MilesBuzz! - Another Job Well Done at Awardplanner.com

Did you know that for $39 you can let someone else spend hours on the phone redeeming your frquent flyer miles for you?

Yvonne at Awartravel.com got us 3 round trip tickets in first class from Charleston, SC to Zurch, CH for February 2006.

My wife had spent six hours on the phone with US Air reservations, the day before, and eventually just gave up.

This is the best $39 you'll ever spend. :)

http://www.awardtravel.com/

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Please check back later.

http://www.awardplanner.com/


I guess after booking 3 first class tickets, the company realized that they can not make money doing this, therefore, site is not available anymore.

One of the best shared under the radar secrets of FT and IF
Their whole team is outstanding in coordinating award travel.
I give my full endorsement too.
They know about lesser known partnerships and the more obvious alliances.
Their assistance can help you to hard to get destinations like Sydney,AU and others.
LaDonna too is a part of that expert team.
They have received awards in the industry for her work in this FF redemption area..........

Umm, like, it's awardplanner.com (http://www.awardplanner.com)

For those new here, the award planner site is ran by our host, Randy Petersen.

um, run?

He owns it. Is that better?

Is it $39 before or after the award is booked? If it is after, I am interested.

It's before. I believe that only covers one trip, though (there's a different plan, that costs more, for booking multiple trips throughout the year). I used them in 2003 because I had some time deadlines to work with in booking tickets 330 days ahead for the Olympics, in both directions, and it was easier for them to track the deadlines and book for me. If you search here on FT, you'll see a post where a rep says they don't have access to any inventory you would not find on your own, but the initial post here would seem to contradict that.

Is it $39 before or after the award is booked? If it is after, I am interested.

I believe it is before. I recommended Awardplanner to my friends who paid but they weren't able to take advantage of service. Don't think they got a refund.

For the number of hours you can save, $39 is a great deal, but some of us like the chase involved as well, especially those that have a complicated routing request.

I was wondering why I had never heard of Awardtravel.com! When I first saw the thread title, I thought it might be commercial spam touting some brand-new website. :D

Turns out it is one of Randy's businesses, good old Award Planner, which has been around for many years and has been discussed on FT in the past. ;)

If you search here on FT, you'll see a post where a rep says they don't have access to any inventory you would not find on your own, but the initial post here would seem to contradict that.
I think the OP's experience just suggests that AwardPlanner folks know how to go about looking for seats -- something that an airline's CSRs may not know or care enough about.

Say that I call United and ask for 4 award C seats from IAD to VCE. United might just enter my cities into their computer and see what comes back. Now, United's International Awards folks are generally quite good. But I often point them in the direction of specific flights with availability, that they can't find. I assume that the hardest flights to find availability on will be the transatlantic sectors, so I start looking for seats on those flights... IAD-LHR, IAD-FRA, IAD-MUC, ORD-FRA, to VIE, EWR-FRA on SQ, etc... and build from there.

I am curious as to how AwardPlanner works. Fine, you pay the $39 up front. What kind of parameters do you have to provide them when you ask them to find award seats for you? If you give them exact days you want to travel, do they come back with alternative days if nothing is available on the specific days you want? Or do they keep checking? How often do they provide you updates of their progress? Do they book with/without confirming routing/flights with you or do they put on hold? How is their success ratio? Do they usually find what you want on the particular days you want to travel or do you usually end up going a few days before/after what you really want? Or do you end up doing the airport shuffle, taking four connections over three days to get to Europe?

I get pretty high success rates on my award bookings. For international tickets, I usually have to coach the reservation agents on alternate city pairs and partner airlines. Having school age children, my travel dates are fiexed. I usually get the dates and the routes I wanted. This summer is the first time I got only 2 out of 4 RT tickets to Asia with one-pass miles. I do enjoy the chase. I finally gave up when I realize that NW as selling UA tickets on one of the segements, a clear indication of full capacity for that segment.

How likely is it for Award Planner to get 2 more tickets for me in this situation?

I've referred my parents to them as well, with great success. AFAIK, they have access to the same inventory as a phone agent, but are excellent at suggesting alternatives (different airlines in the alliance, different routing, different airports) that the phone agent might not think of.

Yes, you could do it yourself, but for the time involved it's $$ well spent.

What kind of parameters do you have to provide them when you ask them to find award seats for you?

