Award Search Tools for Points, Miles, & Hotel Perks

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If you’re a beginner to the points and miles world, you might be confused as to the terms miles vs points- are they different? What do they connote? Check out the Guide to Points vs Miles to learn more! If you’re already familiar with these terms continue scrolling for some great tools on how to maximize your points and miles.

We’ve put together a list of award tools that we’ve found most helpful in our travels. Note that all the tools below that are designed to help find award space are known to occasionally return phantom results, which are not actually bookable. While this is frustrating, the benefits far outweigh this occasional hiccup. An additional point of importance to keep in mind is to always sort search results lowest to highest, as this is often not the default setting for award search sites.

General Tools

• AutoPilot Similar to pAiback and Junova which secure a refund for the price difference on your flight if the price drops, AutoPilot offers an additional perk to its Pro ($9.99/month) users- a refund on the miles-price difference if the price drops
• AwardHack This tool provides a host of information to the savvy award traveler such as transfer partners by credit card, current credit card transfer bonuses, and more!
• AwardWallet This tool allows you to track your points, miles, credit card perks, airline vouchers, and more, along with any expiration dates
• SeatMaps This tool allows you to input your flight # to view a seating map of your airplane- it provides information on seat width, leg room, recline, lavatory distance, etc.
  • AwardFare SeatMaps feature allows you to check the live seat map of your flight, to see how full your flight is (this is most accurate in the hours leading up to your flight)
• TPG Points Calculator Not sure if you’re getting the best value for your miles/hotel points vs the cash value? This calculator helps you determine if booking via cash or miles is in your best interest
• PSA: while infants fly free on domestic flights, that is not the case for international flights booked with points or miles. You’ll generally be charged a fee that is 10% of the cash-price of your purchased ticket, although this varies by airline, so be sure to inquire prior to booking any flights, if this applies to you.

Points/Miles Booking Tools

• PointsYeah This tool allows you to search for flight miles and hotel points availability and price, while also detailing which points can be converted to the relevant miles (for example if a United flight is available for 20k points, the search will show that you can transfer Chase and Bilt points into United miles to book this flight). PointsYeah allows you to filter by bank, airline, or hotel program to further refine the search results. Note that PointsYeah currently works with 21 airline mileage programs, so results are limited to the supported programs (for example British Avios is not supported on PointsYeah, so while you might see an American Airlines flight available for 10k miles, that same flight might be bookable via British Avios for just 8k miles). A great feature of PointsYeah is the Daydream Explorer which displays all available mileage flights for your desired dates by price- if you’re not set on a destination but have a maximum miles budget in mind, this is a great tool to finding your next destination!
• Seats.aero This tool has similar airfare features to PointsYeah, but works with a different set of 24 airline mileage programs. Seats.aero’s ‘Explore’ feature allows you to find the cheapest mileage redemption options by program.
• Point.Me This site requires a paid membership to conduct searches, but Amex provides a free subscription to its cardholders at amex.point.me– note that the search will only return results for Amex transfer partners, not for the full Point.me suite of airlines.
• PointsPath is a google chrome extension that once installed will show you the price in miles for any search you do via Google Flights- note that PointsPath currently works with 16 airline mileage programs.
• Additional popular options include roame.travel and AwardTool

Hotel Booking Tools

• Amex FHR/THC Credit Amex provides $600 in FHR/THC semi-annual credits to its Platinum cardholders. We’ve found MaxFHR and PointsYeah (select “Amex FHR” to display all FHR/THC eligible hotels) to be the most useful sites for finding eligible hotels
  • The credit is essentially two $300 credits, one available from Jan-Jun, and one from Jul- Dec. You can stack both credits for a longer stay by booking consecutive days in advance, for example if you book a stay using your $300 credit in June for August 22 to 24, and in July you book a stay using your second $300 credit for August 24 to 26, you’ve essentially combined your $600 credits into a consecutive 4 night stay.
  • A prepaid booking via the Amex Travel portal is required (“Pay Now” rate) for the credit to apply
  • The Hotel Collection (THC) properties require a minimum two-night booking for the credit to apply
  • Fine Hotels and Resorts (FHR) qualify for the credit even with a one night booking
  • THC and FHR bookings often qualify for various perks such as early check-in, room upgrades, and property credits
• Chase Edit + Select Brand Credit Chase provides $500 in Edit semi-annual credits to its Sapphire Reserve cardholders. For 2026 Chase is also providing an addition $250 credit at certain brands such as IHG, Omni, and more. We’ve found AwardHack to be the most useful site for finding eligible hotels
  • The Edit credit is essentially two $250 credits, one available from Jan-Jun, and one from Jul- Dec
  • The Select Brand credit can stack with the Edit credit, so if your hotel qualifies for both (check off “Also eligible for the $250 Select Brand credit” on AwardHack to stack both credits), you’ll receive $500 in credits for your booking
  • A prepaid booking via the Chase Sapphire Travel portal is required (“Pay Now” rate) for the credit to apply
  • A minimum two-night booking is required for the credit to apply
  • Edit bookings often qualify for various perks such as early check-in, room upgrades, and property credits
• Awayz This tool allows you to compare miles vs cash prices on flights and hotels. Awayz also provides a search filter if you’re looking to use a hotel free night certificate such as Hilton or Hyatt (often earned via hotel branded credit cards or spending)- the search tool also lets you know if booking an additional night via points will get you a free night such as IHG 4th night free or Hilton 5th night free
• Additional popular options include PointsYeah and Rooms.aero as great search tools for hotel points bookings, although PointsYeah does not detail how many bank points are needed if transferring to hotel points (for example Amex points transfers to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio, but that’s not clear from the results), and Rooms.aero does not list transfer partners in the results at all.

Have any questions or comments? Reach out in the comments section below, and I’ll do my best to respond!

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globetrottinggeek

Visited 45/50 US States Visited 30/63 US National Parks