Check out "the Points Guy" and his website..

1. As much as possible, travel on points, not $$$.

2. Book through a partner..

A while back I went to San Diego, and used my Iberia membership (transferred points from a bank credit card), and it was fewer points than the actual plane logo (American), and double bonus - it was business class!

Most of the Airline groups have a few headliner partners, but then some junior ones, that are barely on the radar in North America...but each plane has a floating number of seats assigned to them...

So that AC plane travelling from Toronto to Los Angeles, also has United, etc., seats on it...and very often from a frequent flier perspective, can be had for a fraction of the number of points the actual planes' brand will charge for the exact same seat..

The weird thing? the 10:10 AM flight from YYZ to LAX on AC will be "sold out", or cost an insane amount of cash, with zero reward seats available...but the exact same plane booked though United will.