How to Use MaxMyPoint
Award availability at hotels changes constantly. Dreaming of a stay at a coveted property like Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal or Alila Ventana Big Sur? Don’t give up if your first search doesn’t produce the results you want. Persistence can be the key to scoring a points stay at the hotel you have your eye on. Sometimes, setting award alerts can be helpful, too. MaxMyPoint is a tool for gauging hotel award availability. Use it to quickly check calendar availability, compare pricing across dates and set alerts for rooms that aren’t currently bookable. Let’s take a look at how to use MaxMyPoint, as well as its complementary tool MaxFHR.
What Is MaxMyPoint?
MaxMyPoint is a tool designed to help award travelers find and book rooms with credit card rewards. It covers nearly 30,000 hotels across major programs including World of Hyatt, Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy and IHG One Rewards. You can filter properties by categories like location, brand and sub-brand, and points price range. By clicking on a property, you can also get an idea of how challenging points bookings may or may not be. Each listing includes the percentage of standard availability, the typical value of 10,000 points on a booking and the cents-per-point (cpp) value you can expect from a redemption. The site also offers MaxFHR, a separate tool that is useful for finding the best prices for using credits for luxury hotel program bookings.
Pricing
MaxMyPoint has three membership levels, including a free Member tier, plus paid Gold and Platinum plans. The free plan includes one hotel alert, while Gold and Platinum increase the number of alerts and unlock deeper searches and additional features. Monthly and annual paid plans are available, with monthly plans starting at $3.99 and annual plans starting at $39.99. You can sometimes catch sales. Subscriptions can currently be canceled at any time. If deciding between plans, start with a free membership to learn how to use MaxMyPoint and determine which features are most useful for you.
How to Set Alerts
Hotel award availability changes often. Reservations get canceled. Hotels release more inventory. Anything can happen! If you have your heart set on a hard-to-book property, search often. MaxMyPoint can also help monitor availability and flag openings for you. Here's how to use MaxMyPoint to set alerts:
- Search your desired property. Click the bell icon to create an alert.
- Set the dates and details for the stay you're interested in. Depending on which membership plan you have, you can get alerts for a full stay or any day within your specified range.
- Platinum members also have access to alerts about holiday openings or daily changes (any newly available dates over the next year). They can set flexible and multi-night alerts, too.
- When the service uncovers a match for your search, it will send you a notification. The alert includes details and a link to book through the hotel's site.
How to See Hotel Calendar Availability
If you have more flexibility and just want to browse openings, MaxMyPoint’s availability calendars can also be an asset. Here’s how to use MaxMyPoint to see availability.
- Search for a destination or property.
- Narrow results with filters like location, hotel brand and sub-brand, Hyatt category and points range.
- Select a hotel to view its pricing calendar. The display includes standard award room points and the lowest available cash rates, all organized by date.
- You can click through each month and/or filter by payment type.
- Switch to list view to find the lowest and highest point redemptions available. You'll also be able to see the quantity of room types available.
- This can help you start to build a trip specifically around available dates, rather than waiting for a date that may never open.
- You can also use filters to pinpoint availability for programs that offer features like fifth-night-free benefits on eligible award stays and more.
What Is MaxFHR?
MaxFHR is a separate hotel-search tool built for those with access to American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts (FHR) and The Hotel Collection (THC). This can help those who hold cards like The Platinum Card® From American Express and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express make the best use of their premium hotel credits. Use it to find a loyalty-eligible Hyatt or Hilton, for example. Or, use it to uncover an aspirational boutique hotel. The site has cataloged over 3,000 eligible properties, and the homepage displays some of the cheapest single-night rates at them. Here's how to use MaxMyPoint’s MaxFHR tool:
- Search by destination.
- Narrow your results with filters for your desired program (FHR or THC), price range and more.
- Click on a property to view more details—including the calendar date of its lowest price—and to scroll through the pricing calendar.
- Note that prices are in USD and reflect the rate for a room for two adults before taxes and fees. Prices may also not be the most current, but this is a starting point before browsing final pricing through the American Express Travel® portal.
- Similar to MaxMyPoint, you can also click the bell icon to set alerts.
How to Use MaxMyPoint: ToP Thoughts
Award availability changes by the moment, and MaxMyPoint is a good reminder of that. But once you know how to use MaxMyPoint, it can be a helpful discovery and monitoring tool before you head to the final booking site. If you’re new to the tool, play around with the free plan to decide which paid version might be most useful for you. As with any type of alert and search service, you will still need to confirm final availability and pricing directly with the hotel or travel program. And once you get an alert for the award you want, move fast. The most coveted award availability doesn't stick around for long. Have you used MaxMyPoint or MaxFHR? Let us know your thoughts over in the ToP Facebook group.
