Free version available?
Yes
Premium version cost
$99.99
per year Which loyalty programs does it track?
Airlines, hotels, banks
The Best Award Travel Search Tool for 2026
PointsYeah is NerdWallet's pick for the best award travel search tool in 2026.
Many or all of the products on this page are from partners who compensate us when you click to or take an action on their website, but this does not influence our evaluations or ratings. Our opinions are our own.
Updated · 4 min read
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Lead Writer 
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Editor & Content Strategist Award travel search tools are apps that help simplify the process of redeeming points for trips, making what used to be a painstaking process of searching multiple travel websites for award space a breeze. As these tools become more popular, more travelers are wondering: What's the best option?
For the first time, NerdWallet has named its pick for the best award travel search tool in 2026.
Our travel team tested and ranked four of these tools based on several factors, including ease of use, ability to set alerts, live search capabilities and other features. While some tools can be used for hotel award space searches, we focused on airline award space search capabilities, which are more common.
While there are a number of great tools that can help you find the perfect award flight, NerdWallet’s travel experts overwhelmingly ranked PointsYeah at the top.
» MORE: 2026 winners for travel rewards
PointsYeah: Our 2026 pick for the best award travel search tool
PointsYeah stands out as an easy-to-use award-search tool with an intuitive user interface and many useful filters, allowing you to find award flights using any major credit card or airline rewards currency.
Here’s why PointsYeah came out ahead of the competition.
Searches are fast
Searches were faster with PointsYeah than any tool we tested, and results include live award space inventory so you’re not looking into the past for a seat that might no longer be available. Even complicated routings only took 15 to 20 seconds to generate a list of available award flights.
It’s good for both beginners and power users
With the premium version, you can search for award space between a combination of two departure and two arrival airports, and there’s a clear breakdown of what frequent flyer programs and credit card points can be used to book a flight.
PointsYeah integrates information about credit card transfer partners and active transfer bonuses, and step-by-step redemption instructions. Those features add “good educational value directly in the tool,” says Sally French, lead travel writer with NerdWallet, making it “good for aspirational and pragmatic travelers alike.”
The alerts are robust
The different types of alerts are my favorite feature of PointsYeah. Premium users can set up to 32 active alerts based on the price of a redemption or when award inventory becomes available. You can set alerts based on the miles you want to redeem, number of seats, and even max taxes to avoid airports with hefty surcharges. One of my favorite features is Explorer Alerts, which notify you when award space opens between a non-specific origin and destination, such as the northeastern United States and Western Europe.
Those alerts, in addition to unique features including a seat map linked to your search results, were among the reasons why PointsYeah got the top vote of Meghan Coyle, editor and content strategist with NerdWallet’s travel team.
“Those features are nice for advanced points users and provide context for beginners about which seats are the best,” says Coyle.
The explorer tool is impressive
PointsYeah has a tool called Daydream Explorer that I’ve used for countless hours to find different places my miles can take me. And it’s not just me — every member of the travel team cited Daydream Explorer as a reason to rank PointsYeah so highly.
“I love the Daydream Explorer tool — it's a great way to get ideas for trips,” says Claire Tsosie, assigning editor for NerdWallet’s travel team.
Daydream explorer searches can be specific (between defined airports) or broad (flights to “anywhere”), and the results display different places that your miles can take you on an interactive map. For example, you can search for any flight with two business class seats using United MileagePlus miles. Even better, you can apply any of the filters available to a normal search, including cabin class, price and number of seats.
Runner-up: Seats.aero
The scoring from NerdWallet’s travel experts put Seats.aero in second place.
We loved the Seats.aero power-user capabilities geared toward travelers looking for specific redemptions, such as Japan Airlines first class and Qatar Airways Q-Suites. Search results include a side-by-side view of pricing for different fare classes across a wide range of dates, including price history.
However, the user interface is dated and alerts aren’t as robust or easy to set up as PointsYeah. Additionally, Seats.aero doesn’t show which bank points can be transferred to complete a redemption, and we found multiple results with broken links to the airline websites where you’d complete the redemption.
Other options we looked at
Roame took a close third place. It earned high marks for its sleek user interface and SkyView tool, which allows users to quickly find award availability on the most popular global routes across a 60-day window. However, searching different cabin classes requires multiple searches, there are a lot of pop-ups and there is no multi-airport live search capability.
Point.me got praise for its great user interface and beginner-friendly features, but received lower overall scores due to slower performance. Multiple searches took almost two minutes to load results.
Methodology: Best Award Travel Search Tool
How we picked the tool to evaluate
NerdWallet’s travel experts selected tools based on their knowledge of the publicly available award search tools. To qualify, the tool must be capable of searching for airline award space at a minimum of 180 days from the day of the search and include results for the major transferable credit card currencies. Finalists included PointsYeah, Roame, Seats.aero, and Point.me.
How we chose the winner
NerdWallet travel experts tested the capabilities of each tool and rated them with a score of 0 to 5. The following factors were considered:
- Number of airlines and/or hotels accessible with the tool.
- Ease of use — for example, whether the tool had an intuitive flow and whether we noticed any bugs or unexpected results.
- Live search capabilities.
- Features on free vs. membership versions.
- Real-time alerts when award space is found.
- Explorer tool quality for less-defined award searches to broader geographic areas.
- Inclusion of credit card transfer bonuses.
- Instructions for transferring and redeeming airline miles.
How we verified our data
We independently spot-checked data collected to ensure accuracy.
How to maximize your rewards
You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are some of the best travel credit cards of 2026:
- Flexibility, point transfers and a large bonus: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- No annual fee: Wells Fargo Autograph® Card
- Flat-rate travel rewards: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
- Bonus travel rewards and high-end perks: Chase Sapphire Reserve®
- Luxury perks: American Express Platinum Card®
- Business travelers: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
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NerdWallet's 2026 Best All-Purpose Travel Rewards Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card 
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