AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. Terms Apply to the offers listed on this page. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
Yes, this is another article about another award search tool. I know, multiple options, both free and paid, already exist. Still, no search tool on the market achieves perfection. Plus, increased competition typically breeds innovation and an overall higher product standard. Coincidentally, PointsYeah delivers exactly that: innovative features, speedy search results, and at the best possible price.
PointsYeah Basics
PointsYeah promotes itself as a fast, free award search engine capable of multiple date searches. The tool searches up to 16 different airline loyalty programs for award flights at a time — and for up to a three-day window. Airline programs searched by the tool range from glitzy, global airlines like Emirate and Eithad, to the low-cost carriers of Frontier and Spirit. A wide variety of filters allow users to sift through results to find (or not find) their flights of interest, too. Even better, PointsYeah offers award alerts, which allow users to track a particular award routing and price point for a specified window of dates. These features, coupled with the speedy search results, back up PointsYeah's claim.
Using the Tool
Similar to competitor award search sites Roame and Point.me, signing up is free and requires just an email address. You'll get a verification code via email, then you'll use your chosen password and email address to log in. Also similar to Roame, PointsYeah offers a guide for getting started. For visual learners, refer to the bottom of the guide page for a demonstration video.
Just like other flight search engines and tools, PointsYeah requires an origin, destination, and date to search. The tool also lets users pick between “economy/premium economy” and “business/first” cabins. Additionally, the number of travelers, anywhere from 1–9, must be specified. Even better, the tool permits multi-date searches, limited to a consecutive three-day window.
Once all of these and any other selections are made, click the orange “Yeah” button on the right-hand side to initiate the search. At this time, all PointsYeah searches are for one-way travel. However, round-trip searches are not off the table as a future addition to the site.
Once complete, several filters allow users to hone in on itineraries of interest. Filters such as airline, number of stops, and departure and arrival times mimic the same kind of filters available through Google Flights. Options to filter by loyalty program, mixed cabin percentage, maximum taxes and fees, and by pre-set points ranges round out user choices. Three sort options exist as well: Points Low to High, Quickest Flights, and Taxes Low to High.
Search results populate very quickly, just as the website boasts. Through a variety of test searches, full search results populated in as few as 10 seconds! Most of the time, full results were available, even for multi-date searches, in 20 seconds or less. Even a three-day search for flights between London and New York City airports took just 31 seconds — an average of about 10 seconds per day of results.
Defining Features
A number of aspects of PointsYeah establish it as a premier award search tool in the points and miles space. Some of these features truly set it apart from competitors like Roame and Point.me, while others simply improve the user experience.
Multi-day searches
Honestly, this feature alone puts PointsYeah in its own award search tool category. Being able to simultaneously search 16 separate loyalty programs for award space, across up to three consecutive days, achieves an unprecedented level of efficiency. Forget for a moment the rapid results that PointsYeah delivers; simply searching three days instead of one day for award flights makes the process three times more efficient. Especially in situations where dates are somewhat flexible, searching multiple dates at a time helps identify the best possible award flights.
Points price alerts
Another standout feature: Points Price Alerts let users receive email alerts for flights of interest. At the moment, you can create up to three alerts per PointsYeah account. To set up an alert, simply click on the bell icon in the top right corner of the website.
Setting up an alert requires a full set of trip information. Users must include the number of passengers, cabin class, origin and destination airports, a window of travel dates, number of stops, which airline and bank programs to consider, and a maximum number of points per passenger. While no limit exists for the window of dates for an alert, PointsYeah counts each day as a separate alert. Considering the present limit of three alerts per account, this creates an effective limit of a three-day window.
Points Price Alerts save you from constantly checking for awards. Since award availability comes and goes like the wind, alerts such as these offered by PointsYeah provide travelers a way to monitor award flights without needing to conduct endless searches.
Highly customizable search results
A powerful tool like PointsYeah yields a wide array of search results. But a large quantity of information without a way to organize it limits any potential value. Luckily, PointsYeah offers countless ways to customize award search results. Whether filtering, sorting, or both, PointsYeah lets users find the exact flights that fit their needs.
