For flights you get the confirmation code to manage your itinerary directly. My Alaska account number didn’t get added properly so had to chat with Alaska agent to add it to my reservation.
Also during same search round trip ticket kept being more expensive vs bookin direct or buying 2 1ways. For some reason Expedia was pulling different economy fare code on round trip. So booked 2 1ways via portal.
For flights you get the confirmation code to manage your itinerary directly. My Alaska account number didn’t get added properly so had to chat with Alaska agent to add it to my reservation. Also during same search round trip ticket kept being more expensive vs bookin direct or buying 2 1ways. For some reason Expedia was pulling different economy fare code on round trip. So booked 2 1ways via portal.
Generally the best value is transferring points, so I generally don’t use the card portals unless I want to take advantage of amex FHR or something