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PointsYeah- The Best Free Search Tool for Award Travel

June 8, 2025June 8, 2025by milesforplacesLeave a Comment

What is PointsYeah?

For those of you who have a stash of credit card points but are unsure how to utilize them, this post serves as an introduction to one of my favorite free tools for booking award travel. The website, PointsYeah.com, features a search function that allows you to find award tickets on various airlines, as well as a pathway for transferring them. If you hold a premium credit card that enables you to transfer points directly to airlines (Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve, Capital One Venture or Venture X, AMEX Platinum, Gold, or Green, to name a few), PointsYeah becomes even more valuable.

The search is easy to use and offers twenty different filters to narrow your search. If you have a specific date and location in mind, the process is straightforward: simply input the departure and arrival cities along with the planned travel date. If you have some flexibility, you can input a range of four days that you’re willing to travel (eight days if you pay for the premium membership). The search results will populate the cheapest redemption available on those days. You can also filter the search results to show only business class and first class award availability. If you’re looking for premium cabin redemptions on long-haul flights, I recommend being flexible with your departure date. You also set up email alerts, which will notify you when seats become available or when the price of an award booking drops.

What Makes PointsYeah Unique From Other Search Tools

The feature that really sets PointsYeah apart from other award booking search sites is the Day Dream Explorer function. You can use this function to broaden your search and see how far your points will take you. For example, if you’re open to traveling to any part of the world, input “anywhere” in the destination tab. This will populate a lengthy list of award redemptions from your departure city to cities worldwide. If you have multiple cities within a region on your bucket list, type your departure city and the area of interest (Europe, for example) in the search bar. The Day Dream Explorer function will provide the best redemption options for flights from your departure city to multiple destinations within Europe. Here is an example of a Day Dream Explorer Search from Chicago to Europe:

If you are interested in a particular type of destination (beach, mountains, golf, city, etc), the Day Dream Explorer Function can help you find award seats to those types of destinations as well.

You also have the option to broaden your search if you are willing to take a positioning flight (for example, flying from Chicago to Seattle to position yourself for a business class award redemption to Tokyo via Seattle). In that case, you can use Dream Explorer and input USA to Asia in the search bar. This will populate the best available award redemptions that pair two cities between the two continents. From my experience, if you input USA under departure and Europe as the arrival, the cheapest redemption options will mostly be from East Coast cities such as New York City, Boston, Washington D.C., Miami, and Atlanta as well as Midwest cities that are hubs to one or more of the legacy carriers (Chicago, Minneapolis, and Detroit). You may see Los Angeles and Seattle, but the number of flights and dates will be limited.

Alternatively, the best redemption options to Eastern Asia will mostly be from U.S. West Coast cities, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and San Diego. You can filter your results by specific departure or arrival times, number of seats, non-stop flights, and more.

You can also search for award redemptions for major hotel programs such as Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott. As a general rule, the only hotel program worth transferring points into is Hyatt, which can be done via Chase Ultimate Rewards or BILT. I do not recommend transferring Chase points to IHG or Marriott unless you are topping off your loyalty account to make a booking (you have 97,000 Hilton points and you need 100,000 points to get an extra night. It’s worth it in this scenario). AMEX also offers the option to transfer Membership Rewards points to hotel chains such as Choice, Hilton, and Marriott, and occasionally provides a transfer bonus to both. Even with the bonus, it’s usually not the best use of points if you are trying to extract maximum value. Although it may not be for everyone, I have found significant value on multiple occasions when transferring from American Express to Choice Hotels. If the ultimate goal is to conserve cash, and that is the priority above all else, then redeem the points for cash or a statement credit.

Credit Cards, Credit Cards & Miles, Miles & Points, Uncategorized

Credit Card Review: American Express Platinum

September 30, 2017October 17, 2017by milesforplaces1 Comment

The AMEX Platinum currently has a 60k membership points bonus if you spend $5k within the first 3 months of opening the account. This card also has a steep annual fee of $550 (not waived the first year) so it’s not for everyone. The 60k points could easily net you $1,200 worth of travel and cover your annual fee for 2 years if you didn’t derive any other benefit the card offers. AMEX membership points can be transferred to a multitude of airlines and hotels. I received an upgrade offer from AMEX a few months back that offered 60k points and I jumped on it. I still rate the Chase Sapphire Reserve as the best among the premium credit cards. However, the AMEX Platinum might actually be of greater value for some of you. Here are some of the benefits you can get with the AMEX Platinum:

1) 60k bonus points after spending $5k over the first 3 months

AMEX Membership Rewards points have a lot of value because of the multitude of airlines and hotels they have as transfer partners. Among the airline partners: Delta, Etihad, Emirates, Singapore, British Airways, Iberia, Air France/KLM (via Flying Blue), etc. Hotel transfer partners include Starwood, Hilton, and Choice hotels.

2) Credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre-check

AMEX will reimburse you the $100 fee for Global Entry or $85 for TSA pre-check. If you are in a major metro area, Global Entry is the way to go since it automatically gives you TSA pre-check. I’ve had TSA pre-check for about a year now and saves you from the inconvenience of taking off your shoes, removing your laptop/electronics from your carry, and going through X-ray machines. Plain and simple, it saves a lot of time. Both of them are good for 5 years.

