If you fly often enough or utilize a travel rewards credit card, you can rack up points and miles fairly quickly. It’s one thing to have a stash of airline miles sitting around, but it’s another to find good deals for them.
Ultimately, airline miles and credit card points feel just like cash in your pocket, where you want to find good deals as much as possible to avoid overspending.
The issue is that most of the time, the best award rates are quite hard to find and are taken immediately. Given this, I’ve benefited from alerts from a couple of services, Thrifty Traveler Premium and Seats.aero Pro, to maximize my use of loyalty program points.
1. Thrifty Traveler Premium
I’ve found Thrifty Traveler Premium to come in handy when you have a lot of flexibility and are not tied to a single destination and/or a few dates.
For example, take a redemption using Delta SkyMiles, which is often known for its poor redemption rates relative to some other loyalty programs. The exceptions are occasional sweet spots that can be a bit hard to find and get taken immediately.
In the case that you’re looking to use SkyMiles for a trip, but are open to exploring and letting the deals decide the destination, I think this is where Thrifty Traveler Premium and its alerts excel the most.
For example, the airline’s Taipei flights have recently been one of the better redemptions with its loyalty program, and having alerts for these “rareish” SkyMiles deals is helpful, whether it’s for Main Cabin or for Delta One. I may have been looking for a trip to Asia, but not specifically a trip to Taipei. Given the good deal from Thrifty Travel Premium, however, this is where I may decide to begin my Asia trip in Taipei and get good use of my SkyMiles.
Having a flexible schedule should garner several good deals every year with their premium subscription.
Additionally, these same alerts work for cash rates, which can be nice for those with some flexibility looking for an affordable getaway:
Although Thrifty Traveler has a free version, its alerts won’t be instant, and deals won’t be targeted based on your preferred airports.
Its premium version will allow you to receive immediate alerts, filter by preferred departing airports, unlock business and first class fares, and more.
This version costs $99 per year, but $20 off when you use our referral link (sponsored) or promo code ALTITUDE at checkout.
Disclosure: Altitude Yes will receive commission if you sign up using this link.
2. Seats.aero
Seats.aero is on the other end of the spectrum, where those looking for specific destinations on specific dates may find it useful, in addition to being quite more technical.
For example, I recently was looking to use my relatively big stash of American Airlines AAdvantage miles. I had a ballpark of around when I wanted to travel, and I wanted to redeem it on a partner award flight (Japan Airlines) to Japan.
Given that I knew my travel dates and my destination, I used Seats.aero alerts to be on top of every deal possible out of New York, Boston, and Dallas. As of now, I have a First Class award ticket on Japan Airlines for this winter thanks to these alerts.
Another handy feature of this site is its “explore” tab, which allows you to find deals on specific loyalty programs across various destinations (based on region) for a full year and filter by date, departure/arrival airports, and cabin:
In addition to its alerts, easily being able to go through available award fares on one screen is extremely helpful. It does, however, mean that you already have to be aware of what equates to a “good deal” for the award program and route you’re searching for.
Very similar to Thrifty Traveler Premium, users can find a free version with limited search and alert features, or a pro version for $9.99 monthly or $99.99 annually.
Bottom Line
It’s often difficult to find the “best” deals for your points and miles, and having alerts for these alerts is quite useful, given that the best rates tend to sell out extremely quickly.
For my own travel purposes, Thrifty Traveler Premium and Seats.aero above are generally my first options. Thrifty Traveler for when I have more flexibility and am open to searching various destinations both domestically and internationally, and Seats.aero for times with less flexibility and a given destination.
Featured image by the author.
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