AwardEx: A New Tool for Award Booking
One of the many great things of attending FTU events is the social aspect of them. You get to meet a lot of like minded people interested in travel and how to maximize your points and miles and so on. You also get to meet a lot of really smart people, some of which are attendees, bloggers and also startup entrepreneurs.
A few years ago we learned about AwardWallet, which we love. If you haven’t heard of it or signed up yet, do it now with a discount link from us. This year we got to learn about AwardEx.io, an award ticket search engine that helps users figure out the best way for them to redeem their points for award miles. Also, they do help you find award space, which is no doubt the most valuable part of their platform, since there’s nothing more frustrating than having a boatload of miles and having to shove ’em… when you can’t find ANY availability whatsoever for dates you’re interested in flying.
AwardEX
The way their platform works is, you sign up for FREE, and automatically get 5 credits towards your searches, but you can upgrade to receive 10 monthly AwardEx credits for just $2.99 each. For anyone who signs up using our No Mas Coach promo code NOMAS10, you will receive an extra 10 credits on top of the 5 that everyone receives.
So far, they partner with 17 programs and they are: American Express Membership Rewards, CHASE Ultimate Rewards, Citi Thank You Points, Starwood Preferred Guest, British Airways, Air France, Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Delta Airlines, Etihad Airways, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines, Virgin Australia, American Airlines (only for partner availability). They are in the works to add more programs as they go, so I expect some other programs to join them soon.
Once you have found the availability you were looking for on their site, they link you straight into the appropriate program for you to do it yourself at the program’s website on your own, aka you do not need to share your programs’ information with this platform in order to get a benefit out of it. The good thing is that they also do provide you with step by step guidelines on how to make your points work for you, like showing you how to transfer miles or points to the program you’re about to use, etc. This is particularly useful for all those who are new to miles and points and have figured out how to earn your miles but not quite yet how to burn them.
Here’s how it works:
Their website is very streamlined and it seems very simple to find everything you need, and from their website I also gather that they will be launching an iPhone app – hopefully soon. Having said that, their site is fully mobile and works great and their IT team is super responsive. When I signed up for it last week, my last name wasn’t ‘valid’ since it has and apostrophe and a hyphen – but since then they have had it fixed. Thanks, guys!
AwardEx Mobile iOS
I, for one, I’m pretty excited to see AwardEx be a somewhat consolidated place that allows you to both find space and see which one of your programs allows you to book your butt on that one seat you’re yearning for. The fees seem absolutely reasonable for the service, especially when you fly often enough and earn enough miles. We know how hard it is to book your own award tickets as we spend quite a lot of time doing that for our clients on our Award Booking Service.
June 19, 2017
Since AA is the most difficult currency to use its really REALLY unfortunate they don’t support them.
June 19, 2017
I would give it a matter of time. In speaking with the guys, I know they’re trying hard to get every program in there. Still, incredibly useful. You can use British to search for availability!
June 19, 2017
It looks promising, but in its present form it’s of no use to me: in six searches, it returned no One World results at all, and several times only Delta flights.
June 20, 2017
Thanks for the feedback, I know the guys who run it are looking at the comments for suggestions.