One common complaint amongst U.S. residents is the high price of domestic flights.

The Southwest Airlines Companion Pass has been one of the most valuable and easy-to-earn perks in the airline industry for years. This benefit, which can be earned either by flying a certain number of segments on Southwest Airlines or by accumulating a certain number of Southwest Rapid Rewards points, allows you to take a companion with you on nearly any Southwest flight free of charge (excluding taxes and fees).

Obviously, this perk is extremely valuable, especially for travelers who often take Southwest flights with a companion.

If you’ve opened the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Chase Sapphire Reserve® to take advantage of a welcome bonus, you probably know that, in addition to a list of perks, you have access to Chase Travel℠, an online booking platform for Chase cardholders.

Through Chase Travel℠, you can book various travel services and use your Ultimate Rewards points to pay for them.

Many points and miles enthusiasts recommend searching for award flights when the booking window first opens—typically between 330 and 362 days in advance depending on the airline—and/or close to desired travel dates to secure better award availability and lower award rates. Let’s take a closer look at last-minute award availability.

Last-Minute Award Basics

Let’s start with a few key points related to what’s commonly referred to as last-minute or close-in award availability.

Close-In Award Timing

There isn’t a consistent number of days before travel when additional award space is released.

If you aren’t familiar with Southwest Airlines, it’s the fourth largest carrier in the United States by several metrics. Southwest developed as a low-cost carrier and has operated differently than the so-called “big three” U.S. carriers (American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines).

Given that United Airlines is one of the largest United States-based carriers, many travelers will have opportunities to fly on United and its partners and participate in the MileagePlus program. 

To get the most from the program, it’s important to understand how it works. Whether you’re new to points and miles entirely or just haven’t used the MileagePlus program, this guide should help you understand some program basics.

Earning points and miles is relatively straightforward, but the redemption side can be more challenging and complicated.

Most of us share the desire to obtain good value for our points and miles, but it’s hard to know what that means given constant changes in the points and miles environment.

If you don’t know what an open-jaw itinerary is and haven’t booked flights this way, you’re not alone.

The simplest way to think about an open jaw is that it represents a gap without flights at some point in an itinerary. A common use is for two-way travel on an itinerary where the destination and/or the origin cities aren’t the same in both directions.

An example of an open-jaw itinerary with flights from Chicago (ORD) to Paris (CDG) and Madrid (MAD) to Chicago is depicted below.

If you want to use American AAdvantage miles for your next international trip, there are numerous options. Award availability and award rates vary significantly depending on where and when you want to travel, how far in advance you’re planning the trip, the number of travelers and preferred class of service. 

As of early 2025, AAdvantage miles can be extremely valuable in certain circumstances. Advantages (pun intended) of redeeming these miles include:

The program has published award charts with fixed rates for flights on partner airlines.

If you’re interested in booking flights within the United States and have Citi ThankYou® Points, there are more options than you might have considered. Let’s start with some background.

ThankYou Points are flexible currency earned through the Citi ThankYou® Rewards program. Like other flexible rewards programs, such as Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards, the primary benefit of Citi ThankYou Rewards is that there are many ways to use points. 

You can redeem for cash back, statement credits, purchases at select retailers and gift card purchases.