How to use AwardTool to find flights and hotels with points

What does AwardTool do?#

AwardTool brings award-travel search, discovery, and planning tools into one place. You can search for flights using miles, explore destinations across flexible dates, compare award hotels, and monitor opportunities with alerts. It is useful when you have points to spend and want to understand which trips those points might make possible.

An award is a flight or stay offered through a loyalty program in exchange for points or miles, often with a cash component. AwardTool displays the booking program alongside the travel option. A partner airline may operate the flight, so search results can reveal booking options beyond the airline whose name is on the aircraft.

When is AwardTool useful for planning a trip?#

Use AwardTool when you have airline miles, hotel points, or transferable bank rewards and want to compare ways to use them for travel. It is especially useful when you can compare more than one supported booking program, adjust your travel dates or destination, or monitor an award you have not found yet. Start with your origin options, date flexibility, traveler count, cabin, and points currencies so the search fits a trip you can take.

When you have already chosen an award, the booking program is the place to confirm the exact price, remaining seats or rooms, and booking terms. AwardTool does not reserve an award or complete that booking. If the available awards do not fit your schedule or budget, compare cash fares or hotel rates as well; using points is one way to plan a trip, not a requirement.

Which award search should you start with?#

Begin with the constraint you cannot change. A specific departure date calls for a different workflow from a holiday where any destination in a region could work.

• Known route and dates: use Real-Time Search. Use Mega Search when you want to organize a broader live search across supported date and route combinations.
• Flexible destination or date window: use Panorama to explore stored award availability across airports, countries, and regions.
• Known route but flexible dates: open All Routes and its route calendar to compare award dates and cabins.
• Open to inspiration: browse Deals. For an airline's premium experience, use First Class Explorer.
• Need a stay: use Hotels to compare points, cash rates, locations, and award nights.
• Nothing suitable yet: set an alert matching your dates, party size, cabin, and budget.

Run your first award-flight search#

1. Set the trip

   Open Flight search, choose departure and arrival airports, set your travel dates, and enter the actual number of travelers. Pick a cabin and the loyalty programs you want to search.

2. Make results manageable

   Use the available points, taxes, stops, duration, and time filters. Start with your essential requirements; overly narrow preferences can hide otherwise useful itineraries.

3. Inspect the itinerary

   Expand a promising result. Check each segment's airports, dates, airline, cabin, and connection time. Compare the available seat count with your party size.

4. Confirm the booking path

   Open the booking information and compare the loyalty program price with any eligible transfer options. Follow Book Now to the program and confirm the itinerary and full cost before transferring points or booking.

Use the supporting tools at the right moment#

Transfer Partners helps you explore how bank rewards connect to airline and hotel programs. The credit-card comparison page provides another way to understand rewards options. Preferred Programs helps tailor your selections, while Award Wallet provides a signed-in space for manually recording and updating balances. Current provider terms determine transfer eligibility and offers.

Live Seat Map helps inspect the cabin layout for a particular flight. A seat shown on a map is not proof that it can be booked with miles. Use award-search results for redemption availability and confirm seat selection with the airline.

Written Guides and interactive Walkthroughs explain individual workflows. Sign in and use a desktop browser to launch interactive walkthroughs. Account access and available features vary; check the Pro page for current plan details. Teams building their own travel products can review Enterprise API information and API documentation.

Know what a search result can tell you#

A result is a lead to investigate, not a reservation. Stored discovery results include freshness information, and even a fresh search can change before checkout. Where supported, use Refresh Data, then verify with the loyalty program. Compare total points and cash for everyone traveling, including any extra journey needed to reach the departure airport.