Thirteen days out, no plan, and we still made it to Lake Tahoe using points. In this episode I walk through exactly how I pulled off a last-minute trip: finding hotel availability with MaxMyPoint, why I booked one-way flights on two different airlines instead of a round trip, and how I thought about timing to get the best redemptions when I didn't have months to plan ahead.

What's in this episode

• How I used MaxMyPoint to search hotel award availability, instead of checking each hotel's site one by one
• What I was actually looking for when I searched availability, dates, room types, and how far I was willing to be flexible
• Why I booked one-way flights instead of a round trip, and how flying two different airlines actually got us better flights and better use of points
• How I decided which loyalty program to r ...