Best Practices for Searching Oneworld Availability

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If you’ve ever been frustrated trying to figure out the best ways to search for awards on Oneworld airlines, keep reading for some guidance and tips. We’ll address approaches to make searching easier and find good uses for your points and miles.

Oneworld Alliance Overview

The Oneworld Alliance, along with SkyTeam and Star Alliance, make up the world’s three major airline alliances. Travelers have much to gain from understanding how these alliances function since they provide a global network of flights, allow passengers to earn and redeem miles across member airlines and provide elite benefits across the network. Elite benefits include things like lounge access, priority check-in and boarding and additional baggage allowances.

Airlines that are part of Oneworld are listed on the Oneworld’s website. At the time of writing, the following airlines were full Oneworld members unless otherwise noted:

• Alaska Airlines
• American Airlines
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Fiji Airways (Oneworld Connect)
• Finnair
• Iberia
• Japan Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines
• Oman Air (future member, expected to join during 2024)
• Qantas
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian
• SriLankan Airlines

Award Options with Oneworld Programs

The Oneworld Alliance provides several benefits when using points and miles for airline awards. You can use miles in one loyalty program to book award flights operated by a Oneworld partner airline, subject to award availability. This expands travel options and makes travel more seamless. In many cases, bags can be checked through on itineraries, including travel on different airlines. The ability to book the same flight through different programs can be beneficial since the miles required to book awards through each program vary. Two examples are:

• Using American Airlines miles to travel from the United States to Asia: American Airlines doesn’t fly to many destinations in Asia. You can book an award through American Airlines’ AAdvantage program that includes travel on Oneworld partners that fly to your desired destination.
• Traveling from the U.S. to Madrid: There are nonstop flights from some U.S. airports to Madrid on either Iberia or American Airlines. Award price may vary significantly depending on the airline you fly and the booking program.

Points and miles already in a Oneworld member’s loyalty program can be used to book flights operated by that airline, other Oneworld airlines, and that program’s non-alliance airline partners. Award availability and pricing are based on the program where the miles are.

Having flexible currency points that can be transferred to multiple airline loyalty programs can provide more booking options through different airline programs. This may translate to better award availability and pricing. The chart below identifies Oneworld airline loyalty programs that are transfer partners with the following flexible currency programs: American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One Miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou Points.

Airline and program name	Amex	Bilt	Capital One	Chase	Citi
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan		X
British Airways Executive Club	X	X	X	X
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles	X	X	X		X
Finnair Plus			X
Iberia Plus	X	X		X
Malaysia Airlines Enrich					X
Qantas Frequent Flyer	X		X		X
Qatar Airways Privilege Club	X				X

Aer Lingus, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia and Qatar Airways programs use a common currency called Avios. You can move Avios among these programs. 

The ability to move Avios from one program to another provides additional flexibility. For example, if you have Citi ThankYou Points and want to book an award through British Airways Executive Club, you can do a two-step transfer: Citi ThankYou Points to Qatar Airways Privilege Club and Qatar Airways Avios to British Airways. 

While it’s great to be able to transfer flexible currency points to multiple airline programs and leverage different programs to find elusive awards and favorable pricing, it can be overwhelming to search all these programs. For that reason, people may choose to use an award booking service, third-party search tools and/or search using a subset of Oneworld airline programs’ tools.

It’s hard to generalize which loyalty programs have the best awards, since each individual experience will vary based on specific itineraries and personal preferences. Some factors to consider are:

• Award pricing structure: Some programs have fixed award prices based on class of service and distance or region. Other programs have dynamic (also called variable) award prices, where points required fluctuate, often dramatically. Other programs use a combination of fixed and dynamic pricing. While many people prefer fixed award prices, there are situations where dynamic award pricing is advantageous.
• Award program and airline fees: Besides the price in miles, fees vary significantly among airlines and their loyalty programs. This includes things like fuel surcharges, change and cancelation fees, and other airline-imposed fees.
• Award sweet spots: Popular among points and miles enthusiasts, these are awards that tend to be above average value compared to other options for a similar award through other programs. 

