Redeem your points and miles: How to search flight award availability for the major airlines

Becoming an advanced award traveler requires mastering two skills: earning points and miles and effectively redeeming them. By taking advantage of the best travel rewards credit cards, you can master the first skill. However, the second skill can be more challenging.

At TPG, we help you redeem your transferable Chase Ultimate Rewards points, American Express Membership Rewards points, Citi ThankYou Rewards points, Capital One miles, Wells Fargo Rewards points and Bilt Rewards Points at the maximum value. However, some travelers frequently run into issues finding award space.

Unfortunately, there isn't a general rule you can follow to make searching for award space easier. Each airline and award search engine has pros, cons and quirks to be aware of. The miles you wish to use may not show the flight you want online. You can save yourself time and frustration by potentially searching for availability through a different program (that has a more sophisticated search engine) and then using your points and miles of choice to book.

Some innovative external tools can help you search for award availability across the major programs.

Search airline award availability with an app or third-party tool

Several apps and websites can allow you to search across multiple airlines, alliances and programs at once rather than worrying about the best loyalty program to search through.

If you're unfamiliar with ExpertFlyer (owned by TPG's parent company, Red Ventures), read our beginners guide to award searches on ExpertFlyer to get up to speed. ExpertFlyer allows you to search for award inventory from most major airlines on one interface. You can search for up to seven days at a time and search for multiple cabins (e.g., first and business class) in one search.

Related: How to use ExpertFlyer alerts to snag a better seat

Alternatively, Point.me is a paid web service that checks for award space across over 100 airlines. You can search your desired itinerary, the dates and the number of travelers. Point.me will then give you real-time available award options you can book. It will also show which credit card points can be transferred to which partner and how many transferable points you will need to book.

In our tests, the platform doesn't always provide the most accurate information (e.g., taxes and fees are often inaccurate, and sometimes award space is incorrect), but it's a great place to start your searches. If you have a specific or urgent trip in mind, you can buy a 24-hour pass or sign up for an annual plan.

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Bilt Rewards users can access a limited version of Point.me for free through the Bilt Rewards app. As with the full version, you can search for award flight availability, though you will only see results from Bilt transfer partners. If you have Bilt Rewards points you want to transfer to an airline loyalty program to purchase tickets, this is a good way to try Point.me for free.

Similarly, American Express also partnered with the award search app. Select Amex cardholders can access a complimentary version of the app, which will show award flight availability that is bookable using Membership Rewards transfer partners.

You might also want to consider Roame, Seats.aero, Awayz and Pointhound, which are resources offering a one-stop shop for your next award search and redemption.

Related: These apps and websites make award redemptions easier to find

Search award availability for North American airlines

First, you'll notice a few popular airlines are missing from this list. For example, if you plan on flying Southwest Airlines or Spirit Airlines using points and miles, you must book directly with their loyalty programs, so you don't have to worry about picking a partner airline to search for award availability.

Aside from searching for award space within the airline's own program, you should also compare points and miles prices on partner loyalty programs. Check out some of our favorite partner program suggestions below.

U.S. legacy carriers are among the easiest to deal with because they all have relatively robust and comprehensive search engines.

More importantly, these programs are all leaning toward dynamic pricing, which means if you're trying to redeem United miles, you should always begin your search through United before checking award availability with a partner, as the surcharges may cost you more money when booking with the latter.

One of the (many) downsides of dynamic pricing is that less saver award space is available, making it harder to find a good deal on partner award sites. If you plan on booking your United flights through a partner like Avianca LifeMiles or Aeroplan in hopes of taking advantage of lower award rates, you should search directly with that partner program to make sure the award space is available.

Search award availability for European airlines

European loyalty programs can offer great deals on flights, whether you are flying to Europe with business-class flights from just 34,000 credit card points or domestic flights anywhere within continental North America for just 11,000 points.

