The rumors are true. I built GSTP from nothing to become one of the world’s best travel blogs, but it’s now a very passionate and engaging “side hustle” for me, which takes up every ounce of my non existent free time.
That’s because I saw an opportunity I don’t think many are ever lucky enough to get, let alone take. Once you have that feeling, it’s not an easy one to shake.
People I have immense respect for built this thing called point.me, and even before I joined the team to lead our partnerships, I couldn’t help but rave about what it means for travel. That’s totally true, btw.
I believe point.me will change how people book flights. In many ways, I think it will also forever change blogging, but that’s a different story for a different day. With 100% bias, and 100% passion, I’m here to lay out five ways I think point.me really will revolutionize the way people book with points.
One Stop Shop
Improvements are always on the way, but point.me is already the first ever product to eliminate one of the key questions most people face with points: where do I search?
It isn’t always easy to figure out where to search for flights using points with one airline, and most people get totally lost when searching for partner flights of a loyalty program. Add in partner of a partner — it all goes nuts.
point.me is the one stop shop that shows every potential option using points, for any given date. It’s the first time searching with points in one place is as comprehensive as searching for flights with cash. Which leads me to…
All The Tricks
With point.me as a subscription service, you don’t need any prior knowledge to benefit from credit card points and airline miles like a grand master.
I’d argue many of my most successful blog posts of the last decade are now irrelevant. That’ll make you think!
There was a time when it was exciting to read blogs to learn about partner redemption opportunities to save points, but point.me just does that for you, automatically.
If there’s a clever way to save points on your dates, like moving points from your bank to one airline, for flights on another, point.me just shows you that little points “trick” in plain sight. The info just shows up. No games, no posts.
And even better, there are super simple and digestible booking guides for exactly how to seal the deal. It shows you a step-by-step, “where and how” to transfer your points, where to officially book, and all the rest.
Shining Light On Great Programs
Many have tried to create better points search solutions, but many have failed. With point.me, everyone has a chance to win. By everyone, I mean everyone.
point.me builds confidence with loyalty and points, enabling more people to feel confident enough to redeem points, to make their first transfer of credit card points into airline miles, or just to start their rewards journey.
Loyalty programs big and small delivering great value and exciting opportunities to their members stand a more equitable chance to acquire jazzed up and excited new customers or points transfers, with search results from all displayed in one place.
I remember the feeling of transferring points for the first time. Do you?
Comparative Cash Value?
One thing I adore with point.me searches is seeing the cash prices alongside points prices during a search.
There’s something so satisfying about seeing a crazy expensive cash cost, and a reasonable price in points. Loyalty feels rewarded.
Points are quite often going to be the best option, and people will come to point.me looking to use points, but with the ability to see cash fares side by side, some people may end up booking with cash.
This instant, comparative little search glance really helps to hammer “the point” of how worthwhile points can be. Every search makes me want more and more points.
Creating Transparency And Confidence
There’s never been an easy place to compare how many points different airline programs charge between two cities, side by side. That hasn’t really been great for customers.
After all, cash prices across all airlines are displayed side-by-side, so why should the world’s second largest currency (airline miles) be any different?
The answer, so far, has been that it’s not easy to do. Technically speaking — woah, that’s a special kind of nightmare. Thanks to the truly world class, incredible team behind point.me — I’m totally biased, but they’re really wildly brilliant — we’re trying to make that possible.
Going forward, you’ll probably hear more about point.me from other places than from me on here. I can’t promise I won’t occasionally big up what we’re doing, but I’d rather other people tell the story without bias.
Thanks For Listening
There are always lots of takes on new products when they hit the market. Many are fair, some aren’t; and others fail to see the future. Getting a chance to tell my side of it is a privilege I don’t underestimate.
I appreciate you listening to my take on why I felt like I would’ve been crazy to miss out o being a part of this team with point.me.
I can confidently say there are so many features on the way which make me smile, but as always, please feel free to hit me up directly if you have any feedback, thoughts or ideas.
“There are always lots of takes on new products when they hit the market. Many are fair, some aren’t; and others fail to see the future. Getting a chance to tell my side of it all is a privilege I don’t underestimate.”
Funny, not a word about the fact that this service COSTS MONEY. Quite an oversight for “one of the world’s best travel blogs.” Congrats on the new job.
To be fair he did say it was a subscription servi
Was not in the first draft, AFIK. But he’s been silent to criticism.
Do silent people comment back?
Do empty comments count?
So, did you change the article to include “subscription”? Or maybe I missed it after scanning it several times…
Congrats on the new gig!
I love Point.me but I recently stopped my membership because I found it to be a little too simple. Some suggestions:
-Allow for award calendar (or at least +/- 3 day searches).
-show paid positioning flights for international biz/first. I was looking for flights to Australia and finally found one that worked on QF8 from DFW to SYD. That flight didn’t show up on Point.me because AA didn’t have any partner availability from my home airport to Dallas but who cares? I’m happy to take a paid flight or another airline to DFW if it means i get to use miles on biz class across the Pacific.
Finally, saver award alerts (ping me if a particularly routing opens up with award space) similar to ExpertFlyer would be amazing.
Those would be great features that would make the membership more than worthwhile.
