Business class seemed out of reach for my family of 4 — until we found an easier way to find the right deals
The tool PointsYeah helped us find the best business class and flight upgrades to book with credit-card points. My family saved over $12,000.
Blythe Chadim, a mother of four, initially thought it would be impossible to secure business-class seats for her family using their credit-card points. However, they discovered a method to uncover better deals through a search tool. The family wanted to upgrade to business-class seats for their flights from Dallas to Scotland via London, but were hesitant due to the high cost.
Previously, their children suffered on a 10-hour economy flight to Scotland, leading to meltdowns. For their subsequent trip, they aimed to avoid the same travel turmoil and considered upgrading seats. Their primary goal was business class, but they couldn't afford more than $10,000 on upgrades, so they opted to use credit-card points.
Initially, they encountered challenges as credit-card travel portals often don't show all available flights with points, and airlines limit tickets for point redemptions, making it difficult to find suitable deals for their group. After much research, they turned to a search tool called PointsYeah, which helped them find suitable flights by setting travel alerts and filtering options based on their credit-card points and family needs.
The tool proved useful, allowing them to receive email alerts when flights meeting their criteria became available. With PointsYeah's free version, they could set up to four alerts, but they upgraded to a yearly plan for $120 to set up to 32 alerts. This enabled them to search by country rather than specific airports, providing greater flexibility.
They kept their departure city open to any location in the US and their arrival airport flexible between Krakow and Warsaw. The family secured upgraded seats by converting credit-card points to miles on different airlines, including KLM operated by Air France and Air Canada operated by SWISS. The outbound leg of their journey cost $2,526.80 and 544,250 points, while the return leg cost $660 and 280,000 points.
In total, they spent $2,526.80 and 544,250 points for their family of four. While they would use points again, they acknowledged that if they had purchased upgraded seats with cash, it would have been significantly more expensive.
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