While Trivago covers major hotel sites, I sometimes find “shady” small sites often times offer better prices for hotels. I’ve been using super.com and vio.com and they seems great.
Another complication is credit card companies’ own portal. E.g. we need to take into account Amex’s FHR or Capital One’s premier collection. They offer credits and sometimes special “stay two nights, one night free” stuff. If we are in the credit card game, then there’s also “I have X credits in the first half of the year so it’s free” situation (e.g. Hilton resort credit).
In my personal instance I actually have added the list of Chase The Edit as well as AmEx’s FHR/HC hotels. The problem is there’s no easy way to to search AmEx/Chase for those.
I’ve never booked on super.com usually because I’m not into the “any room, run of the house” that usually requires, but please lmk if I’m missing something!
And please, I am very open to PRs that improve it. :)
callumprentice 3 hours ago [-]
As someone who do the whole mileage actual thing for many years (millions of Chase and Amex points) but also a family and a full time job - IE 3 seats vs 1 and can’t leave for a trip at the drop of a hat - I’m always astonished by how worthless my miles seem to be.
I’m not convinced it’s all one big scam but a teensie bit hopeful your solution can help. Looking forward to trying. Thank you.
borski 3 hours ago [-]
Oh man, do I hear that. I suspect you’ll like this; let me know what you think! Feedback greatly appreciated
Aboutplants 3 hours ago [-]
Spoiler alert, it’s basically a scam
hkotcherlakota 4 hours ago [-]
Nice work :)
There's such a huge world of agentic automation out there outside of the hype cycle that is OpenClaw. Glad to see you putting this out there
zephyreon 4 hours ago [-]
Just sent this to my partner. He’s super into travel hacking and this will be a nice add to his toolkit.
SFO_SIN 2 hours ago [-]
good idea, but would've been useful 10 years ago when points and the churning game were peak.
in 2026, the optimal strategy is now:
- "want first, buy first" (pay cash when you want business class) and,
- "team cash back" for credit cards without playing the coupon book game
not worth the effort to optimize 1.5 vs 2.0 cent redemption unless it's a hobby
borski 2 hours ago [-]
Nope. I just booked biz class flights to Scandinavia in August for 140k pts.
Cash was about $7k for the same flights.
In part, the reason I built this wasn't exactly to optimize 1.5cpp vs 2cpp, although that can be useful too... but rather to help me make the choice between using points vs. cash. (which, yes, is based on the cpp value).
But if you don’t find it useful, I’d love that feedback too!
chronic29521 1 minutes ago [-]
> Nope. I just booked biz class flights to Scandinavia in August for 140k pts.
Seems unlikely you paid 70k points for single passenger, round-trip business class.
70k points for one-way business class is an okay deal. It's usually 100k points for one-way business class.
So then it's 140k points round trip + $600+ fees, vs $2900 cash, which is not really that good of a deal.
SFO_SIN 2 hours ago [-]
> I just booked biz class flights to Scandinavia in August for 140k pts.
August 5 to 12, Turkish Airlines, lie-flat business class all legs, round trip, Los Angeles to Istanbul to Oslo
points game is over, man.
but again, if it's a hobby and you like searching, winning, and finding a good deal, then sure. that has value.
borski 2 hours ago [-]
Thanks for proving my point, as I was booking for 2pax, which is about $3500/pax indeed. And the 140k pts was total for both (+ ~$1200 total for fees, etc., in the interest of full disclosure).
I was booking over 3 weeks, late August to early September, and I booked on KLM/AF. I had specific date ranges I needed to hit.
Again, you don't have to like it. That's fine.
But consider that "I think points are nonsense" isn't the person this was built for. :)
SFO_SIN 1 hours ago [-]
> Thanks for proving my point, as I was booking for 2pax, which is about $3500/pax indeed. And the 140k pts was total for both (+ ~$1200 total for fees, etc., in the interest of full disclosure).
Again, sounds like you're trying too hard to justify 2 cpp vs 3 cpp.
Cash price $2,900/pax including fees, Aug 19 to Sep 9 (21 days), Turkish airlines lie-flat business round trip with nice short 1h30m layover at a brand new airport.
Versus your 70k points + $600 cash fees per person?
Especially with kids, or with high income, you stop caring about $1,000/person and care more about simplicity or having the trip vs not (e.g., departing on Friday cash vs Wednesday points)
And if one is rich with points (1 million+), then one should have no problem spending 250k points one-way business on the date of their choice. Otherwise, they can't consume their point balance.
borski 1 hours ago [-]
Okay. Like I said, you don’t have to like it.
I was happy with the deal I found because my goal was saving cash, and using points I already had. I am not trying to prove a point past that.
$600/pax is a lot less than $2900/pax. Saving $4600 total to use 140k points is, indeed, very useful for me and a lot of other people.
You have other desires and needs. Cool. You could also build those into your request, but like I said: I don’t see the point you’re trying to make other than “I don’t want to like this tool because I don’t like points in general,” which is fine.
