The Best Tools, Tips, and Tricks for Finding Award Space

You’ve collected tens of thousands—or maybe even hundreds of thousands—of frequent flyer points or miles, thanks to a travel credit card or lots of flying (or maybe even both). Now you’re ready to redeem all those hard-earned rewards, but when you start diving into the redemption process, you can’t find a seat on a flight you actually want. Or worse, you find a seat, but you’re not sure if the number of points it costs is a good deal or a bad one.

Sound familiar? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Redeeming travel rewards can be tricky, especially with the proliferation of options today. Throw in the possibility of using your points or miles collected with one airline program to book a flight on a separate partner airline for international travel, and it can all get downright confusing.

Thankfully, there’s an entire industry of tools that have popped up in recent years to help alleviate the problem. But each one has its strengths and weaknesses, and not all of them are right for everyone. So let’s take a look at the leading tools for finding award space, along with some tips on how to best use each of them.

The best search tools for points beginners

If you’re just getting started trying to redeem your points or miles for a free flight, you’ll want a tool that either keeps things as basic as possible, or tries to lend a helping hand, or both. Even the tools in this section may provide information that’s difficult to understand for the first-time user. But if you take some time to explore them and utilize our tips for each, you should be able to find a great award redemption without spending hours searching for it.

Airline websites

Let’s start with the obvious. The first place to look for award space is on the website of the airline whose miles you’re trying to redeem. It’s always free to search that way, the results are straightforward and typically easy to comprehend, and the airline itself is going to be the most definitive source of what flights are available. 

The downside is that airlines don’t go out of their way to tell you what’s the best deal you’ll find with points, and the information isn’t always shared in the most helpful way. Still, it’s a good place to start.

Pros

• The airline’s website has the most up-to-date award availability.
• The only way to actually book an award ticket using airline points or miles is via the airline itself, either by phone or on its website.
• In recent years, carriers have gotten better about including award availability from partners on their websites (though it’s still not always a complete picture).

Cons

• You’ll only find flights using the airline’s own miles, so if you have other types of frequent flyer miles or credit card points, you’ll have to search each airline's website one by one.
• You won’t know if the same flight you’re interested in is available for a lower price using partner points or miles (such as booking a Delta flight with Air France Flying Blue miles).
• Many airline websites don’t make it easy to find the best flights or the best value, and they’re not always the fastest at retrieving results.

Airlines it searches

• The airline itself, plus some (though likely not all) of its partners.

Tips to get the most from the tool: 

When you perform an award search, airline websites don’t always provide the entire list of flights up front. Scroll down to the bottom of the results to see if there’s a “See More Flights” or “Show All Results” button to view everything that’s available.

Be aggressive about using the sort and filter buttons. Airline websites tend to sort their award results by what they think is “best” by default, but that’s not necessarily going to help you find a flight you actually want to book. Re-sort the list by price, departure time, or even trip duration to find results that match what you’re looking for.

Just because the airline’s website is the first place to search doesn’t mean it’s the only place you should search. You’ll want to look at other options, especially if you have points or miles in more than one airline program or a credit card that earns transferable points like Chase Ultimate Rewards or American Express Membership Rewards.

Cost: Free 

Point.me

It’s fair to say that the recent proliferation of new award search tools started with the launch of point.me in early 2022. The team behind point.me, led by Adam Morvitz and Tiffany Funk, have been expert award bookers for years. Their original product, called Juicy Miles, was decidedly for experts only, but fortunately, point.me is a much more beginner-friendly option.

Point.me works just like an airline website in that you ask it for a flight between two cities on a specific date, and it gives you the options that are available with points and miles, except that unlike an airline website that only shows flights with its own frequent flyer miles, point.me will show you results from over 30 airline programs, all at the same time.

But what makes point.me great for novices are its comprehensive guides demonstrating how to transfer flexible credit card points to airlines, a process that’s often intimidating for casual points collectors. So if you primarily have Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One miles, or one of the other credit card point currencies, point.me can demonstrate how to convert your points into airline miles with screenshots and step-by-step instructions.

The bad news is all this comes at a price. You’ll only get three searches for free on point.me on a trial basis—after that, you’ll have to pay for access to unlimited searches. 

