An award ticket is booked through an airline's frequent flyer program using miles or points. You can earn these miles/points by flying with the airline or transferring credit card points to the airline's frequent flyer program.

For example, you can redeem United Airlines miles for a United award ticket or transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United miles to book a United award ticket.

Booking award tickets maximizes your points' value, but requires effort and is subject to award availability, which we'll cover in the next section.