Comparison of the best points-based flight search tools: the use of points and miles has profoundly transformed the way we travel, offering travellers significant opportunities to save on their air tickets. To maximize these benefits, several tools make it easy to search for award flight availability, with features suitable for beginners and experts alike.
However, these platforms do not take into account Canadian credit cards or transfer programs specific to Canada. This limitation complicates the analysis of offers, particularly during transfer promotions and when taxes and fees must be manually converted into Canadian dollars.
Ideally, you should explore different platforms to identify the one that best suits your needs. As with credit cards, no single tool can meet all your needs. A combination of two or more tools may be necessary. By integrating them into your booking strategies, you’ll optimize your points while simplifying your search. And if you’d like to support our community, don’t hesitate to use our affiliate links in this article or promotional codes: a small gesture that helps fund useful content while helping you travel efficiently!
Check out our comparison of the best points-based flight search tools, with a detailed analysis of the leading solutions on the market: ExpertFlyer, Roame, AwardFares, Point.me, Seats.aero, AwardTool, PointsYeah, Points Path (Google Flights) and Awayz.
Finding flights at good cash prices is relatively simple with platforms like Skyscanner and Google Flights, but rewards programs also offer a very compelling alternative: booking with points or miles. While searching for cash tickets is well-covered by these tools, there are also platforms specifically designed to help you optimize the use of your points. Here’s an overview of the most popular tools along with links to our comprehensive guides.
ExpertFlyer is a comprehensive platform for frequent flyers and aviation enthusiasts, offering detailed information and powerful flight search tools. The platform provides essential data on flight schedules, seat availability, seat maps, booking classes and upgrade options.
These features make it particularly useful for those looking for upgrade opportunities, or those wishing to choose their aircraft. However, its complex interface may discourage new users, and its most advanced features are only accessible via a paid subscription.
Ideal for frequent flyers, aviation enthusiasts and experts in maximizing airline points. It offers great flexibility and unique access to seat availability.
Less suitable for occasional travellers, as the interface is complex and the data requires a good understanding of fare classes and loyalty programs.
Roame is a points-based flight search tool distinguished by its modern, intuitive user interface, offering an enhanced user experience compared to other tools. One of its notable features is SkyView, a discovery tool that aggregates award ticket offers found in the previous 48 hours, providing an overview of award availability over a window of up to 60 days. Roame also offers a useful newsletter featuring the best award offers discovered via their tool.
Ideal for travellers looking for a modern, intuitive interface for finding award tickets with flexible planning. Personalized alerts and real-time search are major assets.
Less suitable for occasional travellers due to limitations of the free version and lack of integration with some Canadian loyalty programs. In addition, SkyView’s reliance on collected data may not provide the most up-to-date information.
AwardFares is a platform designed to facilitate the search and tracking of award flight availability across multiple loyalty programs. It offers features such as real-time searches, email alerts, live seat maps and a travel planner to organize complex itineraries. Its user-friendly interface and advanced filtering options make it an interesting tool for people looking to maximize the use of their points.
Ideal for regular travellers who want flexible planning and efficient comparison between different loyalty programs. It offers a user-friendly interface and advanced features to optimize the use of points.
Less suitable for occasional travellers or those seeking real-time information without a subscription. Limitations linked to the data collected and the need for a subscription for certain functions may restrict its usefulness for some users.
Point.me is a well-established platform that helps travellers optimize the use of their points and miles to book award flights. It combines a powerful search engine, capable of exploring numerous airlines and frequent flyer programs, with a personalized concierge service. The latter accompanies users every step of the way, providing recommendations on the best flight options and helping them maximize the value of their rewards. Thanks to its intuitive interface and in-depth expertise in award travel, Point.me simplifies the search and booking of tickets using points and miles, making travel more accessible and economical for loyalty program members.
Ideal for travellers seeking expert guidance to optimize their points and maximize their reward travel options.
