stop. MAKE SURE TO HIT THE “CONNECTING FLIGHTS” BUTTON ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE TO SEE ALL AVAILABLE FLIGHTS. Don’t forget to do this for your return leg as well.
Case Study: There is nothing of real interest at all showing for Philadelphia to Rome.
Step 4: Enter Other Possible Itineraries
The annoying thing about ANA (ok, the millionth annoying thing) is that you have hit the search again button to change the city, which takes you back to the original page. HOWEVER, to simple change the date and keep the same cities, you only have to hit the forward or back arrows above the flight itinerary. ANA finally does something right!
Case Study: Looking from New York, I see the same flights from EWR and JFK that I saw on Continental’s sight but nothing new.
Step 5 (if necessary): Book Your Ticket
It’s probably unlikely that you’ll be using ANA for anything other than searching, but if you are using ANA miles to book the ticket, you can do it online. For everyone else, its the same old mantra: Write down the important information and call the airline who you have miles with and book directly through them.
Case Study: We aren’t ready to book yet, so nothing new to report.
The Free Flight Primer is a series of posts which will show, step by step, how to earn and then redeem frequent flyer miles. We’ll start at the very beginning of the process and work our way through every step, from picking a destination all the way up to booking the ticket. In between we’ll talk about tips for figuring out how many miles are needed for a certain flight, how to earn those miles, how to find seat availability, and much more. I’ll be providing links to tools and websites that are helpful, tons of screenshots of various steps that may prove confusing, and of course, my own thoughts and opinions on the process. It will be broken in to multiple sections and multiple posts, which will make it easier to read and easier to use as a reference at a later date. I’ll also be providing a real-life case study using an actual client to better illustrate the process.
Today, I’ll be trying out a new format and I’d love reader feedback. Instead of simply including screenshots of the entire process, I’ve decided to make a short 5 minute video that will show my computer screen as I walk you through the entire process of searching for OneWorld award availability. I’ll also provide a write up as a supplement to the video, emphasizing important points I may have glossed over during the video. I’m assuming that this video format is much more beneficial for readers, and that is why I’ve decided to give it a whirl. But hey, I could be totally wrong (I was certainly wrong in assuming that making a video would take less time than a posting screenshots)! Watch the video below and let me know what you prefer for future installations of The Free Flight Primer.
Important point:You need to be a member of Qantas’s frequent flyer program in order to search for award availability. If you are not already a member, sign up. It is free and takes less than 5 minutes, a small price to pay to search all OneWorld partners. Also, you DO NOT need to have Qantas frequent flyer miles in your account to search for availability (hooray!).
Step 2: Enter Your Preferred Itinerary
Make sure to have the tab titled “Award Bookings” highlighted and also to have selected “Qantas and Partner Classic Awards”. This will search all OneWorld alliance members.
Insiders’ Tip: I’ve found it easier not to select “flexible dates” even if mine are. If you choose flexible dates it bounces you back out to the calendar screen to change the date each time you want to search another date. If you don’t choose flexible dates, you can change dates after you have a flight list up and not bounce all the way back to the calendar screen.
Case Study: Looking for flights from Philadelphia to Rome on September 28th and from Rome to Philadelphia on October 13th gives us all British Airways tickets, not what we want at all (remember, high fuel surcharges). Ick!
Step 3: Enter Other Possible Itineraries
In Part Two, we already looked at possible routings for both our flight origin and destination. Hit “start again” on the left side column and enter the other itineraries you’ve felt could work for your trip.
Case Study: Rome is the only airport we can feasibly fly in to but instead of flying out of Philadelphia, we can fly out of New York. There is the Iberia flight we found in Part 2 that flies from JFK to Rome via Madrid, but it has not economy availability on the 28th. However, when I change the date to the 29th, we find an economy ticket on Iberia leaving at 6 p.m. This is a possibility, and the only real option we’ve found so far for OneWorld.
Coming home, there are no economy flights available on Iberia on either Sat Oct. 13th or Sun Oct 14th but there is some availability on Friday Oct 12th. Not the best option, but it is an option.
Step 4 (if necessary): Call and Book Your Ticket
If you find the flights that you want, awesome! Call and book your ticket. REMEMBER, WE ARE USING QANTAS AS A SEARCH ENGINE, NOT TO ACTUALLY BOOK OUR TICKET. Unless you are actually planning on using Qantas miles, you can not book this ticket online. You will have to call up the airline whose miles you are planning to use and book it through them. For our case study, it is American Airlines. Make sure to write down all the information about the flights you want, such as all the flight numbers, the times, and the cities you’ll be flying to and from. Then, you’ll call the airline you want to book with, tell them the information, and they should be able to pull it up and book for you.
Case study: We did not find tickets that worked perfect for us, so for now, I’ll write down the options I’ve decided are decent (the Iberia flights) and next try searching for Star Alliance availability.
