The seats airlines set aside for points bookings are real and bookable, and almost invisible unless you know where to look. This is where to search, and how to spend fewer of your own points once you have found something.
Most people have a balance and no idea what it is worth in flights. Pick the points you hold, enter roughly how many, and this shows what is within reach and what is not far off. Each route shows a range, because the same seat costs far less on off-peak dates than on a Friday in July.
Read this before acting on any of it. These are typical prices, not live availability, and a seat has
to be open on your dates for any of it to be bookable. The low figure is off-peak; the high one is what the
same seat commonly costs when your dates are fixed.
Prices assume the gateway shown on each card. If you are not near one, what happens next depends on the
program: zone-based programs such as AAdvantage and Aeroplan usually add the connecting domestic flight at
no extra points, while distance-based programs such as Avios charge for every segment, so a smaller home
airport costs more. Sometimes booking a separate cheap flight to the gateway is the better answer.
Never transfer points until you have found the seat.
This is where most people stall. You have the points, you know roughly where you want to go, and Google Flights tells you nothing, because the seats airlines set aside for points bookings live somewhere else entirely. These are the tools that can see it.
Free tier, paid Pro tier
Searches seats bookable with points across dozens of airline programs at once and shows you every date a seat is bookable, laid out as a calendar. Instead of checking United, then Aeroplan, then ANA one at a time, you search once and see where the space actually is. The strongest tool for the question most people start with: I have these points, where can they take me?
Subscription
Works like a normal flight search, but shows what you can book with points. You put in a route and dates and it returns bookable options with the points cost and which program to book through, in plain language. The friendliest starting point if databases and calendars put you off, and the transfer instructions it gives are genuinely clear.
Free tier, paid tier
Built for browsing rather than searching. You tell it what points you hold and roughly when you can travel, and it shows you what is reachable. Good when the destination is not yet decided and you want to see what your balance can actually buy before committing to a plan.
Paid, limited free tier
Watches specific flights and emails you the moment a seat you can book with points opens up. Airlines release space unpredictably, often close to departure, and the seat you want frequently is not there the first time you look. This is how you get told when it appears rather than checking every day.
Free
Air Canada Aeroplan, United, ANA and Qantas all let you search their partner airlines' points seats directly, and they sometimes show seats the aggregators miss. Always confirm what a tool told you on the airline's own site before transferring anything, because the tool is reading a snapshot and the airline is the source of truth.
None of these are affiliate links. I have no arrangement with any of them and get nothing if you sign up.
Your credit card company sometimes offers a bonus when you move points over to an airline. They run for a few weeks and close without an announcement. These are the ones worth knowing about today.
| From | To | Bonus | Ratio | Min transfer | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citi TYP | Avianca LifeMiles | 25% | 1,000 : 1,250 | 1,000 | Oct 24, 2026 |
| LifeMiles adds no fuel surcharges on Star Alliance partners, which is the whole reason to care. Lufthansa and Swiss business class to Europe price well here. Two cautions. The 1:1 base rate applies to qualifying Citi cards, and some ThankYou cards transfer at 1,000 to 700, which would turn this into 1,000 to 875. LifeMiles accounts also have a long history of booking and ticketing failures, so transfer only when you can ticket the same day. | |||||
| Citi TYP | Japan Airlines Mileage Bank | 30% | 1,000 : 1,300 | 1,000 | Oct 24, 2026 |
| A genuine 1,300 miles per 1,000 points on qualifying Citi cards, because the base rate here really is 1:1 rather than a bonus working uphill against a poor one. JAL's distance based chart is still one of the better values in the industry. Check which ThankYou card you hold first. Cards that transfer at 1,000 to 700 turn this 30% into 1,000 to 910, which is a different deal entirely. | |||||
| Amex MR | Aeromexico Club Premier | 20% | 1,000 : 1,920 | 1,000 | Oct 30, 2026 |
| The 1,920 is the biggest destination number on this board and the bonus is barely responsible for any of it. Amex already transfers to Club Premier at 1,000 to 1,600 every day of the year, and the 20% adds the last 320. At roughly a cent per Club Premier point that is about $19 of value, of which the promotion contributes around $3. Worth doing only if you have already found SkyTeam space you want, and note that Aeromexico charges meaningful surcharges and stiff cancellation fees. | |||||
| Amex MR | Air France KLM Flying Blue | 25% | 1,000 : 1,250 | 1,000 | Oct 31, 2026 |
| Base rate is a true 1:1, so the 25% is real. Flying Blue's monthly Promo Rewards can make this one of the better homes for Amex points. Price the taxes and carrier charges on your exact route before you move anything, because Flying Blue adds surcharges on some itineraries that quietly cancel out the bonus. | |||||
| Capital One | British Airways Avios | 20% | 1,000 : 1,200 | 1,000 | Oct 31, 2026 |
| Best for short partner hops and off peak pricing rather than long haul. British Airways levies heavy surcharges on its own transatlantic flights that can run several hundred dollars per ticket, which is more than the roughly $14 of Avios the bonus hands you. Price the cash cost of the taxes first, then decide. | |||||
| Citi TYP | Qatar Privilege Club Avios | up to 35% | 1,000 : up to 1,350 | 1,000 | Oct 31, 2026 |
| Read the words 'up to', because the tiers do most of the work. Under 50,000 points in one move earns 15%, 50,000 to 99,999 earns 25%, and only 100,000 or more reaches the advertised 35%. A small transfer is therefore a 1,000 to 1,150 deal, not 1,000 to 1,350. Qatar prices Qsuites in Avios, which is the real draw. The bonus is applied by Qatar after the transfer lands, so it will not show in your Citi account. | |||||
| Rove Miles | Japan Airlines Mileage Bank | 50% | 1,000 : 1,500 | 2,000 | Oct 31, 2026 |
| The strongest headline rate on the board, and relevant only if you are already earning Rove Miles through shopping. There is no sensible reason to go and acquire Rove Miles to chase it. If you do hold a balance, JAL is a good place to send it. Minimum transfer is 2,000, not 1,000. | |||||
| Rove Miles | Air France KLM Flying Blue | 40% | 1,000 : 1,400 | 2,000 | Oct 31, 2026 |
| Same reasoning as the JAL line above. Useful if you already hold Rove Miles, not a reason to start earning them. Check Flying Blue's surcharges on your route before transferring, and note the 2,000 mile minimum. | |||||
| Rove Miles | Qatar Privilege Club Avios | up to 35% | 1,000 : up to 1,350 | 2,000 | Oct 31, 2026 |
| Tiered exactly like the Citi line, so the advertised 35% needs 100,000 miles moved at once and anything under 50,000 earns 15%. Only worth reading if you already have a Rove balance large enough for the upper tiers to apply. | |||||
Checked 15 October 2026. These move constantly, so confirm on the issuer's own site before transferring.
A 30% bonus means every 1,000 points you transfer arrive as 1,300. What the airline charges does not change. What changes is how many of your own points it takes to get there.
Transfers are one way and effectively permanent. Only move points once you have found the seat and confirmed it is still there. A bonus is not a reason to transfer speculatively.
Cash price in, points in, taxes in. It tells you what each point is really buying, and whether you should just pay cash.
