How much have you used Award Nexus since it became tiered membership?

For myself I did not upgrade to a premium membership as I did not find it worth it since searches on AP for *A awards on AP site has been so much better than before minus the fact I can do more searches for other dates.

Has anyone else done the same or upgraded their membership?

I upgraded when I had the chance, since I felt the deal was more than generous, and as a "thank you". Peter and the program helped me tremendously last summer for some C-awards to Italy, returning from Croatia on LH. I have not used the program since, but I will be in the near future for another award trip.

I did not upgrade and I think that I have only used it once since it became tiered, and that was with points I already had in my account. For me, it is easy enough to just use the CO/AC/BA/NH search engines. It is a nice program, but with limited dollars, I've got to pick and choose where I am going to spend them.

I do use it for bulk searches.

1. Say I'm looking for Australia/New Zealand in high season with huge flexibility in dates I'll search the United and Air New Zealand and Air Canada routes at the same time.

2. Say I want North America to South Asia via the Atlantic, willing to pair up IAD-MUC/FRA/FCO/ZRH with flights on to BKK or SIN. I can search them all at once.

Now, can I do this with the ANA website? Of course. But I like to set it and go and just have the results rather than spend the time. That' s what I'm paying for, rather than an exclusive service that I can't get some other way. Just a convenience.

I do like the ability to automate searches and get an email daily with results. It helped me find NH new F (First Square) JFK-NRT that I would never have even bothered to search fo rmanually. That alone was worth whatever I spent for it.

Is it a tool if you're looking to save? Nah, you can do it all yourself. But it's sure convenient and I do appreciate it. It works for my personal situation.

I didn't upgrade although I really want to because i didn't feel the bonus 20% warrant the fact that I needed it right away. I do like the system a lot though so I will probably go to premium service when I do need more of the points. Just the timing wasn't right since I only joined in late november and it went tiered in January. As per gleff it is great for Bulk Searches and the convenience. So two thumbs up to Award Nexus!!

Not very much for me, because I don't need any award searches right now. My next potential redemption is in August, and I don't know the departure city yet. I did just try two searches to see the new functionality. The older list was fine, though the calendar is a little nicer.
I will note that my searches always take over the estimated time; I don't think it's ever been under. The minimum is a few seconds over; I've seen up to a minute extra. Is it just me?

I also think that your situation is a little different considering you have people paying you ~$250 to arrange an award ticket for them. If I was using the service as a method for generating extra income then I would definitely pay for the convenience, but as someone who only books 5-6 long haul award flights a year for myself and wife convenience just isn't that important compared to price. [Here's to wishing I could find people to pay me $250 to book a complicated award ticket!!!]

I was just explaining how I use it, and by the way I actually rarely ever use it for any of my paid stuff.

But doing as much award booking as I do, it helped me yesterday to ticket for two close friends

IAD-FRA, LH F
FRA-ZRH, LX C
ZRH-BKK, TG F
BKK-DPS, TG F

DPS-BKK- TG F

BKK-FRA, TG F
FRA-EWR, LH F
EWR-IAD, CO Y

I did upgrade to premium membership but I'm not still at ease with it. SInce you must pay for each use now (actually you buy points and you use some for each search), there is a psychological effect that refrains me from doing dummy searching. I must say that Peter has been very helpful in the past. Idid not contact him since I bought the tool but I can't see why it would be different. If you do not have access to the ANA tool, Award Nexus is extremely useful.

Why would you not have access to the ANA tool? There are several work arounds out there.

Because ANA tool is now restricted to those who are 1) ANA members and 2) have points in their account.

I brought that EXACT POINT up in an email to Peter, since I feel the same way. I know it's psychological. He offered to help with making the searches more efficient. He may also change his mind someday, and offer a membership based on time, not points. I personally prefer the subscription levels at KVS and EF for the way that I search for awards. (Concentrated award search for 1 month, 330 days in advance)

There's no hassle or trouble signing up for an ANA membership. I'm of the opinion pax should be members of most FFPs. And you're number 2 is clearly incorrect. I've never had a single point in my account.