A few award sweet spot examples and recommendations about searching for availability are:

Long-haul partner business class awards through American AAdvantage: While American Airlines has variable and sometimes uncompetitive award prices for its own long-haul international business class flights, award prices on partner airlines are fixed and often are good values. One-way international partner business class awards to or from the continental U.S. are: 

• 57,500 miles for Europe
• 60,000 miles for Japan or Korea
• 70,000 miles for Asia 2 (which covers most of Asia except Japan and Korea) 
• 70,000 miles to the Middle East or Indian Subcontinent
• 75,000 miles for Africa 
• 80,000 miles for the South Pacific 

Partner award availability often is sparse. We recommend searching directly with American Airlines since you can see a month of award availability and prices on one screen and quickly navigate through months.

Iberia flights between select U.S. cities and Madrid starting at 17,000 / 24,500 / 34,000 miles one-way: The least expensive awards are between eastern U.S. airports — including Boston (BOS), New York (JFK), Washington (IAD) and Chicago (ORD) — and Madrid (MAD) on off-peak dates. The aforementioned prices are for economy, premium economy and business class respectively. These are the lowest fixed business class award prices for Oneworld flights between the U.S. and Europe. Prices increase for southern or western U.S. airports served by Iberia and for peak dates, but these awards generally represent good value. 

You can book awards through the Iberia Plus program and sometimes the British Airways Executive Club program, but neither program has user-friendly search functionality if you’re checking a range of dates or multiple U.S. airports. Iberia’s website has a monthly calendar view, but in my experience, it frequently doesn’t work. Using a third-party award search tool that shows Iberia awards can be useful.

Japan Airlines business class between the U.S. and Tokyo for 50,000 miles one-way: This is the lowest fixed price award between Japan and the U.S. on any Oneworld airline. Travelers can book this award with Japan Airlines JAL Mileage Bank miles, and the primary currency that can be transferred to Japan Airlines is Marriott Bonvoy points. To search for these awards, it’s best to use the Japan Airlines website since award space at this price is available exclusively to JAL Mileage Bank members.

Short nonstop economy flights within North America, Europe, Asia or Australia on multiple airlines: Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Cathay Pacific and Qantas programs use distance-based award pricing. Awards within the shortest distance band (usually up to 600 or 700 miles) start as low as 4,500 miles one-way depending on the region and the program. Taxes and fees vary, so when searching for short-distance award flights on a Oneworld carrier, it’s worth checking pricing in multiple programs to find the best option. Using a third-party award search tool can be useful, but make sure that the tool used includes results from the programs of interest.

General Considerations for Oneworld Award Searches

There are three methods — which can be used individually or together — for award searches.

Directly search the airline program(s) where you have miles: This is the most straightforward search. For example, if you have American Airlines AAdvantage miles, you search for awards on American’s app or website. This may be more accurate than using a third-party search tool, and it should show all award availability for the airline’s own flights. On the other hand, it takes more effort to search each program separately if you have points in multiple programs, and you might miss better award availability or pricing if you only check one program.

Search using another Oneworld airline’s user-friendly tools to find awards that may be available for partner bookings: In this scenario, you will conduct your search through a program that you aren’t planning to use for award booking either because you don’t have miles in the program or flexible currency that can be transferred to the program or because award prices are more expensive. The reason for using the other program is to make the search process easier. This approach sometimes is useful to allow you to see award availability patterns that will help you make decisions about when and how to book.

One issue with this approach is that award availability has become increasingly program-specific recently, so this might not work as well as it did in the past when partner award availability was more uniform across Oneworld airlines. For example, Qatar Airways has an excellent business class product, and searching through American Airlines’ program to find Qatar business class award availability used to be a good approach. In recent months, Qatar business class award inventory available through American Airlines has been almost non-existent, while other Oneworld partners — such as British Airways — or non-alliance Qatar partners — such as JetBlue — have had more award availability. If you searched through American Airlines, you wouldn’t have seen awards available to other programs but not to American AAdvantage.