Hey Adam, Thanks for the feedback.
These are all things that are either under consideration or are actively happening, so thanks for making sure. We’re trying to solve the points problem in a large scale way, and most consumers who travel (circa 90%) don’t have date flexibility. As someone who often does, I get the value of more flexible searches, but mass market travelers on school holidays or public holidays just want what they can get on the day. We wanted to solve that first.
I agree alerts are a stellar feature to have. Members will find lots of great things in the months to come!
I think you’d be surprised by how many people have date flexibility – whether it’s for business or leisure, I move things around by a few days based on award availability or cash pricing. Sometimes things are set in stone but more often than not, I’d like to see availability over a range of dates or else searching is infuriating. Most people i know also have flexibility and will base their vacation around the best deal/availability. Seatspy is good for that; as are some airline searches
So, from the top, I appreciate comments always. But statistically speaking, like empirical research speaking, rather than anecdotal conversations among hobbyists, most people have no flexibility. It’s that simple. Inspiring discovery and flexibility tools are on the way, but many decades of statistics and booking trends point to circa 90% of travelers having no flexibility. Hobbyist travelers and points and miles people can be different, but mass market those are the numbers.
Fair enough if true. Where does that 90% stat come from?
I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade, but… “one of the world’s best travel blogs”??? Really?
I’ve read your blog for many years and I would not classify it as one of the best out there. Whenever someone makes grandiose claims about themselves they always lose credibility with me. To me, someone or something that is truly one of the best never needs to brag about it. To me it is a sign of insecurity or trying to make something look better than it really is. Did you hire a PR company to write this article? “One thing I adore with point.me…” This does not sound like you at all “adore”? lol…who uses terminology like that other than a PR or marketing rep.
Look, by the numbers it’s one of the larger travel blogs in the world. I’d say the sheer fact that you’ve read it for years means it’s not one of the “worst”? That usually doesn’t happen when one is bad. Many millions of people have gotten the information they need to travel better here. You may prefer others, but i’ll stand by this space as one of the best, accurate and most informative out there. And that’s why it’s scaled to where it has.
I never said it was one of the worst. It’s not. Like you said I wouldn’t be reading your posts. You do have good information and that is why I keep reading your website. I was just commenting on your self proclamation on being one of “the world’s best”. My comment was based on at least a decade of reading many different travel blogs (including yours) almost every single day (it is my hobby and how I relax after work) – so I have a lot to compare your site with. The main weakness of your website and most other ones, is that the website is a hobby/side business and thus the owner is limited in what they can put out there. It’s not a bad thing, it is just how it is. Considering how much you put out there, your site is definitely not bad and I will continue to read it.
Point.me saves me time and frustration. I don’t mind paying for basic membership. Seems like searches do not include AA, QR, LH or JAL award space. Also searches turn up a lot of unrealistically priced awards on AF or KLM (like million points per OW transatlantic)
Hey Rafa, great to hear from you as always. I believe most, if not all, of those airlines are covered. Please feel free to email me if you want to discuss anything further! As to the AF/KL awards, on balance, I personally like the programs that offer options on more dates. Don’t get me wrong, I 100% love saver level 50K and below pricing, but many people who are points rich or without choice are just happy to have the option and the 100-300k one ways are opportunity, even if many of us won’t utilize.
Award Hacker has been doing this for years. Also Gilbert my man you really do overestimate your blogs importance. Very unattractive. I unsubscribe
Sam, I appreciate the time you took here, but unfortunately the information is inaccurate.
Award Hacker does not display real time availability. It shows potential pricing for a given route, but nothing about whether it’s actually bookable on days you want to travel, or what updated and real pricing is. It sends you to different sources to look, which is why point.me is an industry first. If you want to be mean, please get your facts right.
Furthermore, there are no guides illustrating the step by step processes required to transfer from a bank to an airline program, whereas point.me offers brilliant, step by step visual guides and even concierge service as an add on for people who find it overwhelming.
I don’t set the importance of my blog. Google Analytics, the media and the readers do. That speaks for itself. And when you create something all your own, it’s good to have pride. I think it’s one of the best, and I’ll say that to anyone.
I had a great result using point.me. It recognized the UR transfer bonus to KLM Flying Blue and provided the exact booking instructions. I don’t think I would have found the points deal on my own. Worth the subscription cost.
Steve, Thanks for sharing. It’s so fun to create these developments illustrating transfer bonuses, real time availability and the instructions that most people find helpful to get these things done. I echo your enthusiasm. Thanks!
I ran a search for a specific flight – points.me promised a $40K business class.
So I signed up for $5 day pass.
Unfortunately the actual results are $77K, same thing that I saw on United.
A bit of a let down and a whiff of disonesty.
Don’t think I will be a customer.
Hello AR. Award seats are incredibly dynamic. Sometimes there’s only one seat at one pricing level and then once it goes, they offer another at another pricing level, or none at all. The pricing would definitely be accurate at the time of the search, but when time lapses between search and time of actual booking, there’s always a risk that things go away, just like with cash. Hope this helps. There’s absolutely no reason to be dishonest, why would we be? Our goal is radical transparency and pricing to help people uncover great results.