Introducing AwardTravelr.com – another way to search for airline award availability

Most people, when it comes to searching for award space for their frequent flier redemptions, use the website of that same frequent flyer programme. Logical, innit?

However, in general airline websites vary from unusable to biased when it comes to showing award availability on partner airlines inside the same alliance. For this reason, a number of tools have sprung up to help people spend their miles. Among the best known are the KVS Tool, ExpertFlyer and Award Nexus.

All of these have some weaknesses, though – either they do not cover all airlines (BA is usually excluded because BA award availability is not visible in the global airline reservation systems) or they charge for their services.

A relatively new entrant is AwardTravelr.   Whilst it is still running with a ‘beta’ tag attached to it, the service has now been operating – for free – for over a year.  Over 1 million searches have now been conducted on the site!

There is a lot to like about this service. It’s free, for a start. It also covers all three of the global airline alliances – oneworld, Skyteam and Star Alliance. It works by scraping data from relevant airline websites and the global distribution systems (for airlines where reward seats show in GDS) and then sorting it in a very easy to manage format.

Now, it has to be said that ba.com has taken some big steps forward in the last year.  You can now search for all oneworld airlines online, and BA now shows the results alongside its own flights.  More importantly, ba.com is now showing availability for multiple classes on the same results screen – a major new development in 2013.

AwardTravelr may do a couple of things that ba.com cannot, however.  It may throw up different flight alternatives that ba.com ignores, especially where connections are involved.  It also lets you search over a number of dates in the same search.

AwardTravelr really comes into its own with Star Alliance and Skyteam airlines, though.  Very few of the airlines in these alliances have a booking engine that is as good as the one ba.com uses, and AwardTravelr lets you get access to some of the same functionality.  Lufthansa, for example, only shows availability online for Miles & More airlines, and not the other Star carriers.

AwardTravelr is not perfect, of course.  You cannot (obviously) book your seat via AwardTravelr. You are also limited to a 7-day view of availability, whilst ba.com can (for BA flights) show you a month at a time.  It is also only designed to handle Economy, Business and First redemptions, so World Traveller Plus or Premium Economy searches are not possible.

It also does not show availability on partner airlines which are not alliance members. You can use Avios, for example, to book Aer Lingus flights. However, as Aer Lingus is not a member of oneworld, it does not come up in searches using this tool. It will also not show ‘premium’ availability, such as the extra Economy seats that BA offers to its Gold members, or the extra availability Miles & More makes available to its own elites but not to partner airlines.

All in all, though, it is a useful addition to any armoury of tools to use when looking for those often elusive award seats.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.