Points Path is a browser extension that adds award prices in points and miles next to the cash fares in a Google Flights search, then flags whether cash or points is the better deal on each flight. The free version covers Alaska, American, Delta, JetBlue and United; a paid Pro plan adds Air Canada, Avianca, Virgin Atlantic and other international programs, plus price alerts and a points calendar. If you already plan trips in Google Flights and hold points in any of those programs, the free tier is worth installing today.
Here's how it works, what each plan costs, which programs it covers and what the company says it does with your data, all from Points Path's own site, pricing page and privacy policy.
How Points Path Works
You search at flights.google.com the way you normally would. As the cash results load, Points Path runs the same search with each airline program it covers, asking for the price in points or miles, and drops those award prices into Google's results. Spinners show while it works.
Three things happen on the results page:
- A deal call on every flight. Points Path marks whether using miles is a good or great deal, or whether you should pay cash. If a flight isn't available with points, it says so.
- Transfer partners in one click. The "i" icon under an award price opens a popup listing every airline program that can book that flight, along with the credit card points that transfer to those airlines. The free version also flags when a transfer bonus is in effect, which matters if you're weighing a transfer bonus against a cash fare.
- A booking link. Click a flight and you get Google's normal booking page plus a link to book with points or miles on the airline's site.
You can also search up to five origin or destination airports per field, and city codes work, so "New York" pulls in LGA, JFK and EWR. If you're newer to the search side, our Google Flights guide for points travelers pairs well with this.
How It Decides Cash or Points
This is the part to understand before you trust the arrows. Points Path says its algorithm checks pricing on thousands of flights a day to set a median value for each program's miles. It converts each award price into a cash equivalent using that value, adds taxes and fees, and compares the result with the cash fare.
The current medians it publishes include 1.25 cents per mile for United, 1.10 for Delta, 1.30 for American, 1.50 for Alaska and 1.35 for JetBlue. The company says that in the near future these values will shift up and down daily based on ongoing pricing data.
Say a flight costs $300 in cash or 20,000 United miles plus $6 in taxes. At the 1.25-cent median, Points Path would count the award as $250 plus $6 and compare that $256 with the $300 fare, which puts the miles ahead. That comparison holds if you value your miles near that median. If you value them higher, you'll want your own numbers, and user-adjustable valuations are a Pro feature.
Which Programs It Covers
The free Standard plan prices awards in five programs: Alaska, American, Delta, JetBlue and United.
Pro (and the Founders Club tier) adds Aer Lingus, Aeromexico, Air Canada, Air France/KLM, Avianca, Emirates, Etihad, Qantas, Qatar, TAP Air Portugal, Turkish, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia. Points Path says every tier includes domestic and international flights on the airlines themselves and on their partner airlines.
That split decides the plan. If you move bank points into Air Canada, Air France/KLM, Avianca or Virgin Atlantic, those programs are on the Pro list, and the free tier prices only the five U.S. programs. If a flight shows "No awards found," Points Path says it could mean no award space in its covered programs, an airline it doesn't support yet, or an error; the small "i" icon explains which.
Pricing and Plans
Points Path's pricing page lists three plans:
- Standard: free. The five U.S. programs, deal arrows, bank transfer partners and true roundtrip points pricing.
- Alerts: $34.99 billed annually. The same five programs, plus 10 Flight Alerts and one Flex Alert.
- Pro: $99.99 billed annually, or $9.99 billed monthly. Every program on the list, free and Pro, plus 30 Flight Alerts and three Flex Alerts, the Points Wallet, a seven-day points calendar, Delta Amex 15% and United credit card discount pricing, a Lufthansa First Class dashboard and user-adjustable valuations.
Every plan, including the free one, comes with trials of two outside services: Dollar Flight Club Premium+ (six months with Pro, three months with the other plans, for new users) and HotelSlash (12 months with Pro plus up to $30 off a first prepaid booking of $150 or more, three months with the others).
On refunds, the pricing page offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on annual plans and a seven-day guarantee in the first month of monthly plans, requested by email. The site's Terms of Use, last revised September 13, 2024, say refunds aren't provided for any reason. If the guarantee matters to you, email within the window and keep the reply.
Founders Club, which includes everything in Pro plus a private Facebook group, monthly AMAs with the founder, priority support and 60 days of early access to new features, isn't open to new members. Points Path says it's capped at 10% of users.
The Pro Features Worth Paying For
Flight Alerts track a specific one-way award you've found and email you when its points price changes, or when a flight with no award space becomes bookable. Points Path checks tracked flights several times a day. Alerts are one-way for now; the company says round-trip alerts are coming.
Flex Alerts are the more interesting tool. Instead of one flight, you set a route, travel date, maximum points per passenger, preferred airlines or bank programs, departure times and stops, and Points Path emails you when a matching award appears.
The seven-day calendar shows the best points prices three days either side of a one-way search date, currently for American, Alaska, Delta, JetBlue, United, Qantas, Virgin Australia and Etihad.
Card discount pricing lets Delta Amex and United cardholders toggle their card's award discount pricing on or off in search results.
Browsers and Devices
Points Path officially supports Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Brave and Arc on desktop, plus Safari on iPhone and iPad through its App Store app. It says Android devices don't support browser extensions. Two setup rules: Google Flights has to be set to English (United States), and you need the main flights.google.com site rather than a regional version. Any currency works.
Privacy and Data
Points Path is made by Tripsight, Inc., and its privacy policy was last revised September 13, 2024. Here's what it says:
It collects your name, email address and home airport when you register, and uses Google Analytics cookies. Payments run through Stripe, which receives your card details; the policy says card information is stored with Stripe and not kept internally. Your name and email go to Kit to run the mailing list, which may include affiliate links. Personal information is kept until you ask in writing for it to be deleted, and the company says it currently does not sell personal information.
The Points Wallet, which tracks your loyalty balances, doesn't require sharing your airline logins, according to Points Path. It updates your balance in the background when you visit an airline's site with the extension active, and you can switch it off in the extension settings. The privacy policy also says Tripsight intends to collect information such as names, frequent flyer numbers and mileage balances through airline APIs in the future, without collecting login credentials.
Who Should Install It, and Who Should Pay
Install the free version if you search in Google Flights and hold points with Alaska, American, Delta, JetBlue or United, or in a bank program that transfers to them. It costs nothing, the transfer partner popup alone saves a pile of tab-switching, and the deal arrows give you a fast first read on whether an award makes sense.
Pay for Pro if you collect transferable points and book through Air Canada, Avianca, Air France/KLM, Virgin Atlantic or the Gulf carriers, since those are Pro programs, or if Flex Alerts would replace hours of manual searching. Alerts at $34.99 fits someone who only wants tracking on the big five U.S. programs. For searches across programs beyond Points Path's list, compare it with the tools in our award search tools roundup and our Seats.aero review before you pay for anything.
Sources
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