PointsYeah Award Search Review: A Great Tool for Points Collectors

Credit card spending is the most efficient way to earn a stash of miles and points. But figuring out ways to redeem those rewards can be a chore.

PointsYeah, a travel planning and award search engine, aims to make things easier. It’s my go-to tool for finding ways to redeem airline miles. Recently, it also added the ability to search for hotel awards.

The user interface is straightforward, and you can set alerts to get notified when specific award space becomes available. For people with open-ended wanderlust, the “Daydream Explorer” tool lets you find award availability without setting an exact destination.

There are both free and paid versions of PointsYeah. According to the company, the free version offers 80% of the functionality of the $99.99 per year premium version ($119.95 after the first year), which provides multi-day and multi-airport search capabilities and the ability to set more alerts. If you only need to find award availability for one trip, PointsYeah also offers a monthly subscription for $11.99 per month.

While the premium version is cheaper than competitor award search tool Point.me ($129 annually), PointsYeah has access to the award availability from fewer airlines. Additionally, PointsYeah lacks the ability to search for very specific award availability, such as Singapore Airlines Suites or Qatar QSuites — you'll need to use a tool like Seats.aero for that.

» Learn more: A beginner’s guide to traveling on points and miles

Features and membership details

You’ll need to create a login to access both the free and paid version of PointsYeah. Here's an overview of some of the differences between PointsYeah Basic and PointsYeah Premium:

Both the free and paid versions offer access to the same number of airline and hotel loyalty programs. However, PointsYeah Premium can search over an eight-day window versus four days with the free version; complete multi-airport searches; and let you set more flights and hotel price alerts.

How to search for award flights with PointsYeah

The PointsYeah user interface is similar to an online travel agency like Kayak or Priceline. Users select their travel dates, destination and which airline or bank points to redeem. If you have transferable points like Chase Ultimate Rewards® or AmEx Membership Rewards, PointsYeah will search all eligible transfer partners for those programs. If you’re looking for extra value from your miles, you can even limit your search to transferrable rewards that currently offer a transfer bonus.

The website takes about 20 seconds to display search results. Once the search is complete, you can filter by cabin type, number of stops and the maximum number of points you want to spend or fees and taxes you want to pay.

If you’re looking for business or first class seats on a multi-leg itinerary, the search tool will often return mixed-cabin results, where one flight may be in economy and another flight in the premium cabin. If you only want premium cabin tickets, it’s as easy as filtering the “premium cabin percent” to 100.

What PointsYeah does well

Easy to compare cash and points rates

I really like the ability to see the cash price next to the redemption cost in the search results. In the example below from Atlanta (ATL) to Dublin (DUB), PointsYeah found 1,838 flight options. One option is on Delta for $657 or 25,000 Delta SkyMiles. Results include promotional pricing, such as the 15% off award flights Delta cardholders receive. That discount drops the award flight down to 21,250 SkyMiles for Delta cardholders. You'll also see a "Live Result" icon in the top left of each search result, letting you know that it's an active redemption available through the airline's website and not a cached result from a previous search.

» Learn more: Award flight search tips, broken down by airline

The ability to search for hotel award stays

Unlike some other award search tools, PointsYeah allows you to search for hotel award space. Simply enter your travel details and dates and select the loyalty program and parameters you want. Results can be shown in either list or map view.

One of the coolest features of the hotel search is the option to filter by either points or free night certificates. This could be handy for someone with a credit card that offers annual free night certificates, such as the World of Hyatt Credit Card or the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card. Terms apply.

» Learn more: The best way to use points for travel? Hotels

Daydream Explorer

Got the travel bug but not sure where you want to go? The Daydream Explorer feature lets you select up to three airports, continents, regions or countries at a time. You can even choose “anywhere” as a destination, or select an activity like scuba diving, skiing or golf. The tool is available in both the free and paid versions.

In this example, PointsYeah came up with almost 50,000 ideas within our selected dates to go from New York to anywhere, including economy, premium economy and business class flights to Italy, Morocco and Mexico.

Easy alerts

Creating alerts to get notified when award space opens for flights and hotels is easy. The free version of the tool lets you set alerts for specific routes and date ranges on up to four airline and four hotel redemptions at a time. If you need more than four alerts, consider the Premium version, which offers 32 active flight alerts and 15 active hotel alerts.

» Learn more: How to book award flights for newbies

Transfer guides

For more novice travel hackers, PointsYeah offers step-by-step guides on how to link your loyalty accounts and transfer points from all the major credit card rewards programs, including AmEx Membership Rewards, Capital One Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards® and Citi ThankYou points.

» Learn more: When to use credit card points and when to transfer them to airlines

Where PointsYeah falls short

Limited multi-city searches

Multi-city airlines searches are limited to two flight segments, which could be restrictive if you’re looking for a more detailed itinerary. Because I often use stopovers when I book award tickets with airlines that permit them, I find that PointsYeah isn't always the best tool for my more complicated itineraries.

No filter for basic economy

PointsYeah doesn't have a filter to exclude basic economy fares from search results. If you're like me and want to avoid basic economy at all costs, you'll need to use a different award search tool.

Phantom award space

Similar to other award search tools, PointsYeah can struggle with showing award seats that appear online but aren’t actually bookable. This “phantom award space” occurs when partner airlines show the wrong inventory, or when award space gets booked and the website doesn’t update in real time. This primarily impacts people who plan to transfer points to a specific airline, so be sure to check the availability with that airline before your transfer.

Should you sign up for PointsYeah?

You should give PointsYeah a try if you have two or more credit cards that earn transferrable points, use multiple airline and hotel loyalty programs, or take at least a couple of trips per year on miles and points.

The free version of PointsYeah is a game changer among award search tools. The interface is user friendly and searches are very fast. The Daydream Explorer tool can give you new ideas for how to use your miles and points. If you don’t want to learn the nuances of award travel, this is a good way to quickly see what you can do with your rewards.

The premium version of PointsYeah is built primarily for people who want to set up more alerts or search for more complex itineraries. Being able to search for award availability over eight days instead of four can save a lot of time. But before you splurge, give the free version a try, then upgrade if you decide the additional features would be worthwhile.