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🤙🏿 Welcome back to the Better Than Points Newsletter - the premier place for all things Credit Card Points News and Travel

My name’s Luis and I’m the one writing this (hit me up here!)

Boy, do I have some secrets to share with you.

As well as some promo deals that are going on right now and a super secret trick to skip the line at the airport.

A lot to get to, so hop on board.

Let's get going.

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Each week, I’ll share something cool I’ve discovered or tackle a question from the community. It’s my little corner to explore ideas, offer fresh perspectives, and hopefully spark your own curiosity.

Today, I wanted to talk about some of the biggest mistakes I see people make when they're trying to find award availability.

1. Not knowing when to start looking

Timing matters a lot when you're searching for award flights.

One of the best times to start looking is around 8 to 11 months before your trip, when airlines are starting to release award seats and fewer people have grabbed them.

Most airlines release award availability 360 days out.

The other really good time to look is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum: right before departure.

Airlines will sometimes release additional award seats in the final days or weeks before a flight when they realize they're probably not going to sell those seats for cash.

Obviously, waiting until the last minute isn't going to work for everyone, but it's something to keep in mind if you have flexibility.

2. Only searching from your home airport

This is probably one of the most common mistakes.

Instead of only searching from your home airport, look at flights from larger airports that have significantly more international service.

The more flights an airport has to your destination, the more opportunities you have to find award availability.

You might have to book a separate positioning flight to get there, but that can be worth it if it opens up a much better redemption.

I'd much rather spend a little bit of cash or some extra points getting to a major airport if it means finding that business class award across the Atlantic or Pacific that wasn't showing up from my home airport.

3. Waiting for the perfect flight before booking anything

This might actually be the most important one.

If you find an award that works, book it.

It doesn't necessarily have to be the flight you ultimately want.

Having something booked is better than having nothing booked while hoping your perfect award magically appears.

That's exactly what I did when my wife and I went to the Cook Islands for our babymoon.

The itinerary I really wanted was from the U.S. to New Zealand and then onward to the Cook Islands.

But that award wasn't available.

Instead of waiting around and hoping it appeared, I booked an alternative that took us from the U.S. to Hawaii and then from Hawaii to the Cook Islands.

We had a way to get there.

Then I kept monitoring the itinerary I actually wanted.

Sure enough, about a week before our trip, the award availability I had been waiting for finally appeared.

I was able to switch our flights and get the itinerary I wanted all along.

But if it hadn't appeared?

We still would have gone to the Cook Islands.

That's the strategy I want people to remember.

Book something that works, then keep searching for something better.

Obviously, make sure you understand the change and cancellation rules of whatever program you're booking through before doing this.

But I'd much rather have a backup flight locked in than spend months stressing and hoping the perfect award becomes available.

Sometimes it will.

Sometimes it won't.

Either way, you still get to take the trip.

AI this and AI that.

It looks like Google is also making a bigger push into AI, but this time they're bringing it into the flights and travel space.

Google is partnering with airlines like Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, and American Airlines, along with hotel programs like Choice Hotels, Hilton, and Wyndham, to help people use AI to find and eventually book flights and hotels.

The really interesting part for us is that this isn't limited to cash bookings.

It's also includes points and award bookings.

If you're trying to find award availability, Google's AI will be able to help find those awards and show you how many points they're going to cost.

Google has also said it plans to add more programs, including Accor, Flying Blue, LATAM Airlines, and Lufthansa Group.

It’s interesting because we've seen airlines get upset with third party award search tools for displaying their availability.

Some have even gone as far as restricting those websites from accessing their award data.

Now we're seeing some of these programs working with Google to make that same information easier to find.

The obvious benefit is that this could make points and miles significantly easier to use.

Instead of knowing which airline website to search, which partner can book which flight, and where the award availability might be hiding, you could potentially just tell Google's AI what you're looking for and let it do some of that work for you.

But there's also a downside.

The easier it becomes to use points, the more people are going to use them.

There's only so much award availability to go around.