When using the approach, the next step is to go to the program you want to book with and check availability and book there. It’s critical to check availability with the program you plan to use for booking before transferring points.

Search using a third-party website that searches multiple airline programs: The advantages of using this approach include that it’s significantly faster than searching each program individually, and it also may identify better award options or that you might not have considered. Some tools also provide flexibility to search multiple origin or destination points simultaneously. 

Unfortunately, these tools may show inaccurate award availability, either by missing awards or showing phantom award space. Search results from a third-party tool should be confirmed by searching directly through the booking program before transferring points.

Some factors to consider in deciding which airline or third-party tools to use for your search include:

• The type of points and miles you have: Using an airline’s website as a starting point may make sense if you only have miles in one or two airline programs. On the other hand, if you have flexible currency or points in multiple airline programs, you might want to use an airline website that does a good job of showing partner availability or use a third-party award search tool.
• Flexibility with travel dates and how far in advance you’re searching: A search tool that displays multiple days, a week or a month of availability at once makes it easier to search if you have flexible travel dates. Also, if you’re looking for an award almost a year in advance, use a tool with an appropriate search window. Airlines’ search tools match their own booking windows, so you can’t see award space more than 331 days in advance if searching through American Airlines or 360 days in advance through Cathay Pacific. If you want to find a business class award on Japan Airlines — which opens booking 360 days in advance — you’ll have a better chance of finding availability earlier through a program like Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.
• Flexibility with origin and destination: Airline search tools generally limit searches from a single origin to a single destination, although some will search multiple airports in a metropolitan area at once. An example is using “WAS” to search Washington-National (DCA), Washington-Dulles (IAD) and sometimes Baltimore (BWI). Some third-party award search tools allow searching multiple, geographically dispersed airports or even broader regions. Examples would be searching for flights originating in Boston or New York City or anywhere in the United States. Searching multiple airports simultaneously saves time for someone flexible about locations for beginning or ending a trip.

Airline Award Search Tools

Among Oneworld airline programs, I use Alaska Airlines and American Airlines most often for award searches and supplement these searches with other airlines’ search tools, including British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, Japan Airlines and Qantas. Other search tools are most useful when specifically looking for awards on the airlines’ own flights or when looking for flights more than 331 days in advance.

Alaska Airlines and American Airlines searches are recommended for the following situations:

• Using flexible date searches to find specific dates with partner award availability from a monthly calendar view.
• Seeing complete award availability when using Mileage Plan miles to book Alaska Airlines flights or using AAdvantage miles to book American Airlines flights. This is particularly valuable with American Airlines since variable pricing sometimes results in less expensive awards on American Airlines’ own flights.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles is useful for searching for availability on Cathay Pacific flights if you have or can transfer points to Asia Miles, and it’s also an option for checking award availability for airlines that open booking about 360 days in advance. A major drawback is that Cathay Pacific’s online search and booking capabilities don’t include flights operated by certain airlines. To check availability and book flights on these airlines, you have to call or submit a flight award request form. Cathay Pacific searches sometimes display availability for a week in a calendar view, but the miles shown aren’t accurate, so it’s just a way to see if awards are available on a particular day.

Qantas Frequent Flyer also is useful for searching for partner awards when searching more than 331 days in advance. Qantas used to display a monthly view that showed which cabins had available reward seats, but that calendar wasn’t available in recent searches. In some searches, Qantas doesn’t display taxes and fees if you don’t have miles in your account.

To illustrate the use of selected tools, we’re searching for a Japan Airlines business class flight almost a year in advance. More specifically, we sought flights during April 2025 from Los Angeles (LAX) to Tokyo (TYO). Using “TYO” as the search parameter includes flights to both airports: Tokyo-Haneda (HND) and Tokyo-Narita (NRT).