They provide you with an on-line form listing your preferred travel dates, and alternate travel dates. You list the names of all the travelers (might have had seating preference there, too). In my case, getting to Athens, they held 4 tickets on a routing there, but could not make a reservation for the return flights until the magical 330 days arrived. They updated me via e-mail as flights were held in both directions, in case I wanted to change anything. When the flights in both directions were satisfactory, I authorized them to book the itinerary and received the confirmations from AA. I do recall talking to them by phone once or twice, but that may have been just to give final approval to book everything as reserved.

I could see using them again if I had a complicated booking (like RTW award travel) or a routing where specific timeframes needed to be met (i.e. 330 days out). I'd likely use them for the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 because of the timeframes I'd have to work with again. Just less of a headache.

I also have some questions, do they do upgrade award? Esp Int'l coach to Business. And also how much effort will be put in? Meaning, do they try each airline once? Or do they keep calling?
I think I'm going to try it out.

AwardPlanner was also just recognized for the second year in a row by Conde Nast in the August issue.

AwardPlanner was also just recognized for the second year in a row by Conde Nast in the August issue.
Congrats! ^^

Did they give props to LaDonna again?

I haven't used AwardPlanner myself, I kinda enjoy the chase though I probably should've turned over my honeymoon trip to them ... those were alot of hours spent piece by piece constructing flight and hotel awards.

In the end I actually wound up using their standard travel agency BoardingArea.com to book my PPT-BOB flights when none of the online booking services could manage it. That experience was outstanding, by the way.

I'm using AwardPlanner right now to hunt down three OneWorld seats in J from SEA or YVR down to Oz next summer. There's three different airlines and multiple possible arrival/departure cities involved, and I think I'd throw a rod before getting it sorted out myself. LaDonna has been in communication with me and she's doing a great job. I agree, they could charge a lot more than $39 for this.

I will definitely give it a try for my next international trip and will recommend them to my girl friend.

Award Planner is the best! Our upcoming Christmas trip to Hong Kong and Shanghai would not have happened without LaDonna! She did an incredible job for us! What a discovery!!

it's nice to see so many positive experiences. Thank you all.

Just a few notes. AwardPlanner is not designed to guarantee you award redemptions. It's simply a service that performs tasks you might do if you had the time. While it is certain that the girls in that department know many tricks and have the patiences of saints to work requests over and over - there certainly can be no guarantee. They do have a very high success rate but that comes with understanding the peculiarities of these programs. I've seen a negative comment or two before and just wanted to frame any expectations here before someone assumes this service is a "lock" on your holiday plans. We're basically a frequent flyer award travel agency. If a seat is not there - it's not there, but we do take the time that you may not have to make the dozens of calls to figure out the best path for your miles and we throw in the experience of redeeming tens of thousands of awards annually. Just two weeks ago Yvonne got 4 business class tickets together to Italy in August for a member - thought to be impossible. Again patience and some smarts. One member was unhappy because in his words "I could have done that myself." If you think you can remodel your house, then don't hire a contractor. Another member wanted a refund because we could not get the exact seats and dates he wanted. If the seats aren't there - they aren't there. But the girls will put their best effort forward and for that we have to be paid for our services. You are paying for the time and knowledge that most of us do not have–not guaranteed results. Again, there are no guarantees but i can tell you that daily in their offices, they get flowers, candy and many other gifts of thanks from their customers. Almost a day does not go by where there's not something sent to them from their customers.

Boy, talk about honest advertising!

Great explanation from Randy on what to expect. No question some of us enjoy the hunt but also no question that the hunt takes time. And as any hunter knows, you don't always bag your quarry.

I have the same question as a poster above. Can awardplanner.com assist with upgrade only rewards?

It is definitely important to set expectations.

In January, I paid to have them arrange a Star Alliance first class trip from Rochester, NY to Cairo, Egypt with a stopover in Vienna, Austria on the way back to the states.

They tried... but told me that what I was asking for was impossible. That the stopover was not allowed.

I chose to not accept that answer and called up United myself. In 10 minutes I had the flights I wanted with just a one day change and also got the 3 day stopover in Vienna.

I cannot hold someone responsible for what United apparently told them... so I did not ask for my money back. (Besides, I receive much more from this website than the $39 in value)

I can say... they keep in communications with you and try to do what they can.

And I can honestly say that I believe they are disappointed when they are not able to complete a request.

William

Congrats! ^^

Did they give props to LaDonna again?

I haven't used AwardPlanner myself, I kinda enjoy the chase though I probably should've turned over my honeymoon trip to them ... those were alot of hours spent piece by piece constructing flight and hotel awards.

