9 Best Points and Miles Tools That Help You Book Free Flights and Hotels (2026)
The best points and miles tools don’t just save you money – they save you hours. Without the right tools, finding award availability means logging into a dozen airline websites one by one, manually checking dates, and still potentially missing the seat you wanted. I’ve been there. These 9 tools are the ones I actually use, in real trip planning, to find award flights and hotel stays worth far more than I paid in points.
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Not sure which cards to use with these tools? The right card depends on your spending habits, travel goals, and which ecosystem you want to build in. I break down every major card and category in my full credit card guide — including my honest take on all four ecosystems with no card company bias.
👉 Read my complete credit card guide
Award Flight Search Tools
Seats.aero
Best for: Finding award flight availability fast
If you’ve ever spent hours clicking through airline websites looking for award seats, Seats.aero will change your life. It searches across 24+ airline loyalty programs simultaneously and shows you everything that’s available in one place — no more logging into each airline individually.
What makes it so powerful is the Explore feature, which lets you search an entire region or date range at once. So instead of guessing which dates have availability, you can see the full picture instantly. It’s especially great for hunting business and first class awards, where seats are limited and disappear quickly.
There’s a free version that’s solid for getting started, and a Pro version ($9.99/month or $99/year) that unlocks a full year of availability, advanced filters, and SMS alerts when seats open up. For anyone serious about booking premium cabin flights on points, the Pro version pays for itself with a single good redemption.
Pro tip: Always search on Seats.aero first to find availability — but before you transfer any points, go directly to the airline’s own website to confirm those seats are actually there. Seats.aero can sometimes show “phantom” availability, meaning seats that appear available in the search tool but don’t actually exist when you go to book. For high-value redemptions like business or first class, it’s worth calling the airline directly to confirm the award seats are bookable before you move a single point. Points transfers are usually instant and irreversible — so verify first, transfer second, always.
👉 Search award flights on Seats.aero
Flightpoints
Best for: Seeing award prices alongside cash prices in real time
Flightpoints is the tool I reach for when I want to understand whether an award redemption is actually worth it compared to paying cash. Most award search tools show you points availability — Flightpoints shows you the award price and the context to evaluate it intelligently.
The live search feature is what sets it apart. While other tools pull cached data that might be several days old, Flightpoints can show you real-time availability — which matters enormously when you’re chasing limited business class seats that disappear fast. The difference between cached and live results is the difference between a seat that exists and one that’s already gone.
You can set price drop alerts and get SMS notifications the moment availability opens on a route you’re watching. The Chrome extension is one of my favorite features — it sits inside Google Flights and shows you the award price right next to the cash price, so you can make a real comparison without switching tabs.
There’s a free tier to get started. Pro unlocks a full 365 days of search availability, alerts, and the Chrome extension.
Try it free, or use code STPSAVE10 for 10% off Pro if you want the extended search window and alerts.
Check them out at Flightpoints.com and use STPSAVE10 to save 10% off from above.
Roame.travel
Best for: Searching award flights and hotels across multiple programs at once
Roame is one of my favorite tools for getting a broad view of what’s actually available before I decide which points to use. It searches award availability across multiple airline and hotel loyalty programs simultaneously — so instead of checking United, Air Canada, British Airways, and others one by one, you can see the full picture for a route in one place.
What I use it for most is flight search — specifically when I want to compare which programs have availability on a route and at what point cost. That cross-program view is genuinely hard to get any other way, and it saves a significant amount of time in the research phase before I ever decide where to transfer points.
It also covers hotel award search, so if you want to compare availability across Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, and IHG for a destination, Roame can do that too. The Friends of Roame subscription unlocks expanded search and additional features for travelers who use it regularly.
👉 Search award availability on Roame — use code GSNVLQKV to get started
👉 Search hotel awards on Roame – use code GSNVLQKV to get started.
AwardTool.com
Best for: Searching multiple airports and dates at once
AwardTool is my go-to when I need to search across multiple origin airports, destination airports, and dates at the same time. You can run up to 32 simultaneous searches in one go — which is incredibly powerful when you have flexible travel dates or want to compare several routing options.
