Yesterday I released my new award chart search tool. Two of the most common requests were to provide a cleaner format and to include award valuations.
Update: Expert Mode has been discontinued due to the large number of programs and multiple awards within each program.
I didn’t want to include these features when I started designing the tool because I wanted to make it more approachable for beginners — the kind of people who are less familiar with transfer programs, cost per mile, and the fact that you can book the same award using different programs at different prices. They might find the extra detail helpful. However, such detail can be distracting to people already familiar with most programs.
There’s now a radio button at the bottom of the search form. Think you’re an expert? Select that option and the results page will strip out all the descriptive text about each program. It also adds the value of each award, multiplying the number of miles by the cost per mile (CPM). You can almost view the entire table without scrolling. You can even copy the URL to share your results and preferred valuations with others!
Default values are included, but you can update the CPM for every program and resubmit.
I’ll continue refining “basic mode” and “expert mode” by adding new award charts, new features, and reducing the number of extraneous results. For example, I’ve already eliminated British Airways off-peak awards unless you’re traveling to/from the United Kingdom or on a few of BA’s Fifth Freedom routes. I’m continuing to refine the categorizations used for other programs.
There were also lots of bugs and typos that you helped me find, and I’ve corrected all of them. It’s running much, much better. With this update, hopefully it’s also much more useful for some readers.
