We believe in full transparency. Here's exactly how Award Optimizer earns money — and how it affects (or doesn't affect) our recommendations.
Award Optimizer is free to use. We earn small commissions when you click affiliate links on our site and make a booking — at no extra cost to you. These commissions help us keep the site running, the data updated, and the tools free.
Affiliate relationships do not influence our award chart data, program rankings, or editorial content. We never rank a program higher because of an affiliate arrangement — only because the CPP math says so.
We are a publisher in the CJ Affiliate network (Publisher ID 101720496). When you click a booking button on our destination or blog pages and complete a reservation, we may receive a commission from these partners:
| Partner | What They Offer | Network |
|---|---|---|
| Hotels.com | Hotel search & booking worldwide | CJ |
| Expedia | Hotels, flights, vacation packages | CJ |
| VRBO | Vacation rental homes | CJ |
| Orbitz | Hotel & flight booking | CJ |
| Travelocity | Hotel & flight booking | CJ |
| CheapTickets | Discounted flights & hotels | CJ |
We are also a partner in the Travelpayouts network (Publisher ID 706871, Project "Awardoptimizer"). Partners include:
| Partner | What They Offer | Commission Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Klook | Tours, activities & experiences worldwide | 2–5% |
| Tiqets | Museum, attraction & event tickets | 3.5–8% |
| Kiwi.com | Flight search including multi-stop routes | ~3% |
Affiliate links on this site are marked with rel="sponsored" in the HTML and typically appear as booking buttons (e.g., "Hotels.com", "Klook", "Tiqets") inside highlighted booking sections labeled Sponsored.
Award data, program rankings, and editorial analysis on Award Optimizer are never sponsored or paid for by any airline, bank, or travel company.
If you have any questions about our affiliate relationships, email us at hello@awardoptimizer.com.
Last updated: April 2026.