Japan Airlines had business class awards available for its own members every day of the month, but only a few days toward the end of the month displayed the lowest pricing of 50,000 miles plus $260 taxes and fees. On most other days, awards were 70,000 miles for flights on Sunday to Thursday and 74,000 miles for flights on Friday and Saturday.

As of our search date, May 8, 2024, Alaska Airlines and American Airlines searches only covered the first few days of April 2025 due to their shorter booking windows, while Cathay Pacific and Qantas searches included results for the entire month. No Japan Airlines business class awards were displayed in Alaska or American search results. The only options that materialized in Cathay Pacific and Qantas searches were flights near the end of the month on April 22, 25, 27, 28, 29 and 30. Although these results are disappointing — particularly for people hoping to use Alaska Airlines or American Airlines miles — that won’t always be the case.

Let’s look at some searches.

Alaska Airlines search: Los Angeles to Tokyo

To see a monthly calendar of award availability, you should start the search with any date in the month, and the origin and destination airports. By checking the box for “Award Calendar”, the calendar view will appear first. When looking for partner availability, it’s a good idea to start with a route where the partner airline has nonstop flights — like Japan Airlines from Los Angeles to Tokyo — and know the price of the partner award. Alaska’s distance-based business-class awards start at 75,000 miles one-way for this route.

The search parameters are shown below.

The initial search results include all classes of service, and the calendar view shows the least expensive award for each date. If you want to check availability in a different month, you can change the month in the dropdown below the “Select departure date” label.

You can filter the results to show business class awards only. If the results include flights with connections, and the only awards available on a particular date have business class on one segment and another class on another segment, the business class calendar view might not show award prices for dates that only have mixed class award availability. In this example, two of the three dates with award availability in the initial search didn’t have availability when restricting results to business class.

From here, you click on the date with available awards to see award details. The expensive awards on April 1 are on Starlux Airlines, an Alaska Airlines partner that’s not a Oneworld member.

From the daily results view, you can filter results to show specific airlines and other parameters and sort results in different ways. The options displayed here also include mixed-class awards, which are annotated with the seat symbol circled in red above.

American Airlines search: Los Angeles to Tokyo

If you’re interested in seeing the monthly awards calendar, begin the search by selecting a date in the month and the origin and destination airports. When looking for partner availability, it’s easiest to start with a route where the partner airline has nonstop flights — like Japan Airlines from Los Angeles to Tokyo — and know the price of the partner award. American’s price is 60,000 miles for this award.

The search parameters are shown below.

The results returned will be for the selected date. On that page, you can select the option outlined in red to display the calendar view.

The calendar view defaults to showing the lowest award price for each date, and you can further filter results by class of service and number of stops. The options for class of service will show up in the dropdown.

After selecting Business / First, the award availability calendar shows the lowest price business class awards for each date. Given that all prices are above 60,000 miles one-way, these aren’t Japan Airlines business class awards.

Further review of the results showed that they were American Airlines flights, and most of the lower price awards were for one-stop flights via Dallas (DFW).

If you’re flexible about traveling in a different month, you can use the triangles on the sides of the calendar view to navigate to the previous or next month. For this search, there weren’t any awards at 60,000 miles for the entire year.

Cathay Pacific search: Los Angeles to Tokyo

For Cathay Pacific searches, you need to be logged into your Asia Miles account. Just like with other tools, you begin by entering search parameters, as shown below.

After entering this information, the following results were displayed.

The weekly view above is useful for showing dates with business class award availability, but the award prices we found weren’t accurate. The displayed available award on April 2 was a connecting flight on Fiji Airways for 115,000 Asia Miles, rather than the desired Japan Airlines nonstop flight.

By navigating through the rest of the month, we found Japan Airlines business class award availability on the following dates: April 22, 25, 27, 28, 29 and 30. Each had the same award price of 89,000 miles plus approximately $265 in taxes and fees.

