You’ve followed all our Earn More Pointrs and are now earning far more points and miles than ever before. Time to spend them! Booking a flight using points and miles is not like booking a flight using cash. Airlines are willing to take your cash at any time. They are far less willing to give away flights essentially for free. Award/reward flights using points and miles are restricted by airlines.
Generally, only a small percentage of seats are ever available to book using points and miles. This makes them more difficult to book. As a consequence there is an art to booking a flight using points and miles, an art that we have mastered here at Pointrs. By following our top 10 tips below, you will soon master this art and be booking free flights you never thought possible, whilst at the same time being the envy of both family and friends.
Tip 1 - Book Early Or Book Late
One of the best ways to book a flight using points and miles is to make a booking as soon as seats are released. Seats are released up to a year in advance, so begin planning before this and be ready on the day that seats are released.
You will maximise your chances of finding early releases seats by using an airline loyalty program that allows you to book earlier than other airline loyalty programs, and ideally the earliest of all airline loyalty programs, as many seats are often released as soon as bookings open and are often booked quickly. If you use an airline loyalty program that opens its bookings later rather than sooner, you may find all the early-release seats are gone and you'll need to wait until more become available.
If you need or want to fly a particular airline, use Pointrs #8855-8887 to find out the best airline loyalty programs to use to book early-release seats.
If you need or want to use a particular airline loyalty program, use Pointrs #8888-8906 to find out the best airlines to fly to book early-release seats.
The other best time to book a flight using points and miles is within a week of the flight. This is the time that many, but not all, airlines release seats rather than have them go unsold. It is not advised that you plan a holiday in the hope of securing a seat at the last-minute using points and miles as there is definitely no guarantee that this will occur. However, if you decide to be spontaneous and take a sudden holiday you might be very surprised, and delighted, to find award/reward seats available in the very near future.
Tip 2 - Travel Outside Of Peak Periods
It can be very difficult to find award/reward seats during peak periods, such as school holidays, public holidays, major sporting and cultural events and during summer, as these seats are in high demand and can be easily sold for cash by the airline rather than by points and miles. So consider travelling outside of peak periods to greatly increase your chances of finding award/reward seats.
Tip 3 - Mix & Match
Most award/reward bookings can be made one-way, with one-way being half the return cost. This means you can book return flights using different airline loyalty programs, different airlines and different classes of travel. This greatly increases your flight options and hence greatly increases your chances of finding available seats.
For example, you could use Qantas Frequent Flyer Qantas Points to fly Qantas business class to Honolulu and then use Hawaiian Airlines Hawaiian Miles to fly Hawaiian Airlines economy class back.
Tip 4 - Book Segments Separately
For flights that are not non-stop, apart from searching from your departure city to your arrival city, you should also search for each segment of your flight. For example, if you are flying from Brisbane to Paris via Singapore, you should search Brisbane to Paris, Brisbane to Singapore and Singapore to Paris.
Although it doesn’t make sense, an airline loyalty program may have no availability for Brisbane to Paris, but it may have availability for Brisbane to Singapore and also for Singapore to Paris. You can then book each leg separately. The only downside to this is that it may cost more points and miles than if done as one single booking, although if the airline loyalty program normally charges per segment it will cost exactly the same.
And when booking segments separately, you should mix and match using different loyalty programs, different airlines and different classes. You might be able to find a flight from Brisbane to Singapore with one airline using one loyalty program and a flight from Singapore to Paris with a different airline using a different loyalty program.
Another tip is to consider a different layover city. Instead of Singapore, you could fly in and out of Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Dubai, Doha and many other cities. A very useful website to discover the possibilities is www.flightconnections.com.
For flights that are not non-stop, if you can’t find a suitable direct flight and you need to break up your booking into segments, if you can’t find suitable connecting flights consider a stopover for one or a few days. Having a stopover is not the worst thing in the world and can give you the opportunity to explore a city you may never have explored otherwise. It can also assist with jetlag. Certainly having to endure a stopover is better than not being able to travel at all.
Tip 5 - Search Nearby Cities
If you can’t find award/reward seats to the city you want to fly to, consider flying to cities nearby and take a separate connecting flight.
For example, if you can’t find a flight to Los Angeles, you may find a flight to San Francisco. You can then take a points, miles or cash flight from San Francisco or Los Angeles. The same applies for your return flight.
Tip 6 - Fly The Airline Of The Airline Loyalty Program
Generally, the highest availability of award/reward seats for an airline is with the airline’s loyalty program. For example, if you want to fly Cathay Pacific, you will usually find the most award/reward seats using Cathay Pacific Cathay and will usually find fewer seats, and sometimes no seats, using other airline loyalty programs.
There may also be restrictions on classes and routes with other airline loyalty programs. For example, award/reward seats on Singapore Airlines first class flights are only available through Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and are not available through any other airline loyalty program.
The main downside to using the airline’s own loyalty program to fly that airline is that this is not normally the cheapest way of doing it, and often it is the dearest. So, always check other airline loyalty programs first before booking.
Tip 7 - Make Travel Plans Based On Availability
Instead of deciding on a travel plan and then trying to find award/reward flights to fit this plan, throw caution to the wind and instead find award/rewards that are available and make travel plans around those flights instead. You never know what adventure awaits! At the same time, try not to be too fixed on travelling on a certain date. Travelling on dates that are available is far easier than travelling on dates that are not available!
Tip 8 - Book Dearer Points And Miles Fares
We’re all about spending less at Pointrs, but if availability is limited and you really want or need to take that well-deserved vacation, some airline loyalty programs will allow you to book an award/reward seat on their own airline using more points and miles than you normally need in return for greater availability. The difference in fares can be considerable, so we advise that you exhaust all other options, using the tips we are providing here, before forking out potentially far more than you normally need to.
The following airline loyalty programs having the following points and miles fares to fly their own airline, that are higher than their normal points and miles fare in return for greater availability:
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Emirates Skywards – Flex Plus
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Etihad Airways Etihad Guest – Open Seat Fare
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Malaysia Airlines Enrich – Dynamic Pricing Fares
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Qantas Frequent Flyer – Classic Plus Fare
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Qatar Airways Privilege Club – 2x Flexi Fare
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Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer – Advantage Fare
Tip 9 - Book Immediately
If you find a suitable or close to suitable flight using points and miles book immediately, even if you are unsure if you’ll take the flight. Chances are those seats will not be available as soon as tomorrow or a week later at most and you may end up never finding suitable flights. The beauty of booking using points and miles is that bookings can usually be changed or cancelled right up to flight time and for very low fees. So if you decide not to take the flight, simply cancel it!
Tip 10 - Use A Personal Pointr
Prefer us to do all the work? Not a problem! Simply submit a Personal Pointr and for a small fee we can use all our knowledge and experience to find the flights for you.
Happy searching!
