6½ Ways to Find INSANE DEALS Booking Flights With Points
You don’t have to be great at math to get good deals booking flights with points. I’m going to share my 6½ top strategies for booking insane deals on flights with the fewest points possible…
1. Earn Lots of Points
The most important thing if you want to enjoy some free travel or premium experiences is to is earn lots of points. I use credit cards that earn as much as 10x points on a purchase like the Capital One VentureX card that earns 10x on hotels & rental cars or the Amex platinum card earns 5x points on all flights booked direct with the airlines. Not to mention the signup bonuses are often 100k points alone you can really ramp up your point balance quickly. The best way to start is with a good credit score so you get approved for a good travel rewards card, and be sure to pay those balances off every month to avoid high interest charges.
2. Earn Points You Can Transfer
I fly United often and use the United MileagePlus credit card for the added perks but those miles aren’t nearly as valuable as Amex membership reads points because they can be transferred to over a dozen different airlines which opens you up to booking dozens more because of airline codeshares and alliances. Keep in mind many of these cards come with a lot of travel benefits but they can have high annual fees so don’t sign up for something you may not use. There are several cards that earn points that don’t have annual fees, and one of my favorites is the Amex blue business card that earns 2x points on the first $50k you spend every year.
3. Book a Different Airline
Some of my best award redemptions are booked through a third party airline within the same alliance. For example I have used Avianca LifeMiles, a Colombian airline, to book first class on Lufthansa, a German airline, for a lot less points. They are both star alliance partners and can offer flights for points on their frequent flyer programs.
4. Have Flexibility or Book Last Minute
I rarely book award flights more than 2-3 weeks in advance because I typically use my points for travel in premium cabins where award space is hard to find. The opposite can be true if you book at the end of the calendar when flights are first released, but this often means planning well over a year in advance. Some airlines offer off-peak discounts on award tickets at certain times of year which aren’t so busy for them. What happens is as the flight gets closer the airlines often release more award space on certain flights that are undersold. We even booked a trip to Europe two hours before the flight, and travelled in business class for under 6 bucks each.
5. Take Advantage of Bonus Offers
Occasionally you’ll be able to transfer points with a bonus if you earn points that can be transferred like certain cards from amex, Citi, capital one, and chase. That means when you transfer points you can earn an additional 10-40% more points for free. So if you transfer 50k BA avios points with a 40% bonus you’d end up with 70k points in your avios account. Keep in mind you can’t transfer points back so make sure you have found award availability first.
6. Book Business or First Class
Without a doubt the most valuable way you can use your points is for booking flights in premium cabins like business or even first class. We’ve gotten as much as over 20 cents value per point with British airways extremely expensive first class which was selling for £9000 one way. You have to book these through the airlines, not through the credit card travel sites like Amex travel. For example I’ve flown first class on Lufthansa and Singapore airlines worlds biggest first class seats for under 60k points with taxes and fees under $100 each. I recently surprised my brother with Hawaiian airlines first class for 8 hours in a flatbed at only 34k Amex points & $5.60 by using a 20% bonus offer from Amex to Hawaiian Airlines. That being said if you’re flying to Europe for the first time and want to use points to take the whole family in economy there’s nothing wrong with that and I often fly in economy too.
6½. Keep Searching!
Sometimes it’s going to take a little bit of google research & searching for availability online to find what you’re looking for. If you want to book a popular first class seat on a popular route 3 months out it’s probably not going to be there. Some of the best award redemptions I’ve found have been from multiple searches over time to find the best deals. Play the long game and learn as you go and your points can take you on experiences you may have never even thought were possible.
Happy travels!
-Jeff