Qantas search: Los Angeles to Tokyo

You need to log into your Qantas Frequent Flyer account to search for award flights. Enter your search parameters and check to see what awards interest you. Qantas doesn’t allow selecting all Tokyo airports, so Tokyo-Haneda (HND) is selected, however, the results also include some flights to Tokyo-Narita (NRT).

Initial results are shown below. Despite selecting business class in the search, the lowest award prices filter on the seven-day availability bar sometimes shows pricing for economy awards. To find business class awards, you would have to look at results each day. One shortcut is to look at the color of the line just below each type of award, which is outlined in blue below. A red line means awards are available in that class of service, and a black line means they aren’t.

Checking a date where we previously found business class award availability on Japan Airlines flights to Tokyo-Narita (NRT) in the Cathay Pacific search also shows award availability through Qantas Frequent Flyer.

Award prices through Cathay Pacific and Qantas programs are similar, and they have several common transfer partners. While the award price is lower through American Airlines, the big concern is that award space won’t be available when the date is bookable through American AAdvantage.

Iberia search: New York to Madrid

In the example below, we’re looking for one of the award sweet spots, Iberia flights from select U.S. airports to Madrid (MAD) for 34,000 miles in business class. To search Iberia Plus, you need to be logged into your account and select a specific date. We used the following search parameters.

The results show business class award availability on Iberia or American nonstop flights, and an option to view a monthly calendar, circled in blue below. Unfortunately, selecting the monthly calendar option resulted in an error message.

Initial results don’t show award prices, and Iberia Plus award prices vary based on whether dates are peak or off-peak, the operating airline, and although it doesn’t apply to these nonstop options, the class of service for each leg for routes with connecting flights. You have to select a flight option to see award pricing.

To get the lowest award price, select an Iberia-operated flight. Iberia Plus allows you to select the number of points and amount of cash used. The regular price of this award is 34,000 Avios plus $118.40 in taxes and fees. Since the search account doesn’t have 34,000 Avios, an option using fewer points and more cash is selected.

Third-party Award Search Tools

In recent years, there has been a sizable expansion in the number of award search tools, and more importantly, in the functionality and user-friendliness of available tools. Some tools are free, while others have a monthly or annual subscription fee. Different tools work better for certain types of searches, and some tools build in more guidance for beginners than others do. Tools cover different airlines and programs, so this is another consideration in choosing tools.

We won’t discuss each tool and its functionality in detail, but it’s worth experimenting with one or more free tools the next time you’re searching for an award to see if it’s helpful. A few popular tools with free versions are discussed briefly below. Many tools also offer some sort of more general discovery or exploration search that allows broader search parameters, such as searching from the U.S. to anywhere in the world, but these searches don’t use real-time award availability.

AwardTool: The free version includes the same set of airlines and programs as the paid version, but it limits the search capability to four entries or search parameters based on the combined number of search dates and origin and destination airports. Four-entry searches allow searching one origin airport and one destination airport for a four-day range, searching one origin airport and two destination airports (or vice versa) for a two-day range, or searching two origin airports and two destination airports for a single day. AwardTool also offers customers with free accounts the ability to conduct a limited number of searches with more than four entries.

Point.me: The version of Point.me that includes all supported airline programs isn’t free, but Bilt Rewards members and American Express customers who have a credit card that earns Membership Rewards points can use versions of Point.me that display award availability for Bilt and American Express transfer partners respectively. Compared to the other tools discussed, Point.me offers less flexibility in searches — since you can’t search multiple dates or airports in a single search — and is slower, but it provides more guidance to users about steps to book.

PointsYeah: The free version includes all airlines supported by PointsYeah, but it limits search parameters compared to the paid version. For example, a one-way search with the free version covers up to a four-day range, while the paid version allows an eight-day range. The paid version also allows two origin and two destination airports in a single search, but the free version is limited to a single origin and destination.

