Have you ever had a hard time redeeming your miles and using them for your flights? Or maybe called an airline where they tell you there are no award seats available (well, in fact, there is, but you believe them anyway because you’re a first-time user)?
Enter: point.me. Point.me is a user-friendly flight award search tool that can help you find the perfect award flight without causing you much time and money. Disclaimer: it isn’t free, but it sure is cheap and durable.
This tool will not just show you the available award flights (you thought didn’t exist), but this will also show you how to get there with the use of both your airline miles and transferrable points: Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One “Miles”, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, or Marriott points.
Disclosure: We have a referral code to use so that Travel Freely will receive compensation for signups. I originally told Adam I didn’t even want the referral code because I believe in his product so much, but he insisted I use it. =)
Update 8/22/2022: Get one month for $1 when you select a Standard Plan (monthly or annual) and use the code TRAVELFREELY at checkout.
To redeem, select a Standard Plan (don’t select “I Have a Code” plan), and enter TRAVELFREELY at checkout.
Just FYI, to get the deal… Select either standard plan (don’t select “I Have a code”). Then, when you reach the checkout page, enter TRAVELFREELY and the $12 month will become $1, or the discount will apply on the annual plan.
Here is our link to use if you want to sign up: Sign up for point.me.
Overview: The Swiss Army Knife of Flight Awards Search
The point.me search screen is completely intuitive. You can search for round-trip, one-way or multi-city flights and choose from economy or business class options.
Here’s a sample search for a flight from Miami to Barcelona in business class via Emirates. One of my favorite features is that point.me will walk you through the booking process step-by-step.
Transfer Bonuses
Another exciting feature is how point.me instantly informs you of existing points promos and transfer bonuses. But it doesn’t end there, whenever you conduct a search on the tool, it automatically computes the transfer bonuses for you, no need to do the math! This is great for when you want to compare your options for points transfer.
Pricing
The point.me flight award tool has several pricing options for individuals who are interested to maximize the site’s search features:
- $5 for a 24-hour pass days
- $129.00 per year ($12/month) for the Standard Plan
- $260.00 per year for the Premium Plan
It also provides customers with premium services such as full-service booking and Mileage Run planning, through their Concierge service.
If you’re just looking to explore the tool and see how it can help you plan an upcoming trip or establish a well-planned points strategy, then the $5 for a 24-hour pass will be more than enough for you. However, if you’re a serial traveler and the monthly plan is more promising, then by all means, go for it! The value that the $12.00/month plan provides is very reasonable.
What the point.me Tool Means for Beginners
From a beginner user perspective, you may find yourself unfamiliar with transferrable points, their uses, and how they can help you in tons of ways.
In many cases, if you have miles in just one program, it would be easier for you to search for awards with that program’s own web interface. Let’s say you only have Delta miles. In that case, you can simply use Delta.com to search for award flights. The main advantage for you for using point.me, then, would be that point.me may find better awards that are not available to book online, but most of the time you’d probably do just as well with using Delta.com for free.
You will know the real power of point.me if you have points in a transferable points program. Given that you are on a beginner level, you may not be aware that your Amex, Capital One, Chase, Citi, or Marriott points can be transferred to airline programs, but that shouldn’t be a problem because point.me will inform you when one of those programs offer you the best value for an award.
What the point.me Tool Means for Intermediate Users
If you are on the intermediate level, transferrable points and partner programs aren’t new to you, but you may still be at a position where you aren’t quite comfortable with the information you know especially on foreign programs. Your knowledge of the transferrable points system may also be limited to rewards programs that you only know. But hey, you still have a great advantage in this.
point.me is that much-needed tool you’ve been waiting for to up your points game, it offers you a shortcut to planning and executing valuable points strategy that otherwise takes months or even years to master.
In addition, since you already have transferable points, you are much more likely to find awards that meet your needs than if you only had miles with a few airline programs. Also, point.me will help you pay fewer points for the same flights.
For example, if you were to book a Star Alliance award on your own, you might simply transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United to make the booking. But point.me might show you that you could save a lot of points by transferring to another Star Alliance carrier. And, since point.me shows how to book awards once you’ve selected them, you can most likely complete the entire process on your own.
What the point.me Tool Means for Experts
Now, for the experts. You may be far ahead with those who are just getting to know the process of booking award flights, but you have to admit that it wouldn’t be as much convenient and easy for you if you haven’t known about point.me. It offers you great help in conserving your time and having a hassle-free booking experience.
With your many encounters on booking flights, you know very well how you hated the fact that you still have to call so many times on airlines just to find out if award availability even exists. But with point.me, your time is saved with the efficiency of the process.
point.me is also a great way to bypass lapses that may occur with certain flight awards or rewards portals. For instance, you want to use Virgin Atlantic miles to book a Delta flight to Frankfurt, Germany. However, you can’t search for this online because Virgin Atlantic does not recognize the Frankfurt Airport. So instead of making calls just to determine flight availabilities with Virgin Atlantic, you can quickly search for that flight via the point.me tool.
Conclusion
If you are a beginner and want to maximize your award options (especially to look at your best price for business class tickets), I can’t recommend point.me enough. If you want to spend 20+ hours of research and still feel lost, you can forego the $5 and do it yourself!
There are other award search tools, but none that come close to point.me’s power and ease of use. If you’re a casual user, well and good, you can avail of paid searches only when you need it. But if you think that this tool is a monthly necessity for you, then it’s a matter of weighing the pros and cons so you’re sure that you’re not paying more than what you need to pay for.
Set these things aside, we can still argue that as far as flight awards search tools go, point.me is near the top.
