I get asked constantly how I actually find award flights, because staring at an airline’s award chart and hoping for the best is not a strategy.
For years I bounced between a handful of tools, checking each one manually, comparing screenshots, losing time I could’ve spent actually booking a trip.
Roame changed that for me, and if you’re just getting started with points and miles, it’s the first tool I point people to.
What Roame Actually Does
Roame is a real-time search engine built specifically for award availability. Instead of guessing which dates might have open seats, or digging through an airline’s own clunky search tool, you plug in your route, and it pulls live availability across close to 200 airlines. It covers flights and hotels both, so you’re not juggling separate tools for each half of your trip.
The part that sold me early on was how much time it saves. What used to take me an hour of manual checking now takes a few minutes.
Getting Started
Creating an account is free, and you don’t need a stockpile of points to start using it. I’d actually recommend the opposite: get familiar with Roame’s search before you commit to earning a specific card or program. Seeing real award availability changes how you think about which points are actually worth collecting.
Once you’re in, searching takes three simple steps:
- Enter your origin, destination, and travel dates, same as any flight search
- Roame pulls live award availability across nearly 200 airlines and shows you the point cost instead of a cash price
- Compare programs side by side and book the one that gives you the best value for the points you have
That’s the whole shift in mindset: you’re comparing point costs across programs instead of guessing which one might work.
Using SkyView to Find Deals
One of my favorite features is SkyView, which flips the usual search around. Instead of picking a destination and hoping for deals, you tell it a region you’re interested in, and it surfaces the best redemptions available right now. This is how I’ve found some of my best-value bookings. I wasn’t searching for anything specific; I was just browsing what was actually a good deal that week.
Setting Up Alerts
If you’ve got a specific trip in mind and the flights you want aren’t showing availability yet, set an alert. Roame will notify you the moment a seat opens up on the route and dates you’re watching. This is a much better use of your time than refreshing a search every few days out of habit, which I did plenty of before I found a tool that did it for me.
A Few Tips From My Own Use
A couple of things I’ve learned using Roame regularly:
- Search a range of dates, not just one; availability often opens up a few days on either side of your ideal travel dates
- Business and first class award seats tend to open up further out or very last minute, so don’t give up on a route after one search
- Use the hotel search alongside the flight search, since a lot of the same point currencies stretch across both
Why This Matters More Than Which Card You Have
New readers often think the card is the hard part. It’s not. The hard part is knowing where those points actually get you, and that’s exactly the gap a tool like Roame closes.
I’ve talked before about the best tools for maximizing points and miles, and Roame is consistently one I come back to first because of how current the availability data stays.
If you’ve been relying on manually checking airline websites one at a time, my guide on apps and websites built for award redemptions covers a few more tools worth having in rotation alongside it. And if business or first class seats have felt out of reach, finding business class award flights faster walks through search strategies that pair well with what Roame surfaces.
The Bottom Line
Roame took what used to be the most frustrating part of the points and miles hobby, actually finding a seat you can book, and made it something I can do in a few minutes from my phone. If you’re new to this and unsure where to start searching, this is it.
You can create a free Roame account here and start searching real award availability today.
Disclosure: I’m an affiliate of Roame, meaning I may earn a small commission if you sign up through my link, at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I actually use myself.