Again, there are workarounds. Not sure if posting a link from the other site is tolerated here.

Yes, I heard it could change, but what about those who already bought what they bought. I don't think you can change a contract, neither for worse, nor for better. What he could do then is make a new offer to current subscribers, which they could accept or not, depending on what would come with it.

KVS seems a bit cryptic to me, is there any trial period? BTW, where do you find the MPM in the Award Nexus tool ?

I am ANA member, but do not have access to the tool: no points.

I don't know the answer to either question. I'd send an email to Kevin at KVS and ask. I know EF used to have a trial period.

I posted the way to gain access here:

http://milepoint.com/forums/threads/using-the-ana-tool.2442/

It's great to see a discussion about the pros and cons with using Award Nexus. I see some very thoughtful points and valid concerns.

A big reason why ANX didn't start with a subscription model is a matter of logistics. It takes a much more sophisticated billing system in place to track point usage, payments, and do billing (just take a look at your cell phone bill and you realize how complex recurring membership can be).

I have heard from several members about their hesitation with using their prepaid points. At the moment, there is no clear trend. I see members who have used little points, and I have seen members using up thousands of points in the first month of paid service. It is possible that some of the slow-using member are simply getting adjusted from the previous beta model, or they don't have a trip yet. It will take another few months for me to estimate if there is truly a different market segment that I need to target.

On a longer term, additional premium options will become available. However, because of the significant amount of time it takes to build the recurring billing system, I am still evaluating at this point. There are some truly advanced tools that I am focusing on now, and I don't want to divert my attention lightly.

I have had some laborious discussions on the pricing model in the past, so please excuse me that I will not studiously respond to pricing model questions on a forum. However, I hope this previous highlights give anyone concerned a perspective of the situation. As always, my inbox is open for anyone who would like a specific response.

I would absolutely not worry about this. If any additional membership offers become available, charter premium members will find much to like about their options.

so is this correct?

paid
5 cents or 10 cents per point
max per search = $4 / $2.50 / $3

free
100 points per 90 days
max per search = 25 points

What you posted is correct.

However, I would not look at it as max $ per search. Just like how your car has a maximum designed speed, the maximum search limit is there for you as a convenience. Typical searches are more like 5 - 10 points. Occasionally, when someone really needs to do a month-long scan or some serious differential analysis across multiple airlines, they will use 30 - 40 points on a search, but for the most parts, people don't drive their cars at maximum speed, and they don't search near the point limit.

A more useful way to think about it is that a typical long-haul segment takes about 100 points to plan. You may find your award within the first 20 points, or you may find it after 200 points, but on average, 100 points is good enough for you to figure out your options.

Also, don't forget that premium members have access to the automated daily search feature. For less than the price of a few cups of coffee, having someone diligently check on award availability, on a daily basis, for a whole month, is a true time saver (example: 3 points per search x 30 days = 90 points). And if that month-long automated search finds you a SQ F or CX J award, you have come out way ahead.

I really liked the tool during the trial period, and Peter was awesome! I had a few questions and they were answered right away. If I had unlimited $, I would pay for this service now. However, I have limited $, and the convenience is great, but I can get the same results by spending 10 mins on the 1k line and Exec Plat line. I wish it were still free, but totally understand the need to pay.

I've just discovered the tool and it seems useful enough although with already paying for EF I'm not sure if I'm pay for another tool. I don't do many overseas award redemptions, it's mostly when helping friends/family out.

My first search found space over but none back. You could call it a failure. I call it time saved.

Why?

I think I have an idea what mcruiser is referring to.

Many people look at doing a search and getting a bunch of available awards as a success, which it certainly is. However, quite often, given the vastness of potential award space, it is equally useful to get a confirmation that no award exist at the moment, so you can move on to other plans.

For example, if you were interested in flying on ANA from NA to Japan, you can run a week-long search on the 5 ANA US-Japan routes, and see that no awards available. If you were searching manually on the ANA or AC web sites, you may have to click back a few more times, just to make sure that you didn't miss a day, but with ANX, everything is saved and you can see instantly that no award is available, which is useful as well.