Show HN: Travel Hacking Toolkit – Points search and trip planning with AI

I use points and miles for most of my travel. Every booking comes down to the same decision: use points or pay cash? To answer that, you need award availability across multiple programs, cash prices, your current balances, transfer partner ratios, and the math to compare them. I got tired of doing it manually across a dozen tabs.

This toolkit teaches Claude Code and OpenCode how to do it. 7 skills (markdown files with API docs and curl examples) and 6 MCP servers (real-time tools the AI calls directly).

It searches award flights across 25+ mileage programs (Seats.aero), compares cash prices (Google Flights, Skiplagged, Kiwi.com, Duffel), pulls your loyalty balances (AwardWallet), searches hotels (Trivago, LiteAPI, Airbnb, Booking.com), finds ferry routes across 33 countries, and looks up weird hidden gems near your destination (Atlas Obscura).

Reference data is included: transfer partner ratios for Chase UR, Amex MR, Bilt, Capital One, and Citi TY. Point valuations sourced from TPG, Upgraded Points, OMAAT, and View From The Wing. Alliance membership, sweet spot redemptions, booking windows, hotel chain brand lookups.

5 of the 6 MCP servers need zero API keys. Clone, run setup.sh, start searching.

Skills are, as usual, plain markdown. They work in OpenCode and Claude Code automatically (I added a tiny setup script), and they'll work in anything else that supports skills.

PRs welcome! Help me expand the toolkit! :)

https://github.com/borski/travel-hacking-toolkit

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callumprentice 38 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

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 35 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Oh man, do I hear that. I suspect you’ll like this; let me know what you think! Feedback greatly appreciated
	▲	Aboutplants 28 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Spoiler alert, it’s basically a scam

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SFO_SIN 20 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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

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borski 14 minutes ago | parent [-]

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!

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SFO_SIN 9 minutes ago | parent [-]

> I just booked biz class flights to Scandinavia in August for 140k pts.

> 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.

	▲	borski 3 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		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. :)

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hkotcherlakota 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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

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zephyreon 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Just sent this to my partner. He’s super into travel hacking and this will be a nice add to his toolkit.

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jaeyoungkim 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Excellent stuff, excited to try it out for an upcoming trip.

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esafak 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Claude itself advertises this application. https://claude.com/resources/use-cases/create-a-daily-travel...

	▲	borski 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		For creating an itinerary, for sure! 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' :)