The 3 Best Tools for Finding Cheap Flights, Upgrades, and Award Travel

Imagine you’re cooking dinner. You wouldn’t use a chef’s knife to stir a pot of soup. Could it work? Maybe. But it’s the wrong tool for the job.

Travel tools are no different.

Google Flights, Seats.aero, Roame, and airline websites all solve different problems. Yet many travelers use them interchangeably and end up frustrated when they don’t get the results they expected.

The question isn’t which tool is best.

The question is which tool is best for the task you’re trying to accomplish.

This article breaks down the best tools for finding cheap flights and great deals. You’ll find out which tools we use most frequently and how to leverage each one to get the most out of your searches.

Google Flights: The Best Place to Start

If you’re paying cash for a flight, Google Flights should usually be your first stop. Its greatest strength isn’t finding the absolute lowest fare (although sometimes you can). But more broadly, it’s about understanding the market.

Google Flights has a pretty expansive offering of things you can do such as:

• Compare multiple airports
• View calendar pricing
• Track fare changes
• Explore destinations by budget
• Compare airlines and schedules

Before you worry about points, upgrades, or elite status, it’s important to understand the baseline cash price.

One of the strongest features is the explore section where you can search open-ended trips by inputting your departure airport and Google Flights will show you a list and map of destinations. You can then even filter down by price, airlines and stops to find the right flight.Google Flights Explore map displaying airfare prices from New York to destinations around the world.

The general idea is that every travel decision should start with value. For example, a flight that’s $300 in cash creates a very different redemption opportunity than a flight that’s $1,500.

Google Flights is usually the best place to establish that cash baseline. Its flexible-date calendar, price tracking, and filtering tools make it easier to understand what a reasonable fare looks like before comparing cash prices against points. If you’re unfamiliar with those features, our Google Flights guide explains how to use them effectively.

Seats.aero: The Fastest Way to Find Award Availability

Award travel enthusiasts often spend hours searching airline websites. This usually entails trying to maximize the cent-per-point, finding the most seamless trips and premium cabins.

For The Fare Theory, Seats.aero can reduce that process to minutes. Instead of searching route by route, Seats.aero scans airline award inventory and displays opportunities across multiple programs.

Its greatest advantage is speed.

You can quickly identify:

• Business class availability
• Long-haul award opportunities
• Last-minute premium cabin space
• Flexible date options

For travelers who value efficiency, Seats.aero is one of the most useful tools available. It’s often the first place I look when searching for premium-cabin redemptions. The platform is very intuitive to use and with the comprehensiveness of its results, it’s often the first place I look when searching for premium-cabin redemptions.

Another really awesome feature is the ability to explore deals from specific regions. For someone that might have more flexibility, there are always a ton of options when it comes to different deal and offerings.

To be honest, the free version of this tool is great, but can be a bit limited. The searches are capped at 3 months from departure, which can be more last-minute but the paid version is $9.99 a month and the value you receive by being able to search further in advance is 100% worth it in our opinion.

FlightConnections: Understanding Airline Networks

Sometimes the challenge isn’t finding award availability—it’s figuring out how to get there in the first place.

That’s where FlightConnections shines. Instead of showing prices, it visualizes airline route networks so you can instantly see how airports are connected around the world. It’s especially useful when you’re planning complex trips, searching for alternative departure airports, or trying to understand which airlines serve a destination.

With FlightConnections, you can quickly identify:

• Which airlines fly a specific route
• Every nonstop destination from an airport
• Airline hub airports and route networks
• Alternative routing options when your preferred airport doesn’t have nonstop service

For example, if you’re trying to fly to a smaller European city, FlightConnections can reveal whether it’s better to connect through Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris, or another major hub before you even begin searching for award space or cash fares.

Best for: Trip planning, discovering nonstop routes, understanding airline networks, and building better itineraries.

Airline Websites: Still Necessary

AsAs powerful as third-party search tools have become, airline websites still play an essential role in the booking process.

Award availability changes constantly, and not every search tool displays the same inventory. Some airlines restrict partner award space, while others show different availability depending on which loyalty program you’re using. It’s also common for an award search engine to find space that disappears before you’re ready to book.

Before transferring points, purchasing miles, or finalizing a redemption, always verify the itinerary directly on the airline’s website. A five-minute double-check can save you from transferring thousands of points to a program only to discover the seat is no longer available.

Third-party tools are exceptional discovery engines. The airline website is still the final source of truth.

Expert Flyer: For Serious Travelers

Most travelers will never need ExpertFlyer. Frequent travelers and aviation enthusiasts are a different story.

Unlike Google Flights or award search engines, ExpertFlyer focuses on the behind-the-scenes data airlines use to manage inventory. It gives users access to information such as:

• Upgrade inventory
• Seat maps
• Fare classes
• Flight availability alerts

If you’re chasing elite status, monitoring upgrade opportunities, or trying to understand whether a particular fare bucket is available, ExpertFlyer can provide insights that aren’t visible elsewhere.

For most travelers, however, it adds unnecessary complexity. Google Flights, Seats.aero, and Roame will cover the majority of trip planning needs, while ExpertFlyer is best viewed as a specialized tool for travelers who want to optimize every detail.

The Most Important Tool Isn’t a Website

It’s easy to believe the best travelers simply know where to find hidden deals. In reality, the biggest advantage isn’t using better tools, it’s making better decisions.

A 150,000-mile business-class redemption isn’t automatically a great use of points. A $200 flight isn’t always the best value if it requires two overnight connections. Even a discounted upgrade can be a poor purchase if you don’t actually value the extra comfort.

The best travelers understand that every tool has a purpose. Google Flights helps you compare cash fares. Seats.aero and Roame help uncover award availability. FlightConnections helps you understand route networks. Airline websites confirm what you can actually book.

The tools help you find opportunities. Understanding whether those opportunities create value is what ultimately makes someone a smarter traveler.

The Fare Theory

The goal isn’t to find the most deals….the goal is to find the deals that create the most value. Thinking back to the analogy before, each tool serves its own purpose.

• Google Flights helps establish the cash baseline.
• Seats.aero helps uncover award opportunities.
• FlightConnections helps understand networks and routes.
• Airline websites confirm availability.

Together, these tools can save time, money, and points…But no tool can answer the most important question:

“Is this actually worth it?”

That’s still your job.