Pros

• The most comprehensive list of airline frequent flyer programs in a beginner search engine.
• Step-by-step guides show how to navigate the complex world of point transfers.
• Results can be filtered by airline program or even by credit card program, so it’s easy to drill down to the most relevant flights.

Cons

• Allows only a handful of free searches before requiring a paid subscription.
• Search results are slow – results can take up to 2 minutes to fully appear.
• There’s no award calendar, so unlike an airline website or some of the other options on our list, you can only see results for one day at a time.

Airline programs it searches

• Over 30 airline programs, including American AAdvantage, Delta SkyMiles, United MileagePlus, JetBlue True Blue, Alaska Mileage Plan, Air Canada Aeroplan, British Airways Executive Club, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, and many others.

Tips to get the most from the tool: 

Because point.me searches are slow to return results and there’s no award calendar, if you’re looking for award availability across multiple dates, you might try opening point.me in multiple browser tabs and performing multiple searches at once.

Bilt Rewards members can get access to a free version of point.me with unlimited searches on Bilt’s website and in the Bilt app. The downside is the Bilt version only searches availability across Bilt’s 12 airline transfer partners, which doesn’t include Delta. Still, that might be more than enough for many casual travelers.

A subscription cost to point.me could make sense if you book with points multiple times a year, but if you’re just a once-in-a-while traveler, you may want to look instead at some of the free options coming up on our list and rely on our points and miles guides here at Going to find your way.

Cost: First 3 searches are free on a trial basis; $12/month or $129/year thereafter.

PointsYeah

It’s not as polished or user-friendly as point.me, but PointsYeah, an award search engine recently introduced by longtime points expert Troy Liu, has two distinct advantages that can be useful for beginners. 

First, PointsYeah provides unlimited award searches for free. You can get some expanded features with a paid premium subscription, but for most beginners, the free version will be more than enough. PointsYeah also advertises that its real-time searches return results in 10 seconds or less on average, which makes it significantly faster than point.me (though PointsYeah currently only covers 20 airline programs versus point.me’s roster of 30+ programs).

The other advantage of PointsYeah is its ability to search for awards on more than one date at a time, which can be extremely useful if you have some flexibility in your travel plans. The free version of PointsYeah can search across a three-day window, while the premium version expands that out to seven days. But for most people just trying to use their points, three days is plenty.

Pros

• Offers unlimited one-way and roundtrip award searches at no charge.
• Searches are fast, returning results in as little as 10 seconds.
• Users can search for flights on a specific date or within a 3-day window (7 days with the site’s premium subscription).
• Going members get a discount on their first year of membership; log into Going and head to our Membership Perks page to redeem 

Cons

• Doesn’t cover as many airline programs as its top competitor.
• The interface isn’t as polished as some other tools.
• Beginners will need to already have some basic knowledge of how to transfer points from bank programs to airlines.

Airline programs it searches

• Aeromexico Club Premier
• Air Canada Aeroplan
• Air France/KLM Flying Blue
• Alaska Mileage Plan
• American AAdvantage
• Avianca Lifemiles
• Delta SkyMiles
• Emirates Skywards
• Etihad Guest
• Frontier Airlines Miles
• Iberia Plus Avios
• JetBlue True Blue
• Qantas Frequent Flyer
• Spirit Airlines Miles
• SAS EuroBonus
• Tap Miles & Go
• Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
• United MileagePlus
• Virgin Australia Velocity
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Tips to get the most from the tool: 

Since PointsYeah isn’t necessarily designed with beginners in mind, you may find the sheer number of options on its search and results pages to be confusing. Your best bet is to start by filtering the results to just the airline programs you’re interested in.

The roundtrip feature of PointsYeah essentially shows two one-way searches on separate tabs with separate pricing for each direction, which means you’ll need to manually add the points amounts together to get the total cost for a roundtrip.

Cost: Free for basic features, which include unlimited one-way and roundtrip searches; $8.99/month or $89.99/year for a premium subscription with advanced features. 

Roame

Roame is another of the new batch of award search tools that recently arrived on the scene. Launched by co-founders Tim Qin and Zi Liu, the website is similar in function to point.me, with beginner guides demonstrating how to transfer points to airlines. But it also offers the same fast, unlimited free searches as PointsYeah.

