Compare
Award flight search tools compared
13 award search tools set beside MilesZone: what each lets you search for free, what a paid plan costs, how alerts work and how many programmes each reads. Every fact was checked on the tool's own pages between October 7, 2026 and October 12, 2026; each comparison gives its own date.
The tools at a glance
| Tool | Free plan | Paid plan | Programmes | Alerts | Comparison |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MilesZone | Free account, next 60 days, no daily cap | $17 a month or $127 a year, 7-day free trial | EL AL Matmid, Atmos Rewards, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, LifeMiles, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Thai Royal Orchid Plus, British Airways Club, United MileagePlus, Delta SkyMiles, Air Canada Aeroplan and Qantas Frequent Flyer. What each one reads | Pro: 25 routes, seat re-checked before emailing | Plans |
| Seats.aero | No account; up to 30 days (help centre) | $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr | 26 | 5 free, one-off by default | vs MilesZone |
| PointsYeah | Unlimited live searches, 4 days each | $119.95/yr (shown as $10/mo) | 20+, plus hotels | 4 free, 32 Premium; 1 alert = 1 day | vs MilesZone |
| Point.me | 60 days out, 15 results per search | $19.99/mo or $129/yr | 30+ | None free; 1 to 5 paid | vs MilesZone |
| Roame | 4-day live search, SkyView Lite | $12.99/mo or $109.99/yr | 25 | 5 or 10 on Friends; paid plans | vs MilesZone |
| Pointhound | No sign-up; up to a year out | $79/yr (list $99), no monthly | About 150 airlines | Premium only, up to 20 | vs MilesZone |
| ExpertFlyer | Seat maps, 1 alert; no award search | From $6.99/mo; Elite $239.88/yr | Per airline, not per programme | 1 free; 50 Basic; 250 Premium | vs MilesZone |
| AwardTool | Ads; 4-entry search, 1 refresh per 3 days | $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr | 28 | 3 free; 100 on Pro | vs MilesZone |
| SeatSpy | Weekly-capped searches | £2.99 / $3.99 a month | 9 airlines, direct only | Premium 4; First Class unlimited | vs MilesZone |
| AwardFares | Cached preview, one programme at a time | $9.99/mo or $99/yr (Gold) | 17 | None free; 30 Live on Gold | vs MilesZone |
| AwardHacker | None, shut down | None, shut down | None, shut down | None | vs MilesZone |
| Award Travel Finder | 3 economy searches a day | €9.12/mo or €6.08/mo yearly | 10 airlines | 1 free; unlimited on Premium | vs MilesZone |
| Award Nexus | FlyerTalk/MilePoint members only | Points: $59-$249 deposits, $45-$55 passes | 50+ airline sites | Paid in points | vs MilesZone |
| Reward Flight Finder | Bronze: economy only, 1 daily alert | £3.33/mo or £6.66/mo, billed yearly | BA and Iberia | 1 free; 5 Silver; 20 Gold | vs MilesZone |
Competitor columns checked between October 7, 2026 and October 12, 2026; prices in US dollars unless marked.
Compare MilesZone with each tool
Seats.aero vs MilesZone
Alerts that re-check the seat before they email, and keep running after.Checked October 7, 2026PointsYeah vs MilesZone
60 days in one calendar, and one alert per route instead of per day.Checked October 7, 2026Point.me vs MilesZone
A trial, and 25 route alerts on either plan against point.me's 1 to 5.Checked October 7, 2026Roame vs MilesZone
25 re-checked route alerts on either plan, against 5 or 10 on Friends of Roame.Checked October 7, 2026Pointhound vs MilesZone
A published read schedule, and alerts that re-check the seat before they email.Checked October 7, 2026ExpertFlyer vs MilesZone
Award seats priced in miles and cash per programme, over a 60-day calendar.Checked October 7, 2026AwardTool vs MilesZone
A two-month calendar with no quota or ads, and alerts that re-check the seat.Checked October 7, 2026SeatSpy vs MilesZone
Partner flights and connections, with cash fees and alerts re-checked before they email.Checked October 7, 2026AwardFares vs MilesZone
Every programme in one search before you pay, and a week-long Pro trial.Checked October 7, 2026AwardHacker vs MilesZone
AwardHacker shut down in spring 2026; here is what a route costs by programme today.Checked October 12, 2026Award Travel Finder vs MilesZone
Every cabin with no daily cap, and alerts re-checked before they email.Checked October 7, 2026Award Nexus vs MilesZone
No points per search: a whole calendar per search and flat-price alerts.Checked October 7, 2026Reward Flight Finder vs MilesZone
A year of BA and Iberia seats there; several programmes on one route here.Checked October 12, 2026
How we compare
Every competitor fact comes from the tool's own public pages: its pricing page, help centre or developer docs, read on the date shown and linked at the foot of each comparison. Where a tool's own pages disagree, we say so. Where we could not confirm something, we leave it out.
Our side comes from the same plans and limits checkout uses. MilesZone reads each route on a schedule and re-checks a seat live before an alert emails; the details are on how it works, the programmes we read on programmes, and Pro on pricing.
Questions
- What is the best award flight search tool?
- It depends on what you need. If you want alerts you can act on, MilesZone re-checks the seat with the programme before it emails you, and shows each programme's miles and cash fees side by side.
- Which award search tool is free?
- Most have a free tier with limits: seats.aero searches without an account, PointsYeah and Roame cap the dates per search, point.me caps results, Award Travel Finder caps searches a day. MilesZone is free for departures in the next 60 days, with an account and no daily cap.
- Which award search tool has the most programmes?
- By their own counts, point.me says 30+, AwardTool 28 and seats.aero 26. MilesZone reads fewer, and says where each one is read: EL AL Matmid, Atmos Rewards (oneworld), Air France-KLM Flying Blue (SkyTeam), LifeMiles (Star Alliance), Virgin Atlantic Flying Club (Virgin Atlantic's own direct flights), Thai Royal Orchid Plus (Star Alliance, no mainland US airports), British Airways Club (routes to and from London), United MileagePlus (Star Alliance, from United's US hubs), Delta SkyMiles and Qantas Frequent Flyer.
- Which award search tools have a free trial?
- MilesZone Pro starts with a 7-day free trial. SeatSpy offers 14 days, Pointhound and Award Travel Finder 7 days, ExpertFlyer 5 days and AwardFares 24 hours. point.me says it has no free trial.