There’s no shortage of travel and points content on the internet — but finding tools that are genuinely useful, free, and worth keeping in your workflow is a different challenge. This page is a curated list of the tools I personally rely on for earning points, searching awards, and staying on top of my travel.
01
Rakuten
If you’re shopping online and not using a cash back portal, you’re missing out on one of the easiest ways to earn points, and leaving points on the table!
Rakuten is the best portal for this precisely because of one feature: the option to receive your cash back rewards as American Express Membership Rewards points or Bilt Rewards points instead of cash!
For anyone accumulating transferable points currencies, this turns everyday online purchases for things like clothing, electronics, and even travel bookings into meaningful points and miles. Rates vary by retailer but regularly reach 10x or more during promotions, and the browser extension makes activation seamless. Better yet – you can easily earn $50 (5k AmEx MR or Bilt Rewards points) by signing up today and making a purchase of $50 or greater.
02
Rove Miles
Rove is a newer cash back portal and hotel booking platform with a rare structural advantage: it lets you “quadruple-dip” on hotel stays in a way no other platform can currently match. When you book a loyalty-eligible property through Rove, you’re not just earning a portal bonus — you’re stacking four separate streams of value simultaneously:
- Hotel loyalty status credit toward elite tier qualification
- Hotel points posted directly to your loyalty account
- Credit card points on the full charge, just as you would booking direct
- Rove Miles — a new, transferable points currency unique to the platform
That fourth layer is what makes Rove genuinely interesting. Rove Miles are transferable, meaning they function like a traditional bank points currency rather than a fixed cash back amount — adding optionality that most portals simply don’t offer. You can both transfer Rove Miles to partners as well as redeem directly on their portal for hotel stays and flights. Sign up here for 500 miles instantly!
Rove’s benefits are both in the flexibility of how you can earn and use its points, and in some of the unique partners you can redeem with (several of which currently have no other viable transfer routes for US-based consumers, such as Thai Airways RoyalOrchid, Plus, Lufthansa Miles & More, and Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings Club).
03
Points Yeah
If you’re just getting into the points world, learning how to search for award availability for flights and hotels is the best place to start. Award search engines are basically the “Google Flights,” but for redeeming your points and miles.
Award search tools are either expensive, limited, or both. PointsYeah is the exception. It’s the most comprehensive free tool available for searching both flight and hotel award availability across multiple loyalty programs, simultaneously, taking what would be a time-consuming process of individually searching different rewards programs for award flight availability and helping you do it instantaneously. I would argue that its free version is also the only version you’ll ever need. The search interface is highly customizable: filter by cabin, alliance, program, stopover preferences, and more. Whether you’re piecing together a complex itinerary or just trying to find the best redemption rate for a specific route, PointsYeah does the heavy lifting without necessitating a subscription.
And then there is its hotel search capability. Equally as customizable and capable, it allows you to find hotel award stays with points and you can even set alerts to monitor for points price drops and availability. It’s an immensely powerful tool!
04
Flighty
Flighty sits at the intersection of flight tracking and travel journaling and it’s genuinely fun to use. The app pulls in real-time flight data and presents your travel history and upcoming trips in a polished, social-media-style interface. You can see stats on airports visited, miles flown, time in the air, and more. It’s not a booking or search tool, but it scratches a very particular itch: making your travel feel like something worth keeping track of.If you care about the experience of travel as much as the logistics, Flighty fits naturally into the mix.
Flighty’s paid version is much more powerful – giving you access to real-time flight delay information, much more detailed information about your flight history, and automatic integration with your calendar/emails to pre-load flight information into its interface. While subscriptions are expensive (currently runs at $299 for a lifetime subscription), the free tier is powerful enough to power your travel itch!
05
Airalo
There’s quite literally nothing worse than touching down in a new country and realizing you can’t use your phone. If you travel internationally with any regularity, Airalo is one of the first apps you should have on your phone. It’s an eSIM marketplace that lets you buy affordable data plans for 200+ countries and install them before you ever leave home.
Instead of hunting for a local SIM card at the airport (or paying your carrier’s should-be-illegal international roaming rates), you purchase a prepaid data plan through the Airalo app, install it digitally, and your phone connects to a local network the moment you land. You can decided to keep your regular number active for calls and texts while Airalo handles your data.
Plans are usually local (single country), regional (think: one plan for all of Europe), and global. Pricing is reasonable, with entry-level plans starting around a few dollars for a gigabyte, and the app makes it easy to top up or switch plans as needed. There’s also a loyalty program called Airmoney that gives you credits back on every purchase, which adds up if you’re a frequent traveler.
Two thing to know: (1) most Airalo plans are data-only, so you’ll be using WhatsApp, FaceTime, or similar apps for calls rather than traditional phone service. For most travelers, that’s not an issue, but worth knowing going in; (2) most people will struggle their first time to properly install an eSim, but Airalo as you covered with simple, step-by-step instructions to get you started.
Use my code at sign-up for a free $3: MIKE7026.
Need help getting started with one of these tools? I offer customized 1:1 coaching sessions and can help you get started. Contact me for more information!