It definitely helps to try and equate points to something more tangible. This way it also helps to frame your thinking of "is this a good deal using points or can I get more value from my points somewhere else?"
Hey Don, great question! This is a topic I definitely plan on addressing because the last thing I want to do is mislead readers into thinking you will always find the cheapest possible flight using points no matter what.
Just like with all travel, booking in advance and being flexible are key factors to finding the best price. This also highly depends on what airline you are trying to fly, but generally finding cheap economy tickets isn't terribly difficult.
Doing a very quick search on the flight mentioned in the article (SFO to AMS) you can book it for 20,000 points 14 days in May, 0 days in June, 10 days in July, 1 day in August, 4 days in September, 17 days in October and almost every day Jan/Feb/Mar 2024. So it does vary a lot, but still has plenty of opportunity if you can be flexible with dates.
This is obviously a very small sample size, stay tuned for more examples on different flights on different airlines, and different classes (premium economy and business class!)
Ok I finally understand the difference…about time!
Ooo, it's so helpful to think of points translating to normal currency. I didn't know you could do that.
It definitely helps to try and equate points to something more tangible. This way it also helps to frame your thinking of "is this a good deal using points or can I get more value from my points somewhere else?"
Hi Jebba!
Great idea to help all travelers!
I noticed the average points required for your flight was over 50K! But you scored a flight for only 20K.
How hard is it to actually find such a smaller point day than the norm?
Hey Don, great question! This is a topic I definitely plan on addressing because the last thing I want to do is mislead readers into thinking you will always find the cheapest possible flight using points no matter what.
Just like with all travel, booking in advance and being flexible are key factors to finding the best price. This also highly depends on what airline you are trying to fly, but generally finding cheap economy tickets isn't terribly difficult.
Doing a very quick search on the flight mentioned in the article (SFO to AMS) you can book it for 20,000 points 14 days in May, 0 days in June, 10 days in July, 1 day in August, 4 days in September, 17 days in October and almost every day Jan/Feb/Mar 2024. So it does vary a lot, but still has plenty of opportunity if you can be flexible with dates.
This is obviously a very small sample size, stay tuned for more examples on different flights on different airlines, and different classes (premium economy and business class!)