Collecting travel rewards is about more than just fancy lie-flat business class seats to Asia and Europe. Sometimes you just want to book a quick jaunt to Grandma’s house a couple states away for Thanksgiving — or maybe a weekend getaway to the nearest beach for a mental recharge.
Award travel has changed. You don’t need to stack up a whole lot of points—instead, you can book your next free trip for 5,000 miles or even less. PointsYeah makes these flights easy to find. Here’s how it works.
How to find 5,000-mile awards with PointsYeah
To begin our search for these 5K-point awards, we began with the Daydream Explorer tool. Its interactive map and extensive filters make it simple to get inspiration about possible trips. The tool is an excellent way to unearth great flight deals to just about everywhere.
You’ll find Daydream Explorer in the menu on the left side of the home page.
Click it, and you’ll be brought to a snappy interactive map. Enter your origin or destination airports, and you’ll see awards for routes to all over the world. Or, if you’re really feeling adventurous, you can search from “Anywhere” to “Anywhere.”
You can then filter the results displayed on the map by price. Enter 5,000 under the “Max Points” tab to find flights that can be booked for 5,000 points or less.
You can also filter by airline or bank program to give you a better snapshot of what you can book with the specific points you’ve got.
Which airline programs offer 5,000-mile flights?
Let’s take a look at some fun examples of 5,000-mile flights you can book with popular airline programs.
United MileagePlus
You’ll most often find the lowest-priced United Airlines awards when hopping around California — and in some cases, Western Canada. Most (not all) tend to start or end with San Francisco (SFO), a major United hub.
For example, you can fly between San Francisco (SFO) and Vancouver, BC (YVR) for 5,000 United miles and $5.60 in fees. Not bad for an 800-mile flight.
And because United is a Chase Ultimate Rewards® transfer partner, you could book 20 flights like these after earning the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card’s current welcome bonus of 100,000 points after spending $5,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening.
That’s a lot of travel for very little effort.
Delta SkyMiles
Delta is one of the rare breeds that prices a select few awards under 5,000 miles. You can typically find them all around the Northeast between Boston (BOS) and regional airports like Augusta (AUG), Adirondack (SLK), Nantucket (ACK), and more. But other routes around the U.S. occasionally pop up. Be on the lookout for Delta flash sales.
For more popular routes, be prepared to pay 5,000 miles. Here’s a route between Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and New York (JFK) for 5,000 Delta miles and $5.60 in fees.
Even better, if you’ve got a qualifying Delta credit card, you’ll get a 15% miles discount on Delta-operated award flights. That means you’d pay a mere 4,250 miles for the above seat.
American Airlines AAdvantage
American Airlines is considerably generous with its presence of 5,000-mile routes. Flights priced this low tend to have a travel distance of 500 miles or less.
For example, a 453-mile flight from Detroit (DTW) to Philadelphia (PHL) costs 5,000 AA miles and $5.60 in fees.
If your upcoming AA trip is under 500 miles, you’ve got a decent chance at scoring a low price. Of course, it’ll help to be flexible with your travel dates.
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
Alaska Airlines has an extensive loyalty programs allowing flights below 5,000 miles on both its own metal as well as on partner airlines.
For example, here’s a flight on Alaska Airlines between Oakland (OAK) and Seattle (SEA) for 4,500 Alaska miles and $5.60 in fees.
And here’s one on partner American Airlines between Miami (MIA) and Grand Cayman (GCM) for 4,500 Alaska Airlines miles and $18.10 in fees.
For some routes (typically around the West Coast), you can find economy seats for just 4,000 miles each way.
JetBlue TrueBlue
JetBlue, known for its strong presence in the Northeast part of the US, has plenty of 5k point redemptions from major hubs.
For example, the below flight from New York (JFK) to Nashville (BNA) costs just 3,200 points and $5.60 in fees!
JetBlue is a Chase Ultimate Rewards® transfer partner. With the limited-time 100,000-point Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card’s bonus, you could book 30+ flights like these by converting your rewards into JetBlue points.
Avianca LifeMiles
Avianca LifeMiles are all-stars for sub-5,000-mile adventures — sometimes offering long-haul flights for less than half that figure.
Take a look at this gem from Los Angeles (LAX) to San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO). This 2,722-mile flight costs just 3,950 miles and $52.47 in fees.
To boot, Avianca offers a paid membership called LifeMiles+. This subscription discounts your award flights by up to 25% (depending on which airline you’re flying). If you book flights with LifeMiles even a few times each year, LifeMiles+ could be a great deal. Don’t forget current $250 to use on Capital One Travel in your first cardholder year+75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
Aside from some niche intra-Caribbean routes, Virgin Atlantic saves its 5,000-mile routes for those jumping around Europe. And there are lots to choose from, thanks to partners like SAS, Air France, and KLM.
Here’s a flight from Amsterdam (AMS) to Vienna (VIE) for 4,000 points and (an admittedly high) $93.41 in fees.
Virgin Atlantic is another Chase Ultimate Rewards® transfer partner, meaning you can mobilize the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card’s current 100,000-point bonus to book dozens of flights like these around Europe.
Spirit Airlines Free Spirit
Spirit Airlines prices its award flights similarly to JetBlue in that the amount of points you pay is directly proportional to the seat’s cash price.
As an ultra-low-cost airline, Spirit’s got plenty of inexpensive routes. Awards start at just 2,500 points. For example, a flight from Chicago (ORD) to Cancun (CUN) costs 2,500 points and $48.13 in fees.
Pretty simple, yeah?
Lots of airlines give you the ability to book a seat for 5,000 miles or less — even on international flights. They’re often shorter trips, but they can represent a great value.
PointsYeah can help you to find these flights with Daydream Explorer. And be sure to sign-up for the PointsYeah newsletter — we’ll send you an alert when we see a screaming 5,000-mile deal.
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