Short answer

• AwardFares is a legitimate, well-regarded award‑search tool that many frequent flyers use for discovery and alerts. It’s generally trustworthy for finding and monitoring award seats — but, like every third‑party award search tool, you should always verify availability and complete the booking with the loyalty program itself. (awardfares.com)

Why I say that (quick, evidence‑backed points)

• Data source & accuracy: AwardFares says it shows availability “directly from the supported frequent‑flyer programs” and refreshes live results for specific searches; for broad/“discovery” searches it may use cached results, so confirm before transferring points or booking. (help.awardfares.com)
• Coverage: AwardFares lists a substantial set of popular loyalty programs (Aeroplan, AAdvantage, Flying Blue, Alaska, United, Virgin Atlantic, SAS EuroBonus, etc.), but not every program worldwide — check their supported‑program page if you rely on a particular program. (awardfares.com)
• User sentiment / reputation: public reviews are positive (Trustpilot score ≈4.6/5 with many users praising alerts and UX), which supports that the product works well for many customers. (trustpilot.com)
• Comparison to other tools: AwardFares focuses on award‑search, timeline/region searches and alerts (strong on discovery and notifications). Other tools serve different needs — e.g. ExpertFlyer is/was strong on fare‑class and seatmap/fare details but has had service/data availability issues for some airlines recently; point.me (and concierge services) focus more on routing and booking help but are pricier and receive mixed user feedback. Choose a tool based on the feature you need (alerts and broad scans vs granular fare‑class data vs paid booking help). (blog.awardfares.com)

Practical, short guidance (how to use AwardFares safely)

• Use AwardFares for discovery and to set alerts — it can save hours of manual searching. (awardfares.com)
• When you find a seat you want: immediately check the same date/flight on the airline’s (or partner loyalty program’s) website to confirm the inventory and price before transferring or spending points. If the flight shows available on AwardFares but not on the loyalty site, treat it as a lead and re‑query the airline (caches and per‑program differences cause mismatches). (help.awardfares.com)
• Be aware of limits: some real‑time features are gated to paid tiers (AwardFares documents free vs Gold vs Diamond capabilities); decide what level you need before subscribing. (blog.awardfares.com)

Bottom line

• AwardFares is trustworthy as a discovery/search/alert engine and is competitive with other modern award tools when your priority is fast multi‑program searches and alerts. It’s not an authoritative “booking” system — always confirm on the issuing loyalty program and be mindful of program coverage and paid‑tier differences. (awardfares.com)

If you want, I can:

• Check whether AwardFares supports a specific loyalty program you use; or
• Compare exact features/pricing between AwardFares and one or two other tools you care about (ExpertFlyer, point.me, Roame, JuicyMiles, etc.).