How to Fly Abroad for 50,000 Points or Less
Tl;dr: Despite rising prices, there are still realistic paths to long-haul international flights for 50,000 points or less round-trip, including cheap cash fares, a few low-fee award programs, recurring promos, and deal alert services.
LazyPoints is all about easy, valuable points travel for normal people. International travel wasn’t even on my radar growing up, but thanks to a few simple ways to get abroad with points, now my wife and I take multiple trips each year without breaking the bank or going crazy looking for needle-in-a-haystack “sweet spots.”
That matters more now, because airfares are rising and award tickets increasingly come with painful cash fees. But it’s still possible to travel without a boatload of points or shelling out hundreds of dollars. The following are my favorite realistic paths to booking long-haul international flights (e.g. Europe, Asia, South America) for under 50,000 points round-trip with modest fees, a relatively simple search and booking process, and availability that doesn’t require a minor miracle to find.
Lazy Redemptions Under 50,000 Points
Book Cheap Cash Fares with Points
You don’t need any points transfer gymnastics to book a flight for under 50k points—you just need to find a good cash deal. Go to Google Flights Explore and type in a continent like “Europe” or “South America.” If you can find a deal for under $500, you can probably book it with fewer than 50k points. These deals aren’t everywhere these days, but I was able to find flights from my home airport to Rome and Cartagena for $500 or less.
If you have Chase or Capital One points, you can simply book with cash and use points to cover the purchase. Points are worth 1¢ each, so a $500 flight requires 50k points.
If you have Amex, Citi, or Wells Fargo points, you can book through their respective travel portals. Points are generally worth 1¢ each, but there’s a catch: the prices don’t always align 100% with the cash price you see elsewhere, so you can only book a trip under 50k points if you can find it under $500 in the portal you’re using.
Bilt points, though, go even farther. Because Bilt points are worth 1.25¢ each when redeemed for travel through Bilt, with 50k Bilt points you can book flights costing up to $625. With that bonus, 50k Bilt points could also take me to dozens of destinations in Europe and South America, including Paris, Venice, and Lima.
Focus on Programs with Award Chart Value
American Airlines AAdvantage and Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards are two of the rare programs that can still get you to Europe for under 50,000 points round-trip without waiting for a flash sale or transfer bonus.
Unfortunately, those deals aren’t available every day from every airport (in fact, Atmos awards tend to be much pricier from the West Coast). Although both American and Alaska make it easy to conduct broad calendar searches to find the best deals, some seasonality and fuel surcharges imposed by certain airline partners can make finding the best deals a bit more complicated than I’d like. With a search tool like Roame or Seats.aero, though, it may be possible to quickly find your way to routes and dates with under-50k pricing and low fees. Although these cost about $15 for a one-month premium subscription, it may be worth it for the ability to search numerous dates and destinations simultaneously for the best deal.
Wait for Recurring Promos
If you have Bilt or Alaska Atmos points, you don’t need to memorize award charts or scour booking platforms to get a good deal—just mark your calendar.
Alaska’s Global Getaways are turning into monthly deals as part of Member’s Day, special offers on the first Wednesday of each month. The first Member’s Day deal included round-trip pricing to Helsinki, Tahiti, and Bangkok for under 50k points round-trip, while past deals under 50k have included destinations like Hokkaido, Buenos Aires, Dublin, and Fiji.
Bilt, meanwhile, offers Bilt Rent Day on the first of each month, often bringing big transfer bonuses that can make otherwise-pricy redemptions more attainable. Bilt’s June Rent Day transfer bonus to TAP Air Portugal made it possible to fly round-trip to Europe for 47,000 Bilt points or less, depending on your Bilt status.
(The first of the month also sees Flying Blue Promo Rewards, while Singapore Spontaneous Escapes drop mid-month. These deals usually aren’t widely available, low-fee, or easy to book, but can present a deal from time to time.)
Deal Alerts
Of course, the easiest way to fly for under 50k points is to have someone find the deals for you. Even when the going rate is higher, a discount or flash sale can make sub-50k redemptions possible. That’s where a deal-alert service like Thrifty Traveler can help by identifying excellent deals and delivering them to your inbox with booking instructions.
In fact, Thrifty Traveler reached out to me recently and suggested writing about easy ways to book trips with fewer than 50k points, and I was immediately annoyed because how had I not covered that yet? Affordable and simple redemptions is classic LazyPoints. It was also a fitting idea to come from Thrifty Traveler, because my cheapest points bookings to date have come from their deal alerts: Italy, Tokyo, and New Zealand for 50k or less, plus Zurich and Tokyo trips that came out just slightly above that after paying extra for legroom or booking flexibility.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take all those trips, and I’ve had to watch many more deal alerts pass me by entirely (I’ve asked, but I cannot actually take infinite PTO). Since March, I’ve gotten some great round-trip offers in my inbox:
Taiwan for 30k Delta SkyMiles
Hong Kong for 30k Delta SkyMiles
Australia and New Zealand for 50k Delta SkyMiles
Dublin for 34k Delta SkyMiles
Rio and São Paulo for 44k American AAdvantage miles
Seoul for 48-50k Flying Blue or Virgin points after transfer bonuses
Those prices were based on my home airport of San Francisco, but most of those deals were available at similar prices from airports around the country.
I’ve tried a few deal alert services, but Thrifty Traveler is my favorite for the amount of deals they find and how easy they make the booking process (for instance by identifying when transfer bonuses or credit card discounts can make a deal especially enticing and providing step-by-step booking guidance). At a time when redeeming points is getting harder, it’s nice to see incredible values just drop into my inbox.
This isn’t a sponsored post, but if you sign up through my affiliate link, you can save $20 on your first year and LazyPoints may earn a commission—thanks for your support! For a more detailed breakdown, you can read my full review.
Lazy Take 🦥
You don’t need a six-figure points balance or a secret points playbook to explore the cuisine, culture, and history of a far-off land. Whether through simple cash-based bookings, monthly promos, low-cost award charts, or getting deals sent right to your inbox, there are still good options to fly abroad for 50,000 points or less.
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