Less suitable for those who prefer a 100% free tool or want to avoid a possible bias towards certain loyalty programs.
Seats.aero is a search engine dedicated to travel with points, offering people the chance to quickly explore flight availability across different regions with instant results. The platform offers free alerts, live seat maps and tools for viewing fare class availability. Seats.aero is available as a free version with basic functionality, as well as a Pro version, offering advanced options such as additional filters and SMS alerts.
Ideal for experienced and flexible travellers looking to quickly identify airline award opportunities.
Less suitable for novice users or those who want more interactive searches and real-time updates.
AwardTool is a platform specialized in searching for award flight availability. It allows users to explore multiple airports and dates simultaneously, facilitating travel planning. Its free version offers up to 4 simultaneous searches, while the Pro version extends this capacity to 16 searches. Thanks to advanced tools such as Panorama and Mega Search, AwardTool helps identify flight opportunities over extended periods or across multiple regions, offering strategic insight to travellers looking for award tickets.
Ideal for people looking for a broader view of flight availability on multiple routes and dates.
Less suitable for those who want instant results or unlimited access without a paid subscription.
PointsYeah is a platform dedicated to optimizing the use of travellers’ loyalty points. It features intuitive tools that make it easy to search for points flights and identify the best redemption options. Its real-time search covers a window of 4 days up to 365 days in advance, offering great flexibility to users. What’s more, its DayDream Explorer offers a unique visual approach with interactive maps, making the exploration of flight opportunities more fluid and accessible.
Ideal for travellers looking for a visual, interactive approach to exploring award flight options.
Less suitable for those who need advanced filters and a more traditional presentation of results.
Google Flights is a powerful tool for comparing airfares in cash, but it doesn’t directly provide fares in points or miles from frequent flyer programs. This is where the Points Path extension comes in, designed to enrich your Google Flights experience by displaying points fares alongside cash fares.
Points Path is a browser extension that enhances Google Flights by integrating flight prices in points and miles from loyalty programs. Unlike Google Flights, which only displays cash prices, Points Path allows travellers to instantly compare the two options to optimize their points redemptions. Once installed on Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, the extension performs parallel searches and displays results directly on the Google Flights interface.
Ideal for frequent travellers who want to optimize their points directly from Google Flights, with a simple, efficient interface.
Less suitable for Canadian travellers or those seeking broader coverage of international loyalty programs without paying a subscription fee.
Awayz is a platform designed to help travellers optimize the use of their loyalty points, by facilitating the comparison between cash and points costs for (mainly) hotel bookings. It integrates major loyalty programs such as Accor Live Limitless, Choice Privileges, Hilton Honors, IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, World of Hyatt and Wyndham Rewards. In terms of flights, it’s still relatively much in the beta phase.
Ideal for frequent travellers who want to maximize their points for hotel stays.
Less suitable for those primarily looking for award flights or who want a completely free platform.
Loyalty Program
AAdvantage (American Airlines)
Yes
Yes ($)
No
*via Iberia and Qatar Airways
ExpertFlyer
35
21
Yes (US)
CAD 14.99
CAD 149.99
Choosing the best platform depends on your expectations, your needs and your level of expertise. Here’s a quick summary to help you:
Personally, I use a combination of Roame and ExpertFlyer depending on my needs. While Roame shines for its modernity and ability to search multiple loyalty programs in real time, ExpertFlyer is unbeatable for its advanced analysis tools, such as visualizing the number of seats available for an upgrade.
It’s a good idea to buy an airline ticket with points as soon as you’ve accumulated enough points to earn an attractive reward. Airline tickets can be booked several months in advance, but to benefit from the best value and availability, it’s best to book at least 1 year OR less than 30 days before the departure date.
Points prices depend mainly on flight availability and loyalty program promotions, rather than on the day of the week. Instead, it’s advisable to keep an eye on offers and promotions, plan ahead and book as soon as you have enough points to get good value for money.
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