The Free Flight Primer is a series of posts which will show, step by step, how to earn and then redeem frequent flyer miles. We’ll start at the very beginning of the process and work our way through every step, from picking a destination all the way up to booking the ticket. In between we’ll talk about tips for figuring out how many miles are needed for a certain flight, how to earn those miles, how to find seat availability, and much more. I’ll be providing links to tools and websites that are helpful, tons of screenshots of various steps that may prove confusing, and of course, my own thoughts and opinions on the process. It will be broken in to multiple sections and multiple posts, which will make it easier to read and easier to use as a reference at a later date. I’ll also be providing a real-life case study using an actual client to better illustrate the process.
In Part 1, we picked a destination (you have picked a destination by now, right? If not, do it. Now. Stop reading, write it down. Ok, good. Now let’s continue). We also took inventory of our current balance of points and looked in to possible transfer partners, thereby determining what airline alliances we can consider. Now it is time to see what airlines can get us to our goal destination.
Case study: Rob wants to fly from the Philadelphia area (NYC is ok, but not as ideal) to somewhere in Italy.
Finding OneWorld carrier routes
Some people go to a basic flight search engine, like Kayak, type in their two cities, click the little “add nearby airports” and think they’ve done all they can do. There are two problems with that:
1. It does not break up the flights by alliance, meaning you have to know what airlines are part of OneWorld and then sift through the result which include all types of airlines and combinations.
2. It does not take in to account your specific situation. Maybe Baltimore is closer than New York City for you, but for whatever reason, New York is more convenient. Maybe EWR is much more convenient than JFK. With the OneWorld tool, it is completely customizable.
Click on OneWorld Interactive Map under Links in the bottom left. This will open up the map interface.
Step 2: Search your most desired route
In the top left corner, under “search for” you can choose destinations, routes, or flights. For today, we want to use routes (although destinations is a fun, fun way to kill hours on end!). Enter where you wish to leave from and where you want to go. You can also narrow the search further by picking an airline, picking nonstop, etc.
Case study: First, I’ll enter Philadelphia to Rome. From the map I can see that there are two routes: Philadelphia-London-Rome or Philadelphia-Chicago-Rome. At first, Philadelphia-London-Rome seems like the no brainer choice, but it’s on British Airways, which charges HUGE fuel surcharges (something we’ll discuss later), making that option not really an option at all.
Step 3: Search using other airports you can leave out of or fly into.
Pick what else is convenient enough for you not to be too inconvenient and customize your search. This is where the OneWorld tool kicks Kayak’s butt.
Case Study: Rob told me New York City would be ok to fly out of, and also that he simply wanted to fly to Italy. So first, I checked to see if we could fly out Philadelphia to any other Italian airport. I searched for PHL to Florence, Naples, Milan, Turin, and Venice. Each one had only one possible route, which was going through London on British Airways.
Then, I looked at options from New York City to Rome. This had 4 possible routes; direct flight from JFK-FCO (Rome), NYC-London-Rome, NYC-Madrid-Rome, and NYC-Chicago-Rome. JFK direct to FCO is a great option. Through Madrid is a new possibility that didn’t exist out of Philadephia, and is maybe a possibility. The other ones were simply rehashes of what we could get out of Philadelphia so they make no sense since Philadelphia is much more convenient for Rob.
For OneWorld, it seemed our best options were either to fly AA direct from JFK-FCO or to fly from PHL-FCO through Chicago.
NYC-FCO gives us 4 routes: direct, via Chicago, via London, and via Madrid
Finding Star Alliance Routes
With OneWorld out of the way, our next step was to search Star Alliance Routes. There route map tool they have is confusing, bulky, and pretty much a major pain so if you find yourself on the main page, DON’T click on the map. Click on the Flight Search button. I’m linking you straight to the Flight Search page, so I’d recommend bookmarking it for future use. I’ve spent way too much valuable time trying to get back to the Flight Search page to deal with that headache again. It’s not as cool as OneWorld, but it gets the job done.
Case study: Hello, GOLDEN TICKET!!!: A non-stop flight directly from Philadelphia to Rome on USAir! If this is available (remember, these are just flights that are happening, not necessarily available), we’d be money! Another good thing about Star Alliance is that there are so many combinations of flights flying out of Philadelphia (since PHL is USAirway’s main East Coast hub) that we don’t even have to consider NYC if we decide to fly Star Alliance. With so good options, we are bound to find something available that fits.
Tons of options available, including a non-stop flight from Philadelphia. Score!
Step 3 (if necessary): Search using other airports you can leave out of or fly into.
Enter other airports you feel comfortable flying out of or in to. Star Alliance is a larger alliance than OneWorld, which makes it more likely to have more flights out of your preferred airport than OneWorld, so this step might not be necessary.
Case study: There are plenty of options out of Philadelphia to Rome, which is our preferred route, so there is no reason to look for flights out of NYC or to any other places in Italy.
