Four Invaluable Tools for Booking Flights With Miles & Cash

Below are some tools, tips, and tricks to help you navigate the complexities of planning and booking air travel. Let’s move about the cabin and discuss how we got here.

Award Tickets

Using points and miles can be a fantastic way to leverage the costs of travel. By using credit cards which earn transferable points or airline miles, you'll be well on your way to nearly free travel.

For example, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® earns 3 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar on dining. These Ultimate Rewards can be transferred to 10 different airline programs.

Nine Reasons Why Award Tickets Are Better Than Cash Tickets

People complain about frequent flyer programs. When the The New York Times writes about how to use your miles to get an award seat, a laundry list of complaints come up in the comments. There are legitimate annoyances with award tickets:

Low-miles-price tickets are capacity controlled. If you want to fly at peak times, you have to pay double the miles you were expecting to pay.
More award tickets are requiring a large cash component in the form of fuel surcharges.
You often have to book by phone. It takes a few minutes to ticket a cash ticket online.