Link: Save 25% on a point.me subscription by using code OMAAT4
Every so often, I think it makes sense to talk a bit about the tools and services that I most use for managing, earning, and redeeming points. While I often mention these websites and services in passing, I think there’s also merit to writing dedicated posts about them sometimes.
In this post, I’d like to talk about how and why I use point.me, which is a tool that makes booking award flights easy. This is one of many tools I use when planning travel, along with things like Google Flights, AwardWallet, ExpertFlyer, Seats.aero, etc.
Let me start with a disclosure — I have a small stake in point.me, as in 2022 my award consulting service, PointsPros, joined forces with point.me. For what it’s worth, I don’t have any day-to-day involvement, so I’m just sharing my impressions as a user, and as someone who books a lot of award tickets.
Plain and simple, point.me is intended to make searching award availability and booking award flights easy. It offers both a self-serve option, as well as a concierge service, though for the purposes of this post, I’ll focus on the former.
There’s a huge learning curve to redeeming points efficiently, and point.me is intended to simplify that. Think of it as a one stop shop for redeeming points — you can sync your points balances, and then point.me will search across dozens of rewards program to find the best deals with points. Once you find the best option, point.me even walks you through the process of transferring points and making the booking.
Look, if you’re a total pro at redeeming points, point.me will likely only be marginally useful. I mean, I kind of get a real thrill out of opening a dozen different tabs to search award space, but I realize that a vast majority of people don’t share my passion in that regard.
So, who is point.me targeted at? Let me put it this way. When I meet people socially (I’m in an introvert, so I try to minimize that, but I also enjoy staying married, so…), often the topic of points comes up. People will tell me how they redeem points, and I try to not audibly shriek when I hear how they’re redeeming points for less than one cent each.
Then I’ll say something like “well, you can transfer your Amex points to Air Canada Aeroplan or Avianca Lifemiles, and then redeem for Lufthansa first class…” As you’d expect, I get a blank stare.
Fortunately this is where point.me comes in handy, because it’s like a website that helps you book your award flight from start to finish. It’ll show you award options across airlines, and even show you how to book.
In many ways, I consider point.me and Seats.aero to be on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the ways in which they’re useful. Seats.aero is great if you’re super nerdy and know exactly what you’re doing, while point.me is much more useful if you’re struggling to make sense of miles & points, and could use some help with figuring stuff out. But even as someone who knows what I’m doing with finding award space, I frequently use both sites.
How much does a point.me membership cost?
There’s both a self-serve and concierge service available through point.me. The self-serve option is what’s going to interest most, and the available plans are as follows:
- Any user can sign-up for a point.me account, with no credit card required; this is limited to 15 flight searches, up to 60 days in advance
- You can then buy a monthly standard plan for $12 per month or $129 per year (a 10% discount), and that gets you unlimited flight searches, the ability to sync your rewards balances, and step-by-step booking instructions
- You can also buy a premium plan for $260 per year, which offers all of the above, plus includes a personalized points strategy consultation call, a $100 credit toward concierge services, and a 10% discount on concierge services
As you can see, if you use point.me on an ongoing basis, it’ll cost you $129 per year.
However, point.me also partners with some transferable points currencies to offer improved award searches for their members at no cost. For example, thanks to the point.me for Membership Rewards points collaboration, those with eligible Amex cards can log into their Amex accounts and then do award searches with point.me, without even needing an additional membership. Bilt has a similar collaboration, but it takes a bit more effort to find, in Bilt’s app.
Note that if you use promotion code OMAAT4 when signing up for point.me, you can save 25% off a paid point.me membership. That means an annual standard membership would cost $95.99, while an annual premium membership would cost $193.47. That’s quite a bit better of a deal, so if you do sign up, be sure to take advantage of those savings.
How do you use point.me to find award flights?
Let’s get into the actual logistics of using point.me. How do you use the website, what airlines does it support, how do you actually book your travel, etc.?
Which airlines & programs does point.me support?
The point.me search tool supports searching award space with all major transferable points currencies, including Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou. Even beyond transferable points currencies, point.me provides support for 30+ loyalty programs, covering travel on 100+ airlines.
At this link you can find the full list of loyalty programs, credit card rewards programs, and airlines, that are supported by point.me. What’s so awesome is that point.me has all the updated details about transfer ratios as well, so if there’s a transfer bonus available at the time, that will be factored in with the recommendations.
How do you sync points balances with point.me?
While it’s not required, there’s potentially value to syncing your points balances with point.me. That way you’ll be given flight recommendations based on your points situation, and can also be walked through the process of transferring points, if that’s needed.
To sync your points, just log into your account, and at the top under the “My points” section, click “Add my points.”
You can sync your balances manually (by entering account log-in information), you can connect your card accounts to point.me, or you can even have loyalty program statements sent to point.me, so they can be updated that way.
How do you find award seats with point.me?
Once your accounts are synched, the process of searching award flights through point.me is simple, and will feel just like booking a revenue flight. Let me give an example of using the point.me award search tool.
To start your search, just enter your origin, destination, date of travel, class of service, number of passengers, and whether you’re traveling one-way or roundtrip. In this case, let’s say that I wanted to travel from Los Angeles to Tokyo on March 26.
Once you click “Search,” dozens of programs will be searched. The point.me search can take up to two minutes, which is obviously much longer than on most airline websites. However, keep in mind why that is — it’s because availability is simultaneously being pulled from 30+ sources, and that takes time. Usually my strategy is to start a search, and then do whatever I was doing in another tab, and return a couple of minutes later.
Once the full results populate, you’ll have several options for filtering your flights. You can filter them based on the airline, the number of stops, the travel time, the program, etc. For each option, you’ll see the number of points and cash required for a ticket.
When you click on the actual option, you’ll see all the programs you could book through. It’ll both show programs where you have existing points that would allow you to book this, as well as options for transferring points to book this.
For example, if you elected to transfer Citi ThankYou points to American AAdvantage for this redemption, you could click “Show me how.” The next page will provide a basic rundown that gives you a sense of what the booking process will look like.
If you then click “Learn how to book this flight,” you’ll get a step-by-step guide to how you’d actually book this ticket. This could start with signing up for a frequent flyer program, transferring points, etc.
While this is something I don’t personally value much, I can’t emphasize enough how I think this is where there’s the most value for 99% of people, who have no clue what they’re doing with transferring points, etc.
Bottom line
The point.me search tool is intended to greatly simplify the process of redeeming points, especially for those with transferable points.
If you’re a points ninja who has redeemed dozens of tickets for international first and business class at the saver level, then you don’t necessarily need point.me. It might make your life a little easier, but that’s about it.
However, if you’re someone who collects transferable points but is puzzled by how people are able to redeem these for international first and business class tickets at a fraction of the cost, then point.me is probably for you. The beauty of point.me is that it doesn’t just find you award seats, but also walks you through the process of transferring points, booking through the best program, etc.