Your points are worth a penny each at checkout. On the right flight, they're worth ten.

If you have Chase, Amex, Capital One, Citi or Bilt points and you've never used them for a flight worth telling people about, read this to the end. It's long because I'd rather you decide with the whole picture.

Hi,

I started doing this because I kept watching friends with hundreds of thousands of points talk themselves out of the trip they actually wanted.

They'd look at an $8,000 cash fare to Tokyo, close the tab, and book economy with a connection. Or they'd cash the points out for a statement credit, because at least that was simple. The points sat there, and then they went away for groceries. The trip got smaller.

Here's the part most people miss: the front of the plane is usually a research problem, not a money problem. The points are already in the account. The seat is often there too. What's missing is the hour or two of patient hunting through transfer partners and award calendars that nobody wants to do.

The penny trap

Cash out a Chase or Amex point and you get about a penny for it, often less. So 120,000 points feels like $1,200. That's the number most people carry around in their heads.

Move those same points to the right airline program and the math changes. On my cheat sheet, ANA business class to Tokyo costs about 60,000 points one-way when you book it through Virgin Atlantic. That seat routinely sells for $6,000 to $9,000 in cash. That's ten cents a point, from the same points you'd have cashed out for one.

Why it's hard to do yourself

If it were easy, you'd have done it already. Here's what's in the way:

• Your bank doesn't sell the seat. You move points to an airline's program, and the airline you'd fly often isn't the program you book through. ANA through Virgin. Qatar through American. Cathay through Alaska.
• Not every bank reaches every airline. Amex no longer transfers to American, and Chase never did. Only Bilt reaches Alaska. You find this out after you've planned the trip, not before.
• Transfers can't be undone. Move 120,000 points to the wrong program and they stay there.
• The search tools show seats that aren't real. Award space that looks open often vanishes the moment you try to book it. Knowing which seats will survive the transfer wait is most of the skill.

There are more than a dozen search tools for this, and each one covers part of it. The tools are cheap. What they don't give you is the judgment to know which result is real.

What I do

You tell me the trip: where, when, how flexible you are, and what points you hold. A short form, a few minutes. A $75 deposit starts the work.

Then I do the tedious part. I work the transfer partners and hunt real award space across the programs your points can reach. Within 48 to 72 hours I send you 2 to 3 options, each with the points cost, the taxes, the transfer path, the cash fare it replaces, and exact step-by-step booking instructions.

You book it yourself in a few minutes, or add full booking and I do it for you. Either way, I never need your account logins. I work from the balances you tell me, and you stay in control of every transfer.

What a delivered option looks like

Here's the shape of one, for two travelers flying business class from New York to Tokyo. It's an illustrative example, not a past booking.

• About 150,000 points for two one-way seats, plus about $160 in taxes.
• Replaces about $8,400 in cash fares for the same two seats.
• Transfer path: Chase Ultimate Rewards to the airline's program, which usually posts in minutes to hours.
• Step one of the booking steps: confirm the seats are still showing before you transfer a single point. I show you exactly where to look.

Every delivery carries 2 to 3 options for one reason: award space moves. I flag which option is most stable, and what to do if a seat disappears before you book.

What it costs, and what you're paying for

$300 to $750 is real money for research, so here's the honest version. On a business-class trip, the gap between a good redemption and a mediocre one is often worth more than my fee. You're paying for the hours of hunting you'd otherwise spend, and for the judgment to tell a stable seat from one that won't survive the transfer.

The $75 deposit is part of the fee, not on top of it. A $500 premium trip is $75 to begin and $425 when I deliver options worth booking. Before I take the rest, I screen your request. If your dates and points won't produce something worth booking, I tell you up front. If I search and genuinely can't find viable options, you owe nothing further. The deposit isn't returned in that case, because it paid for the search.

Who this is not for

If you enjoy the hunt and your trip is simple, you may not need me. The cheat sheet is free and has enough to try one yourself.

If you don't have points yet, this isn't the place to start. And if you take three or more big trips a year, a monthly concierge may serve you better than paying per trip.

If you have the points, one trip you keep putting off, and no interest in spending your evenings on award calendars, that's exactly who I built this for.

Talk soon,