Guide: Best ways to search for oneworld Alliance award availability

Searching for award availability to redeem your miles can be really time-consuming, especially if you are searching date-by-date.

In this article, I’ll share the fastest methods to search for award seats on oneworld airlines, on different Frequent Flyer Programs (FFPs).

Airlines in oneworld Alliance

Here are the current member airlines in the oneworld Alliance.

Key oneworld airlines and FFPs

The key oneworld airlines useful for travellers based in Southeast Asia are:

• Cathay Pacific
• Qatar Airways
• Finnair
• Qantas
• Malaysia Airlines
• Japan Airlines

…and the key FFPs are:

• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club
• British Airways Executive Club
• Finnair Plus
• Qantas Frequent Flyer
• Malaysia Airlines Enrich

Search on American Airlines AAdvantage (Free)

Although it’s hard to earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles as a Southeast Asian traveller, it is a great tool for searching oneworld award availability, due to the following reasons:

• No log in required
• Displays calendar view of award availability
• High accuracy

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Visit American Airline’s award booking page (no need to log in)

Step 2: Search one-way, segment by segment
If the route that you’re trying to book requires a layover (e.g. Doha for Qatar Airways, Helsinki for Finnair), search to and from the layover airport first.

For example, when trying to check award availability from Singapore to Vienna on Qatar Airways, search SIN – DOH first, then DOH – VIE.

You may also set the total number of passengers here.

Step 3: Click on calendar, and set your filters
When finding Qatar Airways award availability between SIN and DOH, set the Nonstop and Business/First filters. As there is only 1 oneworld airline flying this route, any available dates that you see are for Qatar Airways.

This method works very well for most oneworld airlines, on any FFP, but not for airlines that release more award seats to their own FFPs.

✅ Qatar Airways
✅ Finnair
✅ Japan Airlines
✅ Qantas
✅⚠️ Cathay Pacific (except Asia Miles)
✅⚠️ Malaysia Airlines (except Enrich)

Search on seats.aero (Free and Paid)

Another great tool for searching oneworld award availability is seats.aero. Travellers can create a free account to view award availability, up to 60 days ahead.

Pro members have access to the full availability data, up to a year ahead. This paid service costs US$99 per year, and I’ve received word that a 2024 Black Friday promo (late-Nov) is in the works! You may sign up for seats.aero using Suitesmile’s link to support this website. 🙏 Edit: Black Friday promo is now live, get 30% off

Pro members can create award availability alerts, and have access to great travel-hacking tools like seat map viewer and rooms.aero (for hotels).

Search on Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific flights only)

Cathay Pacific releases more award seats to its own FFP, Asia Miles (like Singapore Airlines and KrisFlyer).

This means that if you are trying to book Cathay Pacific award seats using Asia Miles, the only accurate method of searching is via cathaypacific.com.

As previously shared in Suitesmile Chat, here’s the most efficient way to do so:

Step 1: Visit Cathay Pacific’s award booking page (no need to log in)

Step 2: Search one-way, segment by segment
If the route requires a layover in Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific’s hub), search to and from Hong Kong first. For example, when trying to check award availability from Singapore to Amsterdam, search SIN – HKG first, then HKG – AMS.

With this method, you will be able to quickly view monthly award availability through a calendar view. At the moment, this only works when searching to/from HKG.

Here’s a video example:

Next, search the full route to confirm award availability and complete the booking. This will require you to log in to your Cathay Pacific account.

Additional note: This method may not work 100% of the time, as it is possible that Cathay Pacific applies married segment rules on certain routes. I’d rate it with a 90% accuracy.

Best ways to redeem miles from Singapore credit cards

Check out these articles, for lists of the cheapest award flights between Singapore and:

• North Asia (Japan, South Korea, China etc.)
• Europe (Italy, UK, Spain etc.)
• US/Canada