PointsYeah Evaluation: A Nice Award Search Device - NerdWallet

Bank card spending is essentially the most environment friendly technique to earn a stash of miles and factors. However determining methods to redeem these rewards generally is a chore.

PointsYeah, a journey planning and award search engine, goals to make issues simpler. It’s my go-to instrument for locating methods to redeem airline miles. Not too long ago, in addition they added the flexibility to seek for resort awards.

The consumer interface is simple, and you may set alerts to get notified when particular award area turns into obtainable. For individuals with extra imprecise wanderlust, the “Daydream Explorer” instrument helps you to discover award availability with out setting an actual vacation spot.

There are each free and paid variations of PointsYeah. In response to the corporate, the free model affords 80% of the performance because the $89.99 per yr premium model, which supplies multi-day and multi-airport search capabilities and the flexibility to set extra alerts.

Whereas the premium model is cheaper than competitor award search instrument Point.me ($129 yearly), PointsYeah has entry to the award availability from fewer airways. PointsYeah additionally solely affords an annual subscription, whereas comparable providers might provide day by day or month-to-month plans.

You’ll have to create a login to entry each the free and paid model of PointsYeah. Here is an summary of a number of the variations between PointsYeah Fundamental and PointsYeah Premium:

Each the free and paid variations provide entry to the identical variety of airline and resort loyalty packages. Nonetheless, PointsYeah Premium can search over an eight-day window versus four-days with the free model; full multi-airport searches; and allow you to set extra flights and resort value alerts.

The web site takes about 20 seconds to return a search question. As soon as the search is full, you’ll be able to filter by cabin sort, variety of stops and the utmost variety of factors you wish to spend or charges and taxes you wish to pay.

For those who’re in search of enterprise or firstclass seats on a multi-leg itinerary, the search instrument will typically return mixed-cabin outcomes, the place one flight could also be in financial system and one other flight within the premium cabin. For those who solely need premium cabin tickets, it’s as straightforward as filtering the “premium cabin p.c” to 100.

A characteristic I actually like is the flexibility to see the money value subsequent to the redemption value. Within the instance under from Newark (EWR) to Dublin (DUB), PointsYeah discovered 3,737 flight choices. Of these, 74 are nonstop flights. The most cost effective possibility is to make use of 22,500 Alaska Mileage Plan miles (which might be transferred from Bilt Rewards) to fly on their companion airline Aer Lingus, which in any other case would value $730. With this redemption, you’d successfully get a worth of three.2 cents per mile. Clicking on both the “money value” or the “mile value” will take you on to the airline’s web site.

In contrast to another award search instruments, you too can seek for resort award area with PointsYeah. Merely enter your journey particulars and dates and choose the loyalty program and parameters you need. Outcomes might be proven in both record or map view.

Have the journey bug however undecided the place you wish to go? The Daydream Explorer characteristic lets you choose as much as three airports, continents, areas or international locations at a time. You possibly can even select “wherever” as a vacation spot, or choose an exercise like scuba diving, snowboarding or golf. The instrument is offered in each the free and paid variations.

On this instance, PointsYeah got here up with virtually 50,000 concepts inside our chosen dates to go from New York to wherever, together with financial system, premium financial system and enterprise class flights to Italy, Morocco and Mexico.

Creating alerts to get notified when award area opens for flights and lodges is straightforward. The free model of the instrument helps you to set alerts for particular routes and date ranges on as much as 4 airline and 4 resort redemptions at a time. For those who want greater than 4 alerts, contemplate the Premium model, which affords 32 lively flight alerts and 15 lively resort alerts.

For extra novice journey hackers, PointsYeah affords step-by-step guides on methods to hyperlink your loyalty accounts and switch factors from all the key bank card rewards packages, together with AmEx Membership Rewards, Capital One Rewards, Chase Final Rewards® and Citi ThankYou factors.

Multi-city airways searches are restricted to 2 flight segments, which might be restrictive when you’re in search of a extra detailed itinerary. You additionally received’t be capable of seek for airline-specific multi-city advantages, such because the United Excursionist perk, which affords a free one-way flight on a multi-city award ticket.

One other disadvantage is that annual membership is the one subscription stage at the moment obtainable for PointsYeah Premium. Different award search instruments, like Factors.me and SeatSpy, provide shorter length memberships. For those who solely use the PointsYeah a couple of times a yr, it is perhaps laborious to justify the annual value.

Much like different award search instruments, PointsYeah can battle with displaying award seats that seem on-line however aren’t really bookable. This “phantom award area” happens when companion airways present the mistaken stock, or when award area will get booked and the web site doesn’t replace in actual time. This primarily impacts individuals who plan to switch factors to a particular airline, so you’ll want to verify the provision with that airline earlier than your switch.

It’s best to give PointsYeah a strive when you have two or extra bank cards that earn transferrable factors, use a number of airline and resort loyalty packages, or take at the very least a few journeys per yr on miles and factors.

The free model of PointsYeah is a game-changer amongst award search instruments. The interface is consumer pleasant and searches are very quick. The Daydream Explorer instrument may give you new concepts for methods to use your miles and factors. For those who don’t wish to study the nuances of award journey, it is a good technique to rapidly see what you are able to do together with your rewards.

The premium model of PointsYeah is constructed primarily for individuals who wish to arrange extra alerts or seek for extra advanced itineraries. Having the ability to seek for award availability over eight days as a substitute of 4 can save quite a lot of time. However earlier than you splurge, give the free model a strive, then improve when you determine the extra options could be worthwhile.