In the end I actually wound up using their standard travel agency BoardingArea.com to book my PPT-BOB flights when none of the online booking services could manage it. That experience was outstanding, by the way.
Is that a site owned by Randy as well ? Do the same ladies run it ? Sounds like wonderful customer service and I always like the opportunity to support Randy et. al. - THANKS

The Annual membership at 99.95 sounds like a terrific bargain - unlimited award travel planning and to quote the site - "Add family members to your itinerary and utilize their miles and points as well."

I haven't used it myself but the reaction is mixed. Certainly if you don't have the time or the interest, then by all means use the service. But like Randy said, they will do their best and that's all anyone can expect. I would think for $39 it's well worth it in terms of aggravation.

However, if you are like many FTers who find a certain satisfaction in bagging award tkts on your own, then by all means go do that. Some people prefer fishing; others prefer going to the market and the fish are there for purchase. :D

[QUOTE=Randy Petersen]it's nice to see so many positive experiences. Thank you all.............While it is certain that the girls in that department......
.....But the girls will put their best effort forward......

Mr. Petersen, I don't think "girls" is really appropriate unless they are under the age of 16... :D

P-

it's nice to see so many positive experiences. Thank you all.

This sounds like a great service, and I know exactly when I will be using it. Thanks.

Glad to see that many people have had success with this service. I may need to give it a try. Kudos to Randy! (Although I second that "girls" means females under 20 or so. :D )

As an aside, I don't chase miles and awards as much as many people here, since work never pays for my trips (even if they're work-related.) But, I love the "thrill of the hunt" when it comes to timesharing trading. Now I'm wondering if a service like Awardplanner would work for timeshare owners who don't have the time to search online for that perfect trade.

Does the $39 fee cover RTW reward travel as well?

Wow. I understand that $39 covers 'a single trip' -- though I wouldn't fault Randy for imposing a surcharge on a RTW award I don't know that such a surcharge exists.. ;) (Though you might consider having them book a few other things for you besides just the flights, let them earn a little somethin' off your travels...!)

Just a thought, may be another fee options:

Initial Non-refundable fee of $10.00 and if successful and decided
to book, than a $50.00 charge.

These could mean more business for Randy. :)

problem with the last idea is that the customer finds out what the itinerary would be from the people ("the girls"...haha..sorry had to poke fun at that) who worked hard to find it, then--with this information--the customer 'cancels' the service and just books the itin by themselves, thus screwing over the company that actually did all the hard work by paying 10 bucks instead of 50.

Hi! I am a reporter at Business 2.0 magazine, and am looking for people who travel frequently for work and who may have used awardplanner.com.
If you are willing to talk to me about your experience, please email me at snigdha_sen@business2.com or call me at 415-293-4864




Did you know that for $39 you can let someone else spend hours on the phone redeeming your frquent flyer miles for you?

Yvonne at Awartravel.com got us 3 round trip tickets in first class from Charleston, SC to Zurch, CH for February 2006.

My wife had spent six hours on the phone with US Air reservations, the day before, and eventually just gave up.

This is the best $39 you'll ever spend. :)

[QUOTE=Randy Petersen]it's nice to see so many positive experiences. Thank you all.............While it is certain that the girls in that department......
.....But the girls will put their best effort forward......

Mr. Petersen, I don't think "girls" is really appropriate unless they are under the age of 16... :D

P-

I used to believe in not using the term "girls" for political correctness, but recent experiences have changed my mind. The vast majority of young women I talk to have no problem with that term. I'm talking about women that I talk to in the bars, so usually ones under 30. I'm not sure about how women over 30 feel about the term as I have a very small sample size of them.

Back to the topic, I'm glad I saw this thread about awardplanner. Next time I book an award ticket, I plan on using their services. The only award ticket i've booked was a last minute trip to AMS and that was easy to do on united.bomb. For my next trip, I want to go with my mother to two cities in Asia, and I think that would be a huge pain to try to book myself.

Hi! I am a reporter at Business 2.0 magazine, and am looking for people who travel frequently for work and who may have used awardplanner.com.
If you are willing to talk to me about your experience, please email me at snigdha_sen@business2.com or call me at 415-293-4864
FWIW I spoke to the folks at Business2.0 about some travel tips, and one of them was Award Planner -- for folks who travel alot, have lots of miles, but not the time or energy to figure out how to make the most of them.