Perhaps a traveler wants to use up points from a particular loyalty program or bank transfer partner; there are filters for both of those. Perhaps a traveler only wants nonstop flights; a filter exists for this, too. I especially appreciate the option to sort high to low by taxes and fees, as well as the option to set a maximum amount of taxes and fees per person. Nothing sets back a planned award trip like needing to add a mountain of cash to the miles you're redeeming.
Related: Airline Programs that Don't Add Fees and Surcharges to Award Flights
Clearly communicated conditions
Even seasoned award travelers won't know every single award program's ins and outs. Similarly, not all travelers know that itineraries with a connection in New York might necessitate a ground transfer between airports, depending on the airlines involved (United Airlines does not operate flights from JFK, but several international Star Alliance carriers serve only JFK in the NYC area). With that in mind, reminders about these and other booking considerations become all the more important. PointsYeah does a fantastic job of communicating these types of quirks when showing search results.
For example, see the below itinerary for economy flights between Raleigh–Durham (RDU) and London-Heathrow (LHR). PointsYeah highlights a couple of key award considerations:
- Cancellation policy: If this award requires a change or cancellation, a $50 fee applies
- Points purchase bonus: Apart from the five transfer partners listed, travelers may purchase Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points with up to a 60% bonus to then use toward this booking, thanks to a current sale. These sales come and go, but PointsYeah will alert you if there's a relevant sale that could help with your booking.
In addition, the second example below captures a few more award considerations highlighted by PointsYeah. Note that the itinerary is purely for the sake of example, although it may appeal to someone out there.
- Stopover guidelines: Programs such as Aeroplan permit stopovers for a small surcharge.
- Transfer bonus: Live incorporation of transfer bonuses between programs. A current transfer bonus from Chase to Aeroplan is factored into the results.
- Connections requiring airport transfers: This itinerary includes a connection in Washington, D.C. However, the routing requires travelers to move between D.C.'s two airports (denoted by IAD//DCA). Not all travelers will want such an itinerary.
The perfect price point
All of these amazing features are entirely free for PointsYeah users! For the time being, no paid option even exists. I fully expect monetization to happen — in some way, shape, or form — in the future with PointsYeah. Exactly what that will look like remains to be seen, though I expect any subscription-type service to be priced very competitively. For the time being, enjoy the fact that such a quick and powerful award search tool costs $0.
Areas for Improvement
PointsYeah remains a work-in-progress. In fact, numerous parts of the site, such as Points Price Alerts, include a “Beta” description to denote that fact. A number of other aspects of PointsYeah could stand improvement, as well:
- Points range filter: Right now, search results may be filtered based on pre-set ranges. Turning this into a slider would make results even more customizable and therefore more valuable to users.
- Additional loyalty programs: 16 award programs sounds like a very reasonable number to search, particularly with how quickly results populate. However, a few notable programs are missing: British Airways/Iberia/Qatar Airways Avios, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, and Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles. These programs would make for nice additions to PointsYeah.
- Separate premium cabin searches: Business class and first class may only be searched simultaneously, with no way to filter results to be one or the other. Since first class generally costs more than business class, it becomes difficult to filter for first class. Separate searches or a filter option for each cabin would solve this issue.
Final Thoughts
The price is right for PointsYeah, the incredibly fast, incredibly efficient award search tool. Free access to highly customizable, multi-program award searches can be quite difficult to come by. Plus, multi-date searches and Points Price Alerts set this tool apart from others of its kind. Still, many of the finer details allow an innovative tool to present as a fully fleshed-out product. And, despite its appearance, PointsYeah continues to develop. More filters, more airline programs, and more features continue to be added over time. Adding some of the items mentioned above will make it even more robust. PointsYeah has already cemented itself as my go-to, multi-program award search tool. Will it make the same impression on you?
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
I am in love with PointsYeah. Apart from the fact that I am now constantly searching for deals and spending all of my miles. What was a bit confusing in the beginning is that when you search for a round trip, it would show you required miles for a trip. One might think that miles shown on the first page are for a round trip. However, they are always displayed as “one way” and it actually makes sense. At first I thought it was like AA for example when you miles required for a round trip and separately one way. All in all, THE best website for award booking.