AwardLogic Flight Search: Review of the Service
Ever been overwhelmed by the task of searching for flight award space? Well, there might be an option for you. The AwardLogic flight search paid service is a potential one-stop shop for flight award searches. In this review I show how to sign up for AwardLogic and the results of testing the platform.
Signing Up for AwardLogic
Signing up for the AwardLogic flight search service is easy. Head to their main page (awardlogic.com) and scroll down to their pricing. You can watch the 1-minute video on their service, if you’d like.
Once you select their search plan, you’ll be taken to a screen where you can buy either the monthly service, or a day pass. Depending on the situation, a $4.99 day pass may be the way to go. If you go with the monthly option, your first 30 days are free, which is cool.
Once you make a selection, you’ll need to input your account and payment information. It took me less than 3 minutes to complete my sign up.
Searching Award Flight Inventory
Heading back to the main page, you’ll now be able to use the AwardLogic search pane for award inventory searches. Key in the origin, destination, type of itinerary, and date(s), and off you go. If you click “advanced options” you can select only a subset of booking programs. This is helpful if you don’t have any Membership Rewards points, for example. However, you can easily filter this on the search results page as well.
I did a sample search for San Francisco (SFO) to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) on September 26, 2021. I selected one-way in the business class cabin. Pricing is per direction in the results, rather than total, so even if you do select round-trip, the price will only be for the outbound leg.
I was immediately impressed by the interface. It is easy to see a few key things. First, I can tell the price (including surcharges), number of stops, the airlines, and how much of each itinerary is in business in seconds. These are key items when making an award travel decision.
Beyond this, it’s nice to see the baggage info. This isn’t something I am quick to check, more so when I travel economy, though.
The filters to the left are super helpful. You can unselect loyalty programs, filter by % premium cabin, miles, time, and layover duration. This is all incredibly helpful.
Scrolling down through the list, AwardLogic will keep loading more flight options for you. The default is to present from cheapest to most expensive, although you can change the sort using the tabs “Quickest” and “Earliest”.
I selected the 100% KLM option as my first choice. Here you can see the operating equipment (a major decision factor for me, personally, and I’ve flown this product) and more details on the flight. You can also see the total cost clearly presented.
Below the flight details is information how to enroll, transfer and book with each program. I’m not going to post a screenshot of this, as this is a large part of the legwork AwardLogic is trying to help customers with. I’m mainly interested in testing out the award search UI.
On the whole, AwardLogic makes things incredibly easy to search award flight space across multiple programs that include both alliance and non-alliance airlines. The “54,615 points” shown by AwardLogic for my selected itinerary makes me think they are taking the current 30% Flying Blue transfer bonus into account.
Search and Itinerary Comparison
I headed over to the AirFrance website, logged in with my Flying Blue credentials, and then searched the same origin, destination, and date. The KLM options seen in AwardLogic came up right away. There was a nonstop AirFrance option presented first, but it costs an obscene number of miles. I guess one upside of AwardLogic search is that it filters from fewest to most miles.
In any case, we can easily see that AwardLogic is taking the 30% Membership Rewards transfer bonus into account. The options here are 71,000 miles. However, AwardLogic does not state the difference clearly anywhere, which could lead you to think that you could use any of the other options provided (Chase Ultimate Rewards, etc.) and book with the same number of points.
I also still don’t understand the timer for the “deal”, either. I received an email on August 10 (the say I tested AwardLogic) stating I have 5 days left to enjoy the 30% transfer bonus. Choosing an Icelandair itinerary, the timer still comes up. I guess it’s just a silly part of the UI to try to get you to book.
I’m also impressed AwardLogic flight search correctly processes the number of seats. You can see in the small print under the prices that there is only one seat available at 71,000 miles through Flying Blue. Once I changed the search to 2 passengers, this option disappeared.
Wait, They do Hotels, Too?
I was excited that AwardLogic might provide a tool for comparing all award options for hotels at a given destination. There is a tool called AwardMapper that already exists, but it is often out of date in terms of pricing and options. I do like the map interface.
I keyed in a sample search for Paris in conjunction with my dummy flight booking. The options weren’t what I expected.
Oh. It’s a cash hotel booking platform? Hard pass. There are plenty of other options here. Unless AwardLogic is offering some major discounts, I’d either be booking direct or going through one of two OTAs I gravitate toward when looking for non-chain options.
AwardLogic Search Review: My Takeaways
I do have to say that the ease of sign-up, ease of search, and presentation of options to be very user friendly, especially if you’re someone who is overwhelmed when it comes to searching award travel. Each option will provide you with the bank currencies you can use, plus they also calculate in current transfer bonuses, which is especially cool. If you need a one-stop shop for award travel and book award travel regularly, this might be well worth it at $19.99 per month. Plus, if you are able to save a substantial number of miles on a single itinerary that would not have found without using AwardLogic, it could be well worth the cost.
For veterans of award travel who are well-versed in award searches and complicated bookings, it is doubtful that AwardLogic flight search provides much value for its cost. Sure, it’s cool to have everything in one spot. But I could quickly find the vast majority of options presented in 2-3 award searches through specific carriers for the itinerary I tested.
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I used to use Juicy Miles that did a good job in “converting” the program and points I had available into possible bookings to where I wanted go to. It even, if I recall, let you know how to go about using the Program miles/points and moving them to the program and how to book. Often a problem is knowing who to contact and how to book the miles from a partner.
Juicy Miles had (has?) their paid service where they do exactly that. They present the options/inventory, but you have to do all the legwork. It’s much cheaper than their concierge full booking service where they do everything for you.
Great article and useful information. Sounds like AwardLogic may be a useful tool worth the small investment … especially for more complicated variables. How does it compare to the SeatSpy award search engine? Thanks!
I’m not familiar with SeatSpy, but will give it a try next.
Yes please. For guys like me new to the miles and point we need more tutorials on how to book using miles and points and specially using other partners to make things even cheaper if it’s possible.
thanks for this. how does it compare to what Juicymiles.com offered for self service?
It’s really similar. The filtering and UI, in my opinion, is better for Award Logic. What is missing is the +/- 1 day from the search, but running another search is easy enough.
will try them out soon. thanks for the write up!
Wasn’t there something else like this called Juicy Miles?
JM has gone on hold. coming back sometime as point.me. I’m curious how the two will compare.
The landing page is still present, and it looks like you can still use them for award consulting. But I am also curious how the new interface will work.
JM has done some spectacular bookings with points for me and family. will try out this new service soon.