Alas, I enjoy battling airline yield management myself so I haven't used the service. Perhaps someone that has might want to speak about it.

Cheers,
Gary

I only saw a $99 annual membership on Award Planner. Is there a one trip membership for $39 and how do you find it?

Seems great, but..

Q: Am I entitled to a refund if you can't get the award I requested?
A: No, we do not offer a refund once we've begun working on a travel request.

:rolleyes:

[QUOTE=Parkershepps]

I used to believe in not using the term "girls" for political correctness, but recent experiences have changed my mind. The vast majority of young women I talk to have no problem with that term. I'm talking about women that I talk to in the bars, so usually ones under 30. I'm not sure about how women over 30 feel about the term as I have a very small sample size of them.

.
Well, the word jumped put at me when I first read Randy's post, and I wasn't pleased.

I fully intend to use AwardPlanner again as soon as we figure out where we want to go. She can't do that for us!

I fully intend to use AwardPlanner again as soon as we figure out where we want to go. She can't do that for us!

Actually, in that case, not using AwardPlanner can be more interesting -- I called United last year with dates and a desire for an international business class ticket to somewhere for my wife's spring break, and we wound up going to New Zealand! :)

Dan

To understand anyone's use of a word really requires an understanding of their corporate culture. Here's our story.

The girls i was referring to was not even a term that i invented for them, it actually came from themselves. That group has been together for nearly seven years without turnover. Pretty hard to do these days but one of the factors for that is that as a small company - less than 50 employees, they bond, have fun on the job and enjoy a personal approach toward their work. As for the company, we've always enjoyed a rather casual work environment that fostered the idea we're all equal. Equal? Well, I help take out the trash. I clean toilet bowls in the men's room and even the ladies room from time to time. I change light bulbs and even vacuum areas that aren't my office. As well, I even take my turn to clean the kitchen. They do similar things and we're really a one level company which probably contributes greatly to the extreme low turnover we have.

Now the term "girls." I didn't invent it, they taught me the term. It came from the the girls themselves as they were joking years ago about being the "Vanna's Girls" when they were helping with the Freddie Awards (ala Vanna White). So among themselves the term "girls" sort of stuck and then i used it to refer to something they were doing with the Freddies. It stuck as well to refer to that group since again, they have been together for some time.

As well, the layout of the building contributed to it. For some reason (and i did not do the hiring, a female did) one half of the building ended up all female employees and the other half ended up all male. Kitchen, laundry room, conference room and reception separating the two halves. That as well probably contributed to the idea of the girls half and the boys half of the building.

So that's the story of the "girls." Fun in a way, not threatening and if anything representing that this is a fun, enjoyable and easy to work for company without any pretense.

Hope this helps dispel any notion that I was sexist.

[QUOTE=rhwbullhead]
Well, the word jumped put at me when I first read Randy's post, and I wasn't pleased.

[QUOTE=Randy Petersen]To understand anyone's use of a word really requires an understanding of their corporate culture. Here's our story.

Thanks for the background -- fascinating. I'm sorry that this type of thing warrants a multi paragraph response.

I am looking forward to using awardplanner now that FT has helped me accrue a lot of miles over the past year. Thanks!

Yvonne did a wonderful job for me on an international trip involving a stopover, an open jaw, and two hotel awards. I basically said "Here are my UA, AA, Marriott, and Hilton numbers, here are the dates I want to travel, I want biz class, don't care too much whether it's *A or OW, let me know the options."

She emailed me back about a day later with the whole itinerary. :) It was very much worth the $40 or whatever the fee was at the time. (This was when the annual fee was much lower but there was no per-trip option.)

Ordinarily, I'm like some of you in that I like looking for my own awards when they are available online. But I hate it when I physically have to call airlines on the phone - I mean I dread it worse that just about anything. This one involved some Asian partner airlines - not something that I could just query and book on AA.com or United.com. At least not in 2002.

Only reason I don't join them annually is because I haven't done a complicated multi-country / partner award lately. But if I ever have another one of these trips that requires manual intervention, I won't hesitate to call these guys...errr...girls and have them do the legwork.

Seems great, but..

:rolleyes:
I suggest you read posts # 36 and 37. @:-)

The "no refunds" policy is fair, because it protects the company from freeloaders. (Not that I'm suggesting that YOU are a freeloader, but.... :D )

Ordinarily, I'm like some of you in that I like looking for my own awards when they are available online. But I hate it when I physically have to call airlines on the phone - I mean I dread it worse that just about anything. This one involved some Asