This page describes where the information on PunkteInsider comes from and how every text is checked before it appears. If you first want to know who runs the site, read About us and the disclosure.
Which sources count as evidence
The first-ranked evidence is a program’s official terms, FAQ pages and status pages. Second come official pages of airlines and alliances, plus official press releases.
Press reports count only for dated events, for example when an airline joins or leaves an alliance. Even then the operator has to approve the source. Blogs, forums and comment sections are never evidence. A tip from one of them is taken up only once an official source confirms it.
Evidence for the legal notice, privacy and other mandatory information
Legal statements on the legal pages rest on statutes from the official collections of Switzerland, the EU, Germany and Austria. That covers questions such as when a legal notice is mandatory in Switzerland, which cookie and GDPR notices are needed and how affiliate links must be labeled. The pages themselves are templates and not legal advice.
Country pages for miles and points in Switzerland
For every statement, PunkteInsider cites the country page of the market concerned. A Swiss statement therefore rests on the Swiss page of the official website, a German one on the German page. This matters because fees, terms and promotions can differ between markets even when the program is the same.
How each statement is recorded
Every checkable statement is recorded on its own, with source, market, retrieval date and a verbatim excerpt of at most 300 characters. An example: if a program’s official page names an annual fee of CHF 89, that amount is recorded with source, retrieval date and excerpt as a statement of its own. The amount serves only as an example here.
Amounts appear in the currency in which the source states them. Conversions into CHF or EUR are marked as approximate values.
From fact sheet to checked text
A research agent collects the evidence for a text in a fact sheet. A writing agent then words the text solely on the basis of that sheet.
The check then runs in several steps. First a script fetches every cited source again and compares excerpts and figures with the page. An originality check compares the text with the third-party pages read during research. From about eight identical words in a row, the text goes back to the writing agent. Finally a checking agent tests each statement individually against its source. It is a different language model from the writing agent.
The check report is tied to a hash of the content. Any later change voids it, and the check starts again from the beginning.
When a text counts as checked
A text counts as checked only when all statements are confirmed, every renewed fetch has succeeded and the originality check raises no objection. If it fails, the writing agent revises it in at most three rounds. After that it stays unchecked and is not published.
The operator approves every text before publication. Decisions such as admitting a press source are made by the operator alone, never by an agent.
What cannot be evidenced
Values that cannot be evidenced officially appear as “Keine Angabe” (not specified) with the date of the check. We do not estimate, and we do not fill gaps from memory.
Promotions found by an AI
Promotions that an AI finds on program websites enter the system only as drafts. They appear only after the operator has reviewed them.