Alerts
How award-seat alerts should work
Create focused alerts that watch the right cabin, party size, date window, and points ceiling.
An alert is a saved decision
A useful alert stores more than a route. It should remember the program, travel dates, cabin, minimum seats, and maximum points you are willing to spend.
Broad alerts create noise. Focus each alert on a trip you could actually book.
Separate no seats from a failed check
An alert must only report no availability when the airline search completed successfully. A blocked or timed-out request should be retried and recorded as a failed check.
This distinction prevents false notifications and protects confidence in the monitoring system.
- Record every check time
- Keep failed checks separate
- Preserve the last confirmed match
- Alert only on meaningful changes
React quickly without panicking
Award seats can disappear quickly, but every notification should still show the route, date, cabin, points, taxes, seats, and freshness.
Open the result, confirm it with SAS, and review cancellation rules before making related non-refundable bookings.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Questions about this topic.
How often should an alert run?+
It depends on plan limits and operational pacing. More frequent is not always safer if it risks airline blocking.
Can I alert for several seats?+
Yes. Set the minimum seat count to your real party size.
Should failed checks trigger a no-seat email?+
No. Failed checks should be retried and reported separately.
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