Hallelujah.
Ask anyone in the points game what the worst part is, and they’ll probably say “devaluation”. Ask anyone the second worst part – they’ll undoubtedly say finding available seats to actually use their points. After seeing an article last week from MileLion, we had to test out a new browser extension to see if it actually made a difference in the speed and efficiency of our flight searches using points. Spoiler alert: it did.
First Things First
To use this browser extension, you must use Chrome. Chrome is Google’s extremely secure, very easy to use web browser available on virtually any non mobile device – including Macbook’s. You can download Google Chrome here. Once you have Google Chrome as your web browser, you can download the brilliant new tool Award.Flights and start searching for available seats using points, for flights all over the world – on tons of airlines.
Award.Flights
Award.Flights is a chrome extension which is like a handy app for your Chrome web browser. The extension allows you to search for flights using points on multiple dates, in any cabin on SkyTeam, Star Alliance and OneWorld in just a couple clicks. Using the app you can search for flights via Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, ANA Mileage Club, British Airways Executive Club, JAL Mileage Bank, Qantas Frequent Flyer or Singapore KrisFlyer frequent flyer programs. As a friendly reminder, these sites can show available seats on partner airlines as well – so British Airways can show Cathay Pacific availability, etc.
How It Works
First, you need to download Award.Flights, which you can do here. The app is incredible, because it runs real searches across multiple dates in the background, allowing you to carry on watching Netflix, or whatever you choose to do with your time. You enter your login details for any of the loyalty programs into the extension (found on the top right corner of your browser), it then logs you in, opens a pop up window and begins searching. You can select to search up to 30 days at a time, with a single click. It’s not the fastest solution, but considering you just set the search and leave it in the background it makes things incredibly efficient. You can instantly remove your login details after searching, if you’re paranoid.
Day 1 Points Success
I just finished booking Singapore Suites for a recent trip, thanks in part to the Award.Flights extension. Sites like British Airways and Singapore don’t allow you to search more than one day of availability at a time, making it extremely cumbersome to search through dates. I set a search on Singapore for a Suites flight anytime in the next 30 days, left it and when I came back – it had a list of options, including how many seats and which aircraft. I was then able to quickly manually head over to the website and complete the booking. Great success (Borat voice).
It’s good it can be better
requires passwords for all of your accounts? no thanks.
This isn’t a new tool. I’ve been using for over a year.
Yes, actually it is, beacon of wisdom. They killed the old tool, and launched a new one. But thanks for being smarter than everyone else.