With 14 airline programs, Roame features fewer options than either point.me or PointsYeah, and it doesn’t have a free award calendar like PointsYeah. However, it does offer Skyview, a tool that searches the top 2,000 most popular routes over the course of 24-48 hours, with the ability to filter results continent by continent. That could be a useful feature if you’re interested in a European vacation but aren’t sure exactly where in Europe to go (though you’ll have to pony up for a paid subscription in order to access Skyview).

Pros

• Provides comprehensive results across multiple airline programs in a relatively quick amount of time.
• Skyview allows users to search by continent or region instead of just city to city.
• Daily emails provide a look at the best points deals currently available.

Cons

• Doesn’t offer the ability to search for roundtrip awards.
• Not as many airline programs available as its main competitors.
• Advanced filtering, Skyview, and alerts are only available in the paid version.

Airline programs it searches

• Aeromexico Club Premier 
• Air Canada Aeroplan 
• Air France / KLM Flying Blue 
• Alaska Mileage Plan 
• American AAdvantage 
• Avianca Lifemiles 
• Delta SkyMiles 
• Emirates Skywards 
• Iberia Plus 
• JetBlue True Blue 
• Qantas Frequent Flyer
• United MileagePlus 
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club 
• Virgin Australia Velocity Flyer

Tips to get the most from the tool: 

Roame doesn’t offer roundtrip searches, so you’ll need to search separately in each direction to find a complete trip. But if you have points or miles in multiple programs, searching one way at a time offers the chance to fly one airline to your destination and then a different airline when you’re headed home.

Since Skyview and advanced filtering are only part of Roame’s paid Pro subscription plan, paying for Roame is probably most useful if you tend to roam the world multiple times a year.

Cost: Free for basic searches, $9.99/month or $109.99/annually for advanced Pro features.

The best search tools for advanced points bookers

Even though beginner award search tools are becoming ever more powerful and robust, there’s still a call for advanced options that can truly dive into the weeds of award redemptions. The sophisticated features offered by these tools all come at a price, but that cost may be worthwhile for the expert who finds themselves booking award tickets for friends and family members on a regular basis or for their own monthly or even weekly travel.

Seats.aero

Created by security researcher Ian Carroll, seats.aero isn’t flashy. But it’s fast. Incredibly fast. Type in two cities and a date, and results from 13 airline programs instantly appear, thanks to cached data that’s constantly updating in the background. While some of the information may be several hours (or even a day) out of date, just wait a few seconds, and the data will quickly be updated with the latest points prices. You can even add up to 7 days before and after your selected date to search across a 14-day window.

What’s the catch? Well, there are a couple. First, it’s definitely not polished. Results show up in 2 to 4 simple columns covering economy, premium economy, business, and first-class availability, with no further instructions on how to transfer points or anything else that an inexperienced award booker would need to know. 

Second, with a free account, you can only choose a date within the next 90 days — searches for flights with a departure date beyond that require a paid Pro subscription. And seats.aero doesn’t monitor every route an airline flies, so you won’t always find the results you’re looking for, especially on shorter routes or routes with connections.

Pros

• The cached data provides lightning-fast award results.
• Free accounts include the ability to search up to 14 days around a specific date.
• Access to advanced tools that points experts can dig into for deep research.

Cons

• Free accounts only provide results up to 90 days out.
• Not all routes are monitored, as long-haul direct routes are the site’s primary focus.
• No additional guidance for beginners—this is decidedly an expert tool.

Airline programs it searches

• Aeromexico Club Premier 
• Air Canada Aeroplan 
• Air France / KLM Flying Blue 
• Alaska Mileage Plan 
• American AAdvantage 
• Avianca LifeMiles
• Delta SkyMiles
• Emirates Skywards
• Qantas Frequent Flyer
• SAS EuroBonus
• United MileagePlus
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club 
• Virgin Australia Velocity Flyer

Tips to get the most from the tool: 

In addition to its standard search engine, seats.aero has an “Explore” function that reverses the standard search equation. Instead of searching from city to city, an entire airline can be selected to show all award options available with points or miles from that program. The results can then be further refined by region, making it easy to discover new vacation destinations.

For those looking for wonky award availability tools, seats.aero is full of them. There’s access to a public API, specialized searches for Lufthansa First Class, Qatar Qsuites, United and Air Canada upgrade space, apps for both iOS and Android, and even a ChatGPT AI plugin. It’s a wonderland for travelers who are experts with points and want the best options at their disposal.

