How to Book Last-Minute Holiday Travel With Points and Miles

Booking last-minute holiday travel with points and miles is harder than planning months in advance, but it’s not impossible. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s are peak travel periods, so the most convenient flights and lowest award rates can disappear quickly. At this stage, your goal shouldn’t be to recreate the redemption you could have booked six months ago but to work with the options available today and increase your flexibility wherever you can.

Quick Tips for Booking Last-Minute Holiday Travel With Points

If your initial search turns up expensive holiday fares and limited award availability, start here:

• Be flexible with dates: Look a day or two before and after your preferred departure and return dates, including Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
• Check alternate airports: Driving an extra hour could save thousands of points per traveler.
• Compare points and cash: Holiday cash fares can be expensive, but that doesn’t automatically make every award a good deal.
• Search airline partners: The airline operating your flight isn’t always the best loyalty program through which to book it.
• Consider less desirable flight times: Early departures, late arrivals and holiday-day flights may have better availability.
• Book a reasonable backup when cancellation rules allow it: You can continue searching for something better afterward.
• Don’t transfer points without confirming availability: Confirm that your award is available before moving flexible credit card points to an airline or hotel program.
• Don’t overcomplicate the trip to save a small number of points: A positioning flight or distant airport should provide meaningful savings to justify the additional hassle.
• Don’t assume today’s availability will still be there tomorrow: Peak holiday award space can disappear quickly.
• Don’t compare today’s redemption with the saver award you could have booked months ago: Compare the options you can actually book now.

Compare Cash Prices, Award Rates and Airline Partners Before You Transfer Points

Once you find workable flights, compare the cash fare and award price before booking holiday travel with points. A high award price isn’t automatically a bad redemption if holiday cash fares are also unusually expensive, and an expensive cash fare doesn’t automatically mean transferring points to an airline is your best option.

Flexible credit card points give you multiple ways to book the same trip: You might transfer them to an airline program, redeem them through an eligible travel portal or save them and pay cash when the numbers favor doing so. This flexibility is particularly useful for last-minute travel because you’re not locked into the availability of a single airline program.

Also compare different airline partners. The loyalty program operated by the airline you’re flying with isn’t necessarily the only program that can book the seat. Partner programs sometimes provide access to the same flight at a different award rate. However, partner award availability isn’t guaranteed, so never transfer flexible points until you’ve confirmed the award you want is bookable.

Best Airline Programs to Check for Last-Minute Award Availability

There’s no single loyalty program that will consistently have the best last-minute awards. Availability varies by route, airline and date, so we recommend searching several programs—especially those that provide access to multiple partner airlines. Below are some options to consider:

• United MileagePlus: A useful starting point for United and Star Alliance searches. United can release additional premium-cabin award inventory close to departure, although pricing on United-operated flights is dynamic.
• Air Canada Aeroplan: One of the most useful programs for broad Star Alliance and partner searches. Aeroplan says partner awards are available across its network, while Air Canada and select partner awards use variable pricing that can rise during high-demand periods.
• Air France-KLM Flying Blue: Particularly useful for booking Air France, KLM and SkyTeam awards, especially if you’re flexible about which European city you fly into. Flying Blue also makes partner reward tickets searchable through Air France and KLM’s online booking tools.
• American Airlines AAdvantage: Worth checking for American-operated flights and Oneworld partners. It can be especially useful when partner award inventory appears close to departure.
• Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards: Another valuable option for Oneworld and other partner awards, including airlines such as Japan Airlines, when partner space becomes available.
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: Worth checking alongside Flying Blue for certain SkyTeam partners and other Flying Club partners rather than assuming the operating airline has the lowest award rate.
• Emirates Skywards: A program to keep on the shortlist when searching for Emirates premium cabins. Emirates has historically made some business- and first-class inventory available relatively close to departure, but note that first-class award seats can only be booked by those with silver status or higher.
• Avianca LifeMiles: Another useful Star Alliance search option, particularly when you’re comparing how different programs price the same partner award.

Japan Airlines is also an airline worth monitoring when you’re traveling to Asia. We’ve seen JAL release last-minute premium-cabin inventory that can be booked through partner programs such as AAdvantage, Atmos Rewards and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.

