One of the most common questions I get is, “How do I actually use my points and know I’m getting a good deal?” Well, first, let me say that a “good deal” is subjective, because a good deal to one person might be taking a road trip to their kid’s out-of-town soccer game and booking a free hotel night. While a good deal to someone else might be booking business class flights to Paris.

However, regardless of your definition of a good deal, award search tools are available to help you book award flights, find the best options for using and maximizing your points, and plan award trips. Let’s go over them.

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Airline Tools

PointsYeah

PointsYeah can search both flights and hotels. It’s one of my favorite options for people new to points and miles because it’s user-friendly and has many free search options. Additionally, PointsYeah explains how to book the flight and which points transfer. You can set alerts for when prices drop or when flights or hotels become available. Upgrade for $11.99 per month for features like extra search days and alerts.

Seats.aero

Seats.aero helps you find award flights from most major airlines. You can start with a basic free search, which lets you search up to 2 months out, and you can set free alerts. You can also pay $9.99 per month for a PRO subscription to view a full year of award flights. Seats.aero has many filters that allow you to search in a variety of ways. It doesn’t look fancy, but it’s very helpful.

AwardTool

AwardTool is a helpful resource for searching both hotel and airline award availability. You can search across multiple airports and up to four days at once. It shows how many points are required, which programs the points transfer from, and how many award seats are currently available. You can also set up to four free alerts. The free version is great, or you can upgrade to Pro for $9.99 per month for access to more search options and alerts.

Roame.travel

Roame.travel is a user-friendly and informative award search tool. You can use it for free with limited results or upgrade to an annual subscription for expanded search access. I have found that the free version still has a lot of useful features, plus the website is easier to navigate and understand than a few of the other options. Roame also provides step-by-step guidance to help you book the flights you find, which is a very useful feature.

Point.me

Point.me is another award search tool that lets you explore available routes between any origin and destination. The free plan is the most limited of all the search tool options. Paid subscriptions start at $12 per month and open up many more search options. If you have a credit card that earns American Express Membership Rewards® or Bilt Rewards, you can get a complimentary subscription with unlimited searches for Amex or Bilt transfer partners.

FlightConnections

FlightConnections is not an award search tool, but it’s a helpful website for knowing which airlines fly in and out of which airports. This can be a great place to start when searching for award flights, as it allows you to know which airline or airline partners to look at, depending on your destination.

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Hotel Tools

MaxMyPoint

MaxMyPoint is my favorite hotel award search tool. It provides award calendars for hotels, showing all available rates, both cash and points, for any given day. You receive a limited number of free searches per day and can set one free hotel alert at a time. Paid subscriptions start at $3.99 per month and include the ability to set more alerts and browse the website with no ads.

As I mentioned above, both PointsYeah and AwardTool also have hotel search options as well as award flight search options.

Other Helpful Tools

Travel Freely

Travel Freely is an incredibly helpful app for keeping track of your cards. It tracks your 5/24 status, annual fee due dates, and minimum spend deadlines for new welcome offers. It tells you when you’re ready for a new card and recommends cards for you based on what you have and what you’re eligible for. It also tracks cards for multiple people and businesses, all with the same app and login.

CardPointers

CardPointers is a phone and computer app that helps you maximize your points and cashback by showing you which card to use for each purchase. It tracks your cards’ bonus categories, welcome offers, and bank offers, like Amex or Chase Offers, and can even send reminders based on your location or spending habits.

You can use it for free to get basic tracking and recommendations, or upgrade to CardPointers+ (which I highly recommend) for just $6 per month to unlock advanced features like automatic offer syncing, multi-card profiles, and 5/24 tracking.

AwardWallet

AwardWallet is a free tool that helps you keep track of all your travel and credit card rewards in one place. It monitors your points and miles balances, alerts you when they’re about to expire, helps you track things like free night certificates, and organizes your upcoming trips. You can upgrade to a paid version for extra features like faster updates and more detailed tracking.

Use code free-iiba77ucpk for a free upgrade if you’re a first-time AwardWallet user.

Tripit

TripIt is a travel planning app that helps you keep all your trip details organized in one place. When you book flights, hotels, rental cars, or activities, TripIt scans your emails, and it automatically builds a master itinerary with everything in order.

You can access your plans offline, share them with others, upload your travel documents, and more. The Pro version is $48.99 per year and lets you get real-time alerts like gate changes or delays, and track your points and miles balances. It’s an excellent tool for staying organized, and a huge lifesaver for me as I plan and book our trips.

Wrapping Up

There are SO many helpful tools out there that it can actually be a bit overwhelming. My top favorite award search tools for flights are PointsYeah and Seats.aero. However, cross-referencing multiple search tools is helpful since they don’t all show results in the same way.

My top search tool for hotels is MaxMyPoint. I have used the free alerts many times to book rooms that were previously unavailable. Beyond those, I use all of the apps/websites listed under Other Helpful Tools very frequently. Aren’t we lucky to live in a time where technology can do some of the hard work for us?

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