Short answer: AwardFares is a powerful award-search and monitoring tool that can save you a lot of time and help you find higher‑value award seats — especially for complex or premium-cabin redemptions — but it’s a paid subscription service with limits and it’s a search/alerts tool rather than a full-service booking agency. (awardfares.com)

Pros

• Fast, real-time award searches across many frequent‑flyer programs and date ranges — useful for spotting hard-to-find premium seats. (awardfares.com)
• Powerful alerting (Live Alerts + AI “Flex” Alerts) so you can be notified instantly when seats open on specific routes or broad regions. Great if you’re flexible or tracking rare award space. (awardfares.com)
• Helpful search features: multi‑date timelines, multi‑airport/country searches, mixed‑cabin visibility, and seat maps (so you can evaluate individual flights). These speed up planning and reduce manual checks. (awardfares.com)
• Free tier + paid tiers (Gold, Diamond) with a 24‑hour free trial — you can try before you commit. Paid tiers add higher refresh rates, more alerts and broader limits. (awardfares.com)
• Generally positive user feedback and reputation among award travelers (reviews show high satisfaction for saving time and finding seats). (trustpilot.com)

Cons

• Subscription cost: to get the fastest refresh rates, unlimited alerts, and the most advanced features you need a paid plan; that may not be worth it for very occasional users. (awardfares.com)
• It’s primarily a search/monitoring tool, not a ticketing service — for supported programs it can provide a booking link that takes you to the airline/site, but AwardFares does not itself issue tickets for you. You still need to have/transfer the miles and complete booking with the program. (awardfares.com)
• Not every loyalty program or edge case is equally supported; some programs may only be indicated (not fully supported) so you may still need to verify availability on the airline’s site or call the program. (awardfares.com)
• Usage/search limits on tiers (and possible throttling to prevent abuse) — heavy power users may hit limits or need the top tier. (awardfares.com)
• As with any third‑party tool, occasional mismatches can occur between what a tool shows and what a loyalty program allows at booking, so always verify before moving or burning large sums of points. (awardfares.com)

Who it’s best for

• Frequent “award hackers” and people who hunt premium-cabin redemptions or complex itineraries — the time savings and alerting can pay for itself. (awardfares.com)
• Less useful for one‑off casual redeemers who only book economy short domestic trips and won’t need continuous monitoring.

Practical tip

• Try the 24‑hour free trial and set up a few alerts for routes/dates you care about; that will quickly show whether the features and cadence are worth a subscription for your travel patterns. (awardfares.com)

If you’d like, I can compare AwardFares side‑by‑side with specific alternatives (e.g., ExpertFlyer, Point.me, AwardWallet) so you can see which fits your needs best.