Author: Troy

Our goal is to create the simplest and best award search site to make award planning easier for everyone. However, achieving this is not easy, we have devoted countless hours to ensuring accuracy, reliability, and speed simultaneously. As a real-time search site, we don’t have much room for errors as we do understand the trust from all of you. With that trust, we built our product without shortcuts, ensuring that every live search is reflective of what you will see on direct sites. We DON’T falsify results nor do we use partner A results for partner B without actually searching B.

I am sure all of us know, when we are searching for revenue tickets, there are times you see “sorry, your fare no longer available, XXX is our new price or please select different flights.”

The reality for award search is far more complicated than revenue ticket, and we have decided to share some stories about how the award travel search system works in 2025.

Every airline has designed its system differently from another, making a one-size-fits-all solution impossible. Some airlines have very sophisticated systems using the newest technology, while others are legacy systems. To make matters more complicated, sometimes these airlines with technology miles apart are partners who share inventory.

Partners no longer share the same inventory space as they did five years ago due to changes in financial models and system. Delta was the first mover, with Virgin Flying Club, Delta and Air France and KLM Flying Blue also implementing changes. As travel advances, these practices are likely to be implemented by other airlines/alliances over time.

Even if they share inventory spaces on some routes/some alliances(old system vs newer one), the differences in each airline’s system setup may cause discrepancies. For example, Iberia has married segment restrictions only on their and British Airways flights, not on some partners. British Airways, on the other hand, has them on almost all partners. So, some SEGMENTS redeemable on Iberia Avios may not be visible on British Airways Avios because Iberia Avios allows multi-segment mixed matches.

Airlines’ front ends are also built differently. While we get results from the backend, airline frontends may miss airport codes. We have 9000+ airport codes, but many airlines don’t have that many as they were not designed for award search. For example, Iberia Avios doesn’t have IST code, and used BUE instead of EZE or AEP for Buenos Aires or Qantas Frequent Flyer, Etihad Guest don’t have some airports too. As we built our airport code repository, our team even missed many airports that were discovered by our amazing users.

How you search on airline sites will yield different results. For instance, Lifemiles and Turkish Airlines, when searching for their partners, lifemiles.com may not show all Star Alliance results if you use all partners, for lifemiles.com select Star alliance  BEFORE  Search or Carrier BEFORE search on top of departure airports. Turkish Airlines has two places to search for Star Alliance, each with different results. The accurate one is under my account-miles transactions-star alliance awards. Not the standard alliance search from front.

• Frontend blocking: Some airlines block redemption from the frontend for specific routes or carriers for various reasons.
• Sync delay:  Internal systems have sync delays between partners or even within the same company but different sites. For example, the Air France site may have a delay compared to the KLM site, and the same goes for their apps
• Phantom inventory:  This issue has persisted for over 20 years between partners.
• Request Timeout :  There are two types of timeouts—either the request is timed out by the receiver, or we timeout the request. Regardless of the type, you just need to search one more time.

With over 50 systems interacting simultaneously, we cannot guarantee 100% accuracy. Nevertheless, we are doing our best to achieve as close to 100% accuracy as possible.

We want to thank you again for your understanding and we and the airlines are continuing to improve to make your points travel planning effortless.

-PointsYeah team

At PointsYeah, we believe that there is no “one way” to book travel. We built our products with that in mind, building our Daydream Explorer product for those who want to search the globe and be inspired for their next trip. Our Explorer Alert feature is often overlooked and misunderstood, so we want to spend time raising awareness to how you can use these for your next booking.

What are Explorer Alerts?

Explorer Alerts are tied to our Daydream Explorer product. These alerts allow you to find inspiration as broad or narrow as you like, sending these ideas directly to your inbox. We all love new flight ideas and don’t want you to miss any of them.

What is the difference between Explorer Alerts and Points Price Alerts?

Explorer Alerts track flights from the most searched routes globally. Points Price Alerts are more specific to your exact needs, tracking price changes and new seats on almost any route around the globe.

Is there a limit on Explorer Alerts?

No, Explorer Alerts are free and unlimited. You can set up as many as you want in any way you want.

Where do I find Explorer Alerts?

Explorer Alerts can be found in a few places;

• In the Alerts tab on the left sidebar. From there, toggle to Explorer Alerts under the flights tab.
• In the Daydream Explorer product. Once you navigate to the list view, you will see the alerts icon in the filter section.

How do I set up the alerts?

Similar to Points Price Alerts, you can set up to three departures and arrivals, including continents, regions, countries, or airports for each alert.

How do I get notified?

After creating an alert, you will receive notifications via email and on the Alerts page whenever we find a deal that matches your criteria.

How Do Points Price Alerts Work?

Points Price Alerts – Set Your Own Price
The only alert continuously tracking both the price changes of points and the availability of newly released seats with multiple dates.

1. What are the Points Price Alerts – Set Your Own Price?

Unlike other alerts where you either have to enter lots of information to track one flight or only receive an alert once, our Points Price Alerts, we track both points price changes, similar to Kayak or Google’s price alerts, and newly available seats based on the maximum points you wish to spend.

2. How to set up the alerts?

You can set up your alerts via the search result page or under my account page with only a few clicks, follow the steps to customize filters and the maximum points you wish to spend.

3. Is this really free, unlimited, and continuous tracking?

Yes, our points prices alerts offer unlimited and continuous tracking with maximum 4 active alerts. We will keep searching for available options unless the alert is paused or deleted, or the pre-set travel date has passed. You can pause or delete any alert at any time. When an alert is paused or deleted, or the travel date has passed, the limit will be reset. Keep in mind that many award tickets are fully refundable, enabling you to book now and exchange for a better option if the points price changes.

4. How are 4 active alerts counted?

Each day will be counted as one active alert. If you set up alerts for three days in a row, it will be counted as three alerts. However, each alert can be set for all the programs you want to track.

5. How can I get more active alerts?

Upgrade to our membership to have access to 32 active alerts.

6. How do I get notified?

You will receive notifications via email and on the My Points Price Alerts page whenever we detect a change to your alert.