If millions more people suddenly have an easier way to find those harder to find award seats, we could see more competition for them.

Over time, I also wouldn't be surprised if that contributed to programs charging more points as demand increases.

I played around with Google's AI Mode a little, and it's definitely interesting.

Right now, though, I wouldn't make it my first choice for finding award availability.

I'd still start with tools like Points Path and Seats.aero.

Both are more focused on points and miles and, in my experience, make it easier to quickly find the award availability I'm actually looking for.

They both also have Google Chrome extensions that work alongside Google Flights, which can make searching for a trip even easier.

Google's AI option still feels a little clunky right now, but it's definitely something I'm going to keep an eye on.

If Google can eventually make searching for award travel as easy as searching for a normal cash flight, that could be great for people sitting on points who have absolutely no idea how to use them.

It might just make finding the really good awards a little more competitive for the rest of us.

If you're not familiar, at the beginning of every month, Flying Blue releases its Promo Rewards.

These are essentially discounted award flights on Air France and KLM, and they're always worth checking if you're thinking about going to Europe.

Typically, we'll see discounts on economy and sometimes premium economy, with routes from cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.

You can sometimes find premium economy to Europe for around 30,000 miles, while economy can drop as low as 18,750 miles.

But this month's list has something much more interesting.

There are business class awards to Europe starting at just 45,000 Flying Blue miles.

The two cities that stood out are Minneapolis and Mexico City.

Seeing business class Promo Rewards from the U.S. doesn't happen very often.

We've seen them in the past, but a lot of the better business-class deals tend to originate in places like Canada.

That's what makes Minneapolis particularly interesting.

If you have Flying Blue miles, or transferable points with one of the major credit card programs that partners with Flying Blue, this is definitely worth looking into.

You have until September 30, 2026, to book, and eligible travel can take place through February 28, 2027.

Getting to Europe in business class for 45,000 miles is a screaming deal.

There are two things I'd keep in mind, though.

First, I suspect finding those 45,000 mile business class seats out of Minneapolis are going to be a little more difficult because we don't often see these deals originating in the U.S.

Mexico City might be the more interesting play.

If there's more availability from Mexico City, it could be worth booking a cheap positioning flight down to Mexico and starting your business class trip to Europe from there.

It's a little more work, but for 45,000 miles in business class, I'd absolutely look into it.

The second thing to keep in mind is September 8.

That's when Flying Blue is moving to its new three tier award pricing system, which I've talked about before.

So if you're already thinking about traveling to Europe toward the end of this year or early 2027, I wouldn't wait until the end of the Promo Rewards booking window.

I'd start searching now.

I just realized I really haven't talked much about TSA PreCheck before, but there's actually another level above regular PreCheck that even fewer people know about: TSA PreCheck Touchless ID.

If you're eligible, it essentially gives you access to a separate line from the normal TSA PreCheck line.

Instead of handing over your ID, the system uses facial recognition to verify your identity.

You still need your boarding pass and ID with you, but the actual process of getting through security can be WAY faster.

I've used it before, and it honestly saves a lot of time.

The catch is that Touchless ID isn't available at every airport or with every airline yet.

It's mostly being rolled out at larger airports and only works with participating airlines (American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines), so you'll want to check whether it's available for your particular trip.

If your airline and airport support it, you'll typically need to opt in through the airline's app or account before your flight.

Once everything is set up, you should see the Touchless ID icon on your boarding pass, giving you access to that separate security line when it's available.

With the holiday weekend coming up and airports likely getting busier, this is definitely something worth looking into.

If you already have TSA PreCheck, you might have access to an even faster security option and not even realize it.

I actually put together step by step instructions for setting it up with a couple of the major airlines, so you can see exactly where to go and what you need to turn on before your next flight.

Delta Touchless ID

United Touchless ID

American Airlines Touchless ID

Check out these crazy award deals!

This section includes some of the best award flights of the week bookable with points and miles.

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This section includes some of the best links videos and articles of the week around the points and travel community