Here is how to search for the best award availability:

How to fly first class to Europe

Lufthansa first class is arguably the best way to fly between the U.S. and Europe with points and miles, but you'll need to be careful when you search for award space and book your ticket. Lufthansa only releases first-class award space to its partners a few days in advance, so you'll need some last-minute flexibility to make this happen.

Aeroplan charges just 90,000 points from the East Coast to Europe in Lufthansa first class, or 100,000 points from the West Coast to Europe each way, plus minimal taxes and fees of around $50. One of the upsides to using Aeroplan is that you can add a stopover for 5,000 points on a one-way ticket. Lufthansa flights can be booked through Aeroplan online.

For business-class flights on other Star Alliance carriers (since Lufthansa is the only Star Alliance airline that regularly releases first-class award space to partners), compare the redemption rates through Avianca LifeMiles and Air Canada Aeroplan to see which one has the best pricing on any given route. Award availability should be similar across all these partners, so you may have an easier time searching with whichever program you plan to book with if you already have miles on hand.

Oneworld flights to Europe

Generally, you'll have the best luck searching for American, British Airways, Iberia and other Oneworld partner flights to Europe with American AAdvantage. You'll want to book Iberia flights with Iberia Plus Avios or British Airways Avios for the best rates. Likewise, you'll typically get a better deal booking connecting tickets with AAdvantage miles instead of Avios since British Airways charges per segment based on distance.

All Oneworld programs tack on huge fuel surcharges for British Airways flights, but you can reduce them if you book with Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. Asia Miles consistently charges roughly half the fuel surcharges you'd pay with other Oneworld programs.

Search award availability for Asian airlines

Award space to Asia can be harder to come by than domestic flights or flights to and from Europe, especially in premium cabins. Here are the best options to maximize your chances.

How to get a great deal flying ANA to Japan

You're generally best off booking with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club if you want to fly ANA. Despite recent devaluations, business class ANA awards start at just 105,000 points round-trip, which is an excellent deal. You can't book these tickets on the Virgin Atlantic website. Find saver award space on the ANA or United website and then call Virgin Atlantic to confirm availability before you transfer rewards to book.

Note that premium cabin award space on ANA is very limited, and the best time to search is either well in advance or last minute.

Search award availability for other airlines

General tips when searching for airline award redemptions

Now that you know where to search for award space for your next trip, let's look at a few tricks to make the process easier.

Search segment by segment

This is an odd quirk of most award search engines, but you'll often get different results if you search for your complete itinerary instead of one flight at a time.

If you can find availability per segment, even if the entire journey is now showing up in a single search result, you should be able to call the airline and book this as a single award without too much trouble.

Consider married segments

Sometimes, airlines will offer more seats for indirect itineraries than nonstop ones. Why? Airlines believe passengers will pay more for direct fares with cash (compared to indirect ones), so with less demand for connecting itineraries, they may offer additional seats.

Using this married segment logic on your next search, you may be able to find long-haul premium cabin seats you did not think existed. Consider widening your search to connect in the city you wish to fly to, such as Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS), to more destinations using a catch-all external tool like Seats.Aero.

You might be surprised at the additional availability if you are willing to fly somewhere a little further afield than your original destination.

Take notes and come prepared

Many airline customer service agents are good at their jobs, but you'll get much better results when you do the work yourself.

Before you call to book an award flight, you should have the exact dates and flight numbers you want; make that known early in the conversation.

As soon as you tell the agent where you're trying to go, throw in, "I have the flight numbers here whenever you're ready for them," so they don't waste any time trying to search on their end.

If you've done your homework to ensure that there is award space and your routing is valid, these calls will go much easier.

Related: 10 mistakes to avoid when redeeming airline points and miles

Bottom line

Learning how to find and book award flights is one of the hardest things about award travel — especially when booking premium-cabin seats on a long flight.

An increasing number of third-party apps and websites can save you a lot of time by searching multiple programs and airlines simultaneously for a small monthly membership fee.

If you have a specific airline you wish to travel on, use the tables above to search for award space and make sure you know the lowest price before transferring any credit card points and booking.