I’ve written about the best one-stop tool for all of your award booking needs, Point.me.
- It lets you search award space across pretty much every airline
- It shows you the best way to book a flight, with the lowest prices, and which points to use
- And it even walks you through the process – click by click – of transferring points and creating your booking (this is the past I like the best)
Point.me Makes Everything Simple
Since they also offer full service concierge booking, it’s a competitor to my own BookYourAward.com but I also think it’s a tool you should know about. It’s the former Juicy Miles, merged with One Mile at a Time‘s booking service PointsPros.
They’ve raised several million dollars from several top name investors (including founders of ITA Software, which is now Google Flights; the founder of Dropbox; Jeffrey Katzenberg; and Bethenny Frankel of Skinnygirl and Shark Tank). And they’ve leap frogged what they offered before, with great award search and great video tutorials that hand hold you all the way through.
Here you can see an animation that shows you how to wake up in the morning and notice it’s a new day how to log into the Air France KLM Flying Blue website. They have an animation showing how to search for an award. It’s not just booking, it’s tutorials that make everything simple.
Best Deal Yet, Exclusive to This Blog’s Readers
When the site first launched publicly they were offering a free day pass (versus $5). Here they’re offering a full month for just $1. That’s pretty good, or if you’re ready to subscribe they’ll give you 20% off.
Code VIEWFROMTHEWING will give first-time subscribers their first Month of the Standard Plan for just $1. Or, select Annual billing and save a total of 20%! If someone is interested in the Premium Plan, this code will also give $11 off that option. Either way, this coupon code should be entered on the checkout page for the plan itself, after subscription details have been filled out. This code will not work when clicking “I have a code” on the Services page.
Good For Searching Awards, Good For Holding Airlines Accountable
In some sense making self-service tools this easy is going to be a bummer for the hardcore among us that do the hard work, because it means more members competing for limited seats. But I’m a fan of democratizing a process that airlines have made too opaque, and that credit card issuers haven’t done a good enough job demystifying for their customers.
I also like services that place airline results side-by-side. Airlines that don’t make much saver award space available, and charge exorbitant prices for the best awards, aren’t going to come out looking good. As well they shouldn’t. The ability to compare programs is great for consumers, and for holding the devaluating impulses of programs in check!
Update: for folks having issues using the special code, here’s some clarification. You want to enter the code on the checkout page of the Standard (or Premium) plans. The code gives an entire month for $1 – it does not work when clicking “I have a code” on the Services page, which is just for 24 hours.