Do your thing! And I’ll do mine. :)
0wis 22 minutes ago [-]
Related indirectly : Turkish airlines hub (Istanbul airport) is a scam. Everything there costs at least twice the price it should. Especially food which is basically what everyone does during layover. Think 30€ for a burger or a kebab.
« Brand new » is not an argument by itself.
Business is a must, or at least booking a lounge.
chronic29521 3 minutes ago [-]
> Everything there costs at least twice the price it should. Especially food which is basically what everyone does during layover.
Business class passengers don't pay for food. They are eating free buffet in the lounge.
chronc6393 58 minutes ago [-]
lol you conveniently left out 50% of the ticket fees
borski 53 minutes ago [-]
$600/pax (which I disclosed) is hardly 50% of the ticket fees, which were, as I mentioned, $3500/pax or so otherwise.
jaeyoungkim 4 hours ago [-]
Excellent stuff, excited to try it out for an upcoming trip.
While Trivago covers major hotel sites, I sometimes find “shady” small sites often times offer better prices for hotels. I’ve been using super.com and vio.com and they seems great.
Another complication is credit card companies’ own portal. E.g. we need to take into account Amex’s FHR or Capital One’s premier collection. They offer credits and sometimes special “stay two nights, one night free” stuff. If we are in the credit card game, then there’s also “I have X credits in the first half of the year so it’s free” situation (e.g. Hilton resort credit).
I like your inclusion of Obscura. I have a blog post of how I pick where to go to: https://blog.yanda.rocks/posts/how-i-plan-my-trips/ and my hope is one day I could automate that.
I’ve never booked on super.com usually because I’m not into the “any room, run of the house” that usually requires, but please lmk if I’m missing something!
And please, I am very open to PRs that improve it. :)
I’m not convinced it’s all one big scam but a teensie bit hopeful your solution can help. Looking forward to trying. Thank you.
There's such a huge world of agentic automation out there outside of the hype cycle that is OpenClaw. Glad to see you putting this out there
in 2026, the optimal strategy is now:
- "want first, buy first" (pay cash when you want business class) and,
- "team cash back" for credit cards without playing the coupon book game
not worth the effort to optimize 1.5 vs 2.0 cent redemption unless it's a hobby
Cash was about $7k for the same flights.
In part, the reason I built this wasn't exactly to optimize 1.5cpp vs 2cpp, although that can be useful too... but rather to help me make the choice between using points vs. cash. (which, yes, is based on the cpp value).
But if you don’t find it useful, I’d love that feedback too!
Seems unlikely you paid 70k points for single passenger, round-trip business class.
70k points for one-way business class is an okay deal. It's usually 100k points for one-way business class.
So then it's 140k points round trip + $600+ fees, vs $2900 cash, which is not really that good of a deal.
> Cash was about $7k for the same flights.
Cash price US$3,500
https://www.google.com/travel/flights/s/64QhvwAzsAGp8NUA7
August 5 to 12, Turkish Airlines, lie-flat business class all legs, round trip, Los Angeles to Istanbul to Oslo
points game is over, man.
but again, if it's a hobby and you like searching, winning, and finding a good deal, then sure. that has value.
I was booking over 3 weeks, late August to early September, and I booked on KLM/AF. I had specific date ranges I needed to hit.
Again, you don't have to like it. That's fine.
But consider that "I think points are nonsense" isn't the person this was built for. :)
Again, sounds like you're trying too hard to justify 2 cpp vs 3 cpp.
Cash price $2,900/pax including fees, Aug 19 to Sep 9 (21 days), Turkish airlines lie-flat business round trip with nice short 1h30m layover at a brand new airport.
https://www.google.com/travel/flights/s/fewZVhBFrtMTn7WQ6
Versus your 70k points + $600 cash fees per person?
Especially with kids, or with high income, you stop caring about $1,000/person and care more about simplicity or having the trip vs not (e.g., departing on Friday cash vs Wednesday points)
And if one is rich with points (1 million+), then one should have no problem spending 250k points one-way business on the date of their choice. Otherwise, they can't consume their point balance.
I was happy with the deal I found because my goal was saving cash, and using points I already had. I am not trying to prove a point past that.
$600/pax is a lot less than $2900/pax. Saving $4600 total to use 140k points is, indeed, very useful for me and a lot of other people.
You have other desires and needs. Cool. You could also build those into your request, but like I said: I don’t see the point you’re trying to make other than “I don’t want to like this tool because I don’t like points in general,” which is fine.
Do your thing! And I’ll do mine. :)
« Brand new » is not an argument by itself. Business is a must, or at least booking a lounge.
Business class passengers don't pay for food. They are eating free buffet in the lounge.
This is more about handling travel point hacking, credit card points and their transfer partners, comparing cash vs point prices, etc.
Plus, I like Atlas Obscura more than general internet searches for 'what to do' :)