How I find flight deals that use points or airline miles (Part 2 after the 2x airline miles exchange story)

The two ways I look for flights using points and miles to get the best deal. One way is relatively easier but not as effective, and the other takes way longer but works the best (+ a bonus way).

Earlier this week, I wrote about how I doubled my airline rewards miles to get a flight to Barcelona for just 20,000 credit card points (~$202 in points, normally costs $800+).

After racking up the points and airline miles, how did I decide what to do with them?

I don’t believe in using airline miles to book flights to cities that normally don’t cost very much to fly to or cities that I’ve already been to. I’m looking for deals that will give me the best bang for my buck, usually international flights. I also live with the mindset of wanting to go everywhere, so I might as well check off one place at a time by getting the good deals first.

The two main ways I look for flights that have good deals on points or miles are…

• Using an online tool to get an idea of what cities or regions have good deals (quicker, easier, but not as detailed or accurate)

• Using Google Flights to find the airlines that have the best routes then finding the best dates on the airline websites (time-consuming but worth…