3. $200 in annual airline fee credits

For this benefit, you have to select a particular airline and you would get reimbursed for incidental fees such as checked bag fees, in-flight internet, and in-flight food purchases. It’s not nearly as valuable as Chase Sapphire Reserve’s $300 travel credit, which covers everything from airfare, hotels, tolls, parking fees, etc. However, there is a way to get around this if you desire credit towards airfare instead. If you use this card to purchase $200 worth of American Airlines gift cards from AA.com, AMEX will treat it as an incidental purchase and credit you back the $200. Here is a screen shot below:

It only took two days for them to reimburse me and I was able to put the gift cards to use a month later. I don’t think this trick works for any other airline. This was far more beneficial in my opinion since I don’t end up checking-in $200 worth of bags in any given year.

4. $200 Uber credit annually

This is a really nice perk that can really help offset the annual fee for those who find themselves using Uber on a regular basis. AMEX gives you $15 Uber credit for each month and in December, they give you an extra $20. Just link the AMEX card with your Uber account and use that as the method of payment.

5. Complimentary Boingo Hotspot

We still live in a world where many airports still don’t offer complimentary wifi access for more than a half hour. If you don’t find yourself transiting through one of these airports often, this perk may not be a huge deal. However, if you’re frequently traveling or connecting through airports such as Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway, NYC’s LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark, or LAX in Los Angeles, this might be of great value. These airports offer complimentary low speed wifi for 30-45 minutes. By the time your website is done loading, you have half the time left. This perk allows you to have complimentary access to Boingo’s higher speed internet, which would usually costs $7.95 per use.

6. Complimentary Access to AMEX Centurion Lounge

If you are a traveler that routinely transits through New York’s LaGuardia, Seattle-Tacoma, Miami, Dallas (DFW), Houston (Bush Intercontinental), San Francisco, Las Vegas, or Philadelphia, having Centurion lounge access is an awesome perk to have. You get complimentary drinks, snacks, meals, massages (DFW), really high speed wifi, and a place where you can unwind between flights or just get some work done. You can also bring two guests free of charge. To get an idea of what the Centurion Lounge is like, you can read my review of the lounges at LaGuardia and Dallas-Fort Worth right here and here.

7. Complimentary Access to Priority Pass Lounges

Here is another valuable perk to have if you find yourself at airports that have lounges that are part of Priority Pass. Priority Pass has over 1,000 lounges at airports all over the world. There are even restaurants such as Timberline’s Steak and Grille (Denver International Airport) that are a part of Priority Pass. At Timberline’s, each guest gets $28 worth of credit towards food. So you and two guests can actually get $84 off an entire check.

8. Complimentary Access to Delta Sky Club (When Flying on Delta)

If you fly on Delta frequently, add this to the list of perks that comes with the Platinum Card. You would have access to Delta Sky Club lounges from coast to coast. Just show them your boarding pass and AMEX Platinum card and you’re in.

9. Gold Status for Hilton and Starwood Hotels

If you play your hand right, this benefit can cover the entire cost of an annual fee and then some. Having Hilton Gold status makes you eligible for free upgrades at any Hilton Hotel. You also get complimentary breakfast and high speed WiFi. A couple of months back, my wife and I took a trip to Maldives and stayed at the Conrad in Rangali Island. Hilton gave us a complimentary upgrade from a water villa to a retreat water villa during our 4 nights there. The value of our upgrade was over $500. This doesn’t even include the complimentary breakfast, lunch, and mocktails we enjoyed as Hilton Gold members. Add that to the value of the upgrade and we derived well over $700 worth of value simply by having Hilton Gold status. I haven’t put the status to use at any Starwood hotels just yet, but I’ll keep you posted if I do.

10. Earn 5X Membership Rewards Points on Flights Booked Directly with Airlines or via AMEX Travel

This is the highest earning credit card for booking flights. You also earn 5X the points for booking a hotel through AMEX Travel. For the flights, you can’t book it via Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz, or any other third party site. For the hotels, it has to be booked via AMEX travel. I’m really hoping in the future they just give you the 5X for all travel related purchases. Chase Sapphire Reserve gives you 3X Ultimate Reward points on anything travel related. It doesn’t matter if you booked on Expedia or directly from the hotel/airline.

If you are going to apply for the the card, do it during a time when you know you’ll be spending $5k over 3 months. Due to its exorbitant annual fee, this card isn’t a long term keeper for a leisure traveler who only travels once or twice a year or an individual who doesn’t travel for work. If you find yourself in a scenario where you can derive the benefits and perks routinely, this card can be extremely rewarding.

Credit Cards & Miles, Getting Started

Applying for a Miles Earning Credit Card

July 20, 2017July 23, 2017by milesforplacesLeave a Comment

Before getting started on posts detailing the advantages of various credit cards, I wanted to get a few important points across via a simple flow chart. This flow chart is aimed mostly for the younger mid-20’s and under crowd but I suppose anyone can benefit. It is important that you don’t rack up unnecessary spending on a credit card just for the sake of getting the bonus. My general rule is this: If your normal spending habits allow you to get the credit card bonus and you meet the criteria of the flow chart below, go ahead and get it. This includes paying tuition or buying a big ticket item such as a laptop or TV that you would have purchased anyway. If you don’t see yourself spending the $2,000 or $3,000 that is required over the first three months to hit that bonus, wait until an opportunity arises. If you don’t pay off your monthly balance in full, the interest you will pay will negate the benefits you have earned from obtaining the credit card bonus. As the old adage goes, that is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Credit card bonuses are certainly the easiest way to earn a huge chunk of points/miles but a little discipline is required. If you find yourself not being a good candidate to earn miles via a credit card, don’t be discouraged. There are other ways and I’ll get to those in upcoming posts.

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