At the time of writing, other award search tools were available including:

• Free tools: Points Path, SeatSpy (14-day trial) and Roame.Travel (community)
• Paid tools: AwardFares*, AwardLogic, AwardTool Pro, Expert Flyer, Point.me (full version), PointsYeah Premium, Roame.Travel (friends of Roame), SeatSpy and Seats.Aero*

*Note: There are free versions available, but the functionality in the free version is extremely limited.

Most paid tools and some free tools also offer award alert functionality to notify you if a desired award becomes available in the future.

PointsYeah search: New York to Washington, D.C.

Let’s start with an example of a short economy flight with some date flexibility. Using the free version of PointsYeah, you can search a four-day range at once. The search parameters entered include dates, class of service, number of passengers and origin and destination airports. We’re using the broader codes “NYC” and “WAS” to include flights from any airport in the New York metropolitan area to any airport in the Washington, D.C. area. Bank (flexible currency) and airline programs can be specified here, or you can filter for specific programs after seeing results.

The initial results screen offers many options for further refining results. In the example below, we’re filtering the results to only show nonstop flights on American Airlines. From here, it’s also possible to move to the previous or next four days on the calendar, using the options outlined in blue on the left and right sides of the results screen.

Since the lowest award price by day bar at the top shows the same price each day, let’s focus on a preferred travel window. In the example below, results are limited to flights departing on Thursday between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. A single flight operates then, and it can be booked through Alaska Airlines for 4,500 miles, American Airlines for 7,000 miles or Qantas for 8,000 miles.

Iberia Plus awards are available for other flights for 8,250 Avios, but Iberia award options aren’t displayed for this specific flight. Partial results — filtering on Iberia Plus — are displayed below. (Note: Iberia awards for the shortest distance American Airlines flights increased to 12,000 Avios in July 2024.)

At the time of writing, PointsYeah doesn’t search award availability through British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways programs. You may want to check these programs separately if you have points or miles with them or have flexible currency points that can be transferred to these programs.

The “best” booking option ultimately depends on individual circumstances. For someone who has — or can transfer — miles to Alaska Airlines or American Airlines, their programs offer the least expensive award options with the best change and cancellation policies. Alaska Mileage Plan has a $12.50 partner booking fee that is non-refundable, but otherwise, Alaska Airlines and American Airlines offer free award changes or cancellations.

If you don’t have miles in these programs but have flexible currency points in other programs, you should compare award options through relevant programs. For example, with American Express Membership Rewards, your options would include British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, Qantas, and Qatar programs.

PointsYeah search: New York to Madrid flights on Iberia Airlines

As discussed previously, the award availability calendar in Iberia’s search tool doesn’t work consistently, and there are multiple steps to see award pricing. Using a third-party search tool can facilitate the process of finding dates with award availability and seeing award prices. In this search, we’re seeking business class awards from New York to Madrid in January 2025.

The initial search parameters used are a four-day window with “Business & First” and “Iberia Plus only” selected to limit results.

The results show one of the same Iberia flights (the same flight is displayed twice) and the American Airlines flight that the direct Iberia search displayed for the same date; however, the PointsYeah search results don’t include the other Iberia flight. While it may be faster to search through third-party tools, be aware that third-party searches might not show all results or be completely accurate.

Final Thoughts

There are multiple ways to search for award space on Oneworld Airlines’ flights. Recommended search approaches and tools depend on specific situations, including the type of points and miles you have and your flexibility with travel dates and locations.

The proliferation of useful and sometimes free third-party award search tools makes comprehensive searches possible for a wider audience. While these tools save effort compared to searching multiple programs separately, it’s important to recognize that they have some limitations and should be used to complement — not replace — airline program searches.

Partially offsetting the benefits of having more award choices through flexible currency point transfers and improved tools to facilitate award searches, loyalty programs have moved towards generally higher award prices — including dynamic award pricing and award chart price increases — and more limited partner award availability in recent years. The net effect often is that the supply of great value awards is limited, with increased competition for these awards. With reasonable expectations and appropriate searches, it’s often possible to find good Oneworld airline awards.