It also has strong alert capabilities, so you can set up notifications that monitor award space across multiple airports and dates and get notified the moment something opens up. If you’ve ever missed a great award because it appeared and disappeared before you caught it, this is the tool that fixes that problem.
Credit Card Maximizer Tools
CardPointers
Best for: Knowing exactly which card to use — and never missing an offer
This is the app I recommend to everyone who has more than two credit cards. CardPointers does two things I rely on constantly: it tells you exactly which card to use at every store to maximize your points, and it auto-activates your offers across Chase, Citi, and Amex cards automatically.
That auto-activation feature is honestly my favorite thing about it. Instead of manually clicking through each card to enroll in offers — which most people either forget or skip entirely — CardPointers does it all at once in minutes. I’ve caught offers I didn’t even know I had. Most users save $750+ per year just from offers they would have otherwise missed.
It works as both a mobile app and a browser extension, and you never have to hand over your bank login credentials — you just tell it which cards you have and it loads all the relevant benefits automatically.
👉 Get CardPointers for your wallet — use code STP for a special discount
Savewise
Best for: Auto-activating offers and picking the right card every time
Savewise is another tool I use daily for two things: automatically activating my Chase, Citi, and Amex offers, and making sure I’m using the right card for every purchase. Like CardPointers, the auto-activation feature is a game changer — it removes the manual work of going into each card account to enroll in offers one by one.
Where Savewise also shines is in comparing shopping portal offers across all the major programs so you always know which portal gives you the most points before you shop online. Stack portal points on top of your credit card points and you’re earning on two levels at once without any extra effort.
👉 Start earning more with Savewise
Shopping Portals
Rove
Best for: A universal transferable currency AND my #1 shopping portal
Rove is one of the most exciting tools in my toolkit right now and it does more than most people realize. Yes, Rove Miles is a transferable points currency you can use to book flights and hotels across multiple partners — but it has quickly become my number one shopping portal.
When you shop through Rove, you earn Rove Miles that function as a flexible transferable currency, which means they’re not locked into one airline or hotel program. That flexibility is what sets it apart from traditional shopping portals that pay out in cash back or brand-specific points. Rove Miles can go wherever the best redemption takes you.
If you’re not using Rove yet, this is the tool I’m most excited about right now.
Rakuten
Best for: Earning Amex or Bilt points on everyday online shopping
Most people know Rakuten as a cash back app — but here’s what makes it a points and miles superstar: instead of taking your earnings as cash back, you can convert them into Amex Membership Rewards points or Bilt points. That means every online purchase you’re already making can be earning you premium travel points with zero extra effort.
It’s one of the simplest ways to pad your points balance without changing your spending habits at all. Just shop through Rakuten before you checkout anywhere online. New members get a $50 bonus after their first qualifying purchase.
👉 Join Rakuten and get your $50 bonus
Flight Deal Alerts
Thrifty Traveler Premium
Best for: Getting notified when flights drop to incredible prices
Thrifty Traveler Premium sends you curated flight deal alerts — both cash fares and award space — straight to your inbox. Their team finds deals that most people would never stumble across on their own, including mistake fares, limited-time sales, and sweet spot award redemptions.
If you’ve ever seen someone post “I just booked business class to Europe for $400” and wondered how they found it — this is usually how. The alerts are specific, actionable, and come with everything you need to book immediately before the deal disappears.
👉 Get Thrifty Traveler Premium — $20 off through my link
How I Use These 9 Tools Together
Here’s my actual workflow when planning a trip using points:
- Decide where I want to go and roughly when
- Open Seats.aero to see what award availability looks like across programs and dates
- Use Flightpoints to check live availability and compare the award price against the cash price
- Use AwardTool if I need to compare multiple date or airport combinations at once
- Search Roame to see hotel award options across programs for my destination
- Check which points I have that transfer to the programs with availability
- Transfer points and book directly with the airline or hotel
- Use CardPointers and Savewise to make sure all my offers are activated and I’m using the right card for every purchase
- Shop through Rove or Rakuten for any trip-related purchases to stack even more points on top
These tools work best together as a system. None of them are magic on their own — but combined, they’re how I consistently fly business class and stay in luxury hotels for a fraction of what others pay in cash.
Stay Connected
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👉 Check out all my points and miles posts [here] for more ways to maximize your travel rewards.
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