My 10 Top Tips For Redeeming Airline Miles & Points, To Maximize Value

Great post. I would add one:

Consider Opportunity Cost

Example: I don't particularly want to part with my Avios, AA or AS miles for AA metal flights but if there's a decent price with an itinerary that makes sense for a TATL J flight eastbound, why the hell not? I know I'll be sleeping the majority of the flight. Any lie-flat will do. Now, if I'm coming westbound, it's a different story. Longer flight, sleep less a priority, looser itinerary for connections and thus hard and soft product more of an issue.

E.g., often good deals in AA J RDU-LHR. Not the sexiest way to get across the pond but saves me a ton of work getting my trip into gear. I value hitting the ground running over connecting through a major east coast gateway and introducing more variables.

A lot of folks bend themselves into pretzels trying to fly the "best" product for every leg but sometimes any lie-flat and operational reliability trumps CPM redemption value.

Iberia release 361 days out not 330.

All of this sounds great, but at least on AA, international business awards at less than 200K (sometimes 400k) one-way have become very hard to find, even 11 months in advance. The BA partner flights at 57.5K usually add a $700-$900 supplemental fee, and where there used to be availablity for them almost every day in both transatlantic directions, they are becoming rarities. Now add the new Citi Strata card to the mix, and there will be thousands of additional cardholders chasing the same awards--not a good situation for the future.

The BA partner flights at 57.5K usually add a $700-$900 supplemental fee, and where there used to be availablity for them almost every day in both transatlantic directions, they are becoming rarities.

- What is the total opportunity cost cpm and total vs cash fare for your itinerary; be flexible

Now add the new Citi Strata card to the mix, and there will be thousands of additional cardholders chasing the same awards--not a good situation for the future.

- see my comment in the thread and the article in the NYT today about Citi's expansion in the card game; not a threat. CSR and Amex Plat were introduced before the advent of AI; "savvy" customers will not be as blindly led.

I use pointsyeah.com and that seems to work pretty well. Point.me and seats.aero seem to require subscriptions to get any useful results, and I don't see any trial option, so I've stayed away.

Anyone who has used them, are they worth the money? Are they better than pointsyeah?

I've not used any of the paid versions, but seats.aero lets you see 60 days out for free and do 2 weeks of award inventory searches on a single route. It is certainly powerful. I use it just to get a feel of how common late opening space will be. Many, many people swear by it. It would probably be the one tool I would consider purchasing. It doesn't search a lot of connecting routes and secondary cities, but it will give you a good idea of the "over the ocean" options. It will just miss some married segment inventory.

PointsYeah is my first stop, but I've been using Roame a little more lately and started to play with Award Tool. They mostly show the same stuff, but Roame has more programs. Award Tool is useful because they give some free alerts (like PointsYeah) and have a nice grid interface. The PointsYeah daydream explorer is extremely valuable for trip planning if you are flexible with destinations. Right now we are planning a London trip. I have the outbound and first hotel booked, but we have to leave London to get back home (because of the insane UK departure fees and YQ on UK carriers). Daydream explorer has been really great for getting a feel of what might pop open in a couple months to help us get back.

I've got a pointsyeah membership. The extended search window, additional airport option, and extra alerts are very helpful, especially if you're looking at multiple trips and are flexible on origin/destination. For me it has been worth it for this year, not sure what next year holds (as far as travel needs) though so not sure if I will renew.

IMO, the points game long ago transitioned from one where you could reliably use points for long haul premium cabin travel into one where that is only realistic on opportunistic basis. As business class fares now fluctuate widely, I first look for good cash deals before turning to points options. And, as you note, I also find that cc options that let you use points agnostically provide the greatest benefit. Typically, I now find that transferring points to hotels (especially Hyatt) maximizes value. When flying, I always seek the most efficient routing that minimizes layovers and transfers in large hubs That is very hard to do when trying to secure award inventory. And, the thought of having to purchase a “positioning flight” just to take advantage of award inventory that may be available from some random hub holds little appeal.

Recently I used Chase points to book a flight simply because I could not believe the flight was available through their portal. I was invited to a wedding in Siberia and transited Beijing on the way to Russia flying on Air China. United's website would not even list the destination city. All US and western European travel consolidators refuse to list any flights to Russia so I still cannot believe the Chase portal does. You can even book flights on some Russian Airlines. Of course I saved a bit of money since I could still use 1.5 points per dollar but the novelty was my justification in this case. United did permit me to credit the flight as well.

I think for many people it is about their overall plan. If you frequent for whatever reason one airline alliance or one hotel group. You might redeem Oneworld points for a less than satisfactory deal if you don't frequent their alliance group but as a way to at least obtain some value from the points, for example.

I have 80K AA miles and want to go Greece. Any hints