The important point isn’t to search every program every time. Identify the airlines serving your route, determine which loyalty programs can book those flights and then compare the most relevant options before transferring points.

Don’t Forget About Last-Minute Hotel Award Availability

Flights tend to get most of the attention when planning holiday award travel, but your hotel strategy deserves the same flexibility. Hotel award inventory can change as other travelers modify or cancel reservations, so a property that appears unavailable during your first search may become bookable later.

Hotel points can also become particularly valuable during expensive holiday periods. A hotel charging an unusually high cash rate over Christmas or New Year’s may still have a standard award room available, depending on the program and property.

Best Hotel Programs to Check for Last-Minute Award Availability

• World of Hyatt: This is our first stop for many hotel award searches because Hyatt uses an award chart and offers free nights without blackout dates when eligible standard rooms are available. Hyatt’s current standard hotel award chart ranges from 3,000 to 75,000 points per night, depending on the hotel category and demand period.
• Hilton Honors: Hilton’s large footprint makes it particularly useful when you need options rather than one specific hotel. Standard Room Rewards have no blackout dates, subject to availability, and members can also use Points & Money to combine cash and points for a hotel stay.
• Marriott Bonvoy: Marriott’s enormous global footprint makes Bonvoy worth checking when other programs don’t have properties where you need to stay. Award Redemption Stays are subject to availability, and the number of points required can vary by property and date.
• IHG One Rewards: This is another useful program when your priority is simply finding a points hotel near your destination. IHG’s broad portfolio can provide additional choices when Hyatt properties or Hilton and Marriott standard awards aren’t workable.

For hotels, don’t limit your search to the most aspirational property in town. During Christmas week, a conveniently located Hyatt Place, Hampton by Hilton or Holiday Inn could save you hundreds of dollars per night. That’s still an effective use of points even if it isn’t a location you’ll be posting photos of for years.

Our Take

Stop Chasing the “Perfect” Holiday Award Redemption

Our approach to last-minute holiday award travel is simple: Availability matters more than theoretical sweet spots. A 12,500-point flight isn’t useful if there are no seats available at that price on the day you need to travel. If spending 25,000 or 30,000 points gets you home for Christmas while the cash ticket costs hundreds of dollars, that can still be a practical use of points.

We prefer setting a personal minimum value for our points rather than refusing to book anything that doesn’t qualify as a spectacular redemption. This is especially important if your trip isn’t optional. Visiting family over Thanksgiving may never produce the same cents-per-point value as a long-haul business-class award, but avoiding a large holiday airfare expense is still worthwhile.

We’d also rather take an inconvenient flight when the schedule permits it than unnecessarily double the points cost. An early-morning departure, Christmas Day flight or Saturday return after Thanksgiving can save thousands of points per traveler, and those savings multiply quickly for families.

Repositioning can help as well, but holiday travel is one time when we’d be more conservative about complicated self-connections. Winter weather, full flights and peak airport crowds can turn a clever positioning strategy into a major headache, so build substantial buffers and make sure the savings justify the added risk.

Book First, Improve Later

Our preferred search process is to start with your nonnegotiables and make everything else flexible. If you can’t move your dates because of work or school, broaden your airports or destination. If grandma’s house is the nonnegotiable destination, move the dates, consider less convenient flight times and check alternate airports.

If you’re simply looking for a holiday vacation and the destination isn’t important, reverse the traditional planning process entirely. Instead of choosing a destination and then searching for awards, search for award availability and let it determine where you go. If your goal is spending Christmas somewhere warm, there are plenty of destinations that satisfy that requirement. Finding the award first can open up a destination you hadn’t previously considered.

When you find a workable option, compare the total points, taxes and fees against the cash fare, check relevant partner programs and verify the cancellation rules. If the redemption clears the minimum value you’re comfortable receiving and gets you where you need to be, don’t worry that someone else booked the same flight for fewer points months ago.

And when the program’s cancellation rules make it practical, consider booking the acceptable option first and continuing to search. Award inventory can change close to departure, but additional availability is never guaranteed. Having a confirmed booking removes the pressure while still giving you an opportunity to improve your itinerary if something better appears.

You can’t book yesterday’s award space. Your points exist to reduce the cost of trips you want to take, and holiday travel is one of the clearest examples of when a practical redemption can be more useful than a flashy one.