If you have questions, you can find other seats.aero experts in its Discord community, which is open to free members. A paid subscription provides additional private channel access.

Cost: Free for unlimited searches up to 90 days out; $9.99/month or $99.99/year for a Pro subscription with searches up to a year out and other features.

SeatSpy

Hailing from the United Kingdom, SeatSpy originally launched with searches of just its own country’s flag carriers, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Even now, several years later, it covers a fairly limited set of 12 airline programs and remains focused on direct flights. But search any of its covered routes and airlines, and you’ll get an entire year of award pricing in just a few seconds, beating all the other tools by far.

If you’re looking for an economy seat, then SeatSpy’s free search service might be adequate, even with its cap on the number of searches you can make. But if you want to book into a premium cabin, you’ll need a paid subscription. The good news is with your subscription, you’ll also get access to the site’s “Where Can I Go?” service, which can show you all the destinations that have available award seats on any date you choose.

Pros

• Provides an entire year’s worth of results in just a few seconds.
• Alerts can let you know when award space opens on a route you’re interested in.
• Use SeatSpy’s filter to only show flights available up to a specific number of points.

Cons

• Searches a limited set of airlines and only for direct flights
• The free plan only includes a limited number of economy cabin searches
• Doesn’t show taxes and fees on award tickets, which can be expensive when using some programs such as British Airways.

Airline programs it searches

• Air France / KLM Flying Blue
• American AAdvantage
• Austrian Airlines
• British Airways Executive Club
• Brussels Airlines
• Croatia Airlines
• Etihad Guest
• LOT Polish Airlines
• Lufthansa Miles & More
• Swiss Miles & More
• United MileagePlus
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Tips to get the most from the tool: 

Can’t find award space on the date you want to travel? With a paid SeatSpy plan, you’ll be able to easily set award alerts, which can ping you when space opens up on a specific route during a range of dates that you determine. The cheapest paid plan allows 4 active alerts, while you’ll get an unlimited number of alerts with the more expensive plan.

Cost: Free for a limited number of economy searches; $3.99/month or $39.84/year for a premium subscription that searches all cabins and offers 4 active alerts, $9.99/month or $99.96/year for a first-class membership with unlimited alerts and other advanced features. A free 14-day trial is available for all paid subscription tiers.

Expert Flyer

Finally, the granddaddy of them all. Originally created by Chris Lopinto and now owned by media company Red Ventures, Expert Flyer has been around for well over a decade. It most certainly lives up to its name, as any beginner scrolling through its complex interface might assume it was written in Portuguese. You really have to be a points expert to understand how to effectively use Expert Flyer.

But for those steeped in the intricacies of airline fare buckets, minimum connection times, and interline agreements, Expert Flyer can be extremely powerful. It doesn’t provide typical award prices like the other tools on the list but instead shows award space and seat availability on practically any flight. But it’s probably better used to search for upgrade space for tickets you’ve already booked, as it has a more extensive set of upgrade tools than any other site.

One of the other great features of Expert Flyer is its seat alert system. Got an aisle seat but want a window? You can set Expert Flyer to email you when a window seat opens up on your flight so that you can grab it before anyone else. And if you’re traveling with someone else but can’t find seats together, you can even set an alert to notify you when two adjoining seats open up.

Pros

• Best choice for searching for upgrade space for tickets you already have.
• Seat alerts provide immediate notification when a desired seat becomes available.
• Advanced tools provide voluminous flight and airport information, from TSA checkpoint historical wait times to visa entry requirements and everything in between.

Cons

• Only provides award space results—users have to look elsewhere for actual pricing and taxes & fees information.
• Expert terminology and interface means it’s not a good tool for beginners (or even many intermediate users).
• All functionality aside from seat alerts requires a paid subscription plan.

Airline programs it searches

• As many as 60+ airlines for award and upgrade space, and over 200 airlines for seat alerts.

Tips to get the most from the tool: 

Even if the majority of Expert Flyer’s tools are beyond your needs, seat alerts are actually part of the site’s free tier, which means you can get them without paying a cent (though you can only set up one alert at a time for free). Even better, there’s a dedicated Seat Alerts mobile app that allows you to create alerts right from your phone.

‍Cost: Free for seat alerts only; $4.99/month for a basic subscription to other features, $9.99/month or $99.99/year for a premium subscription (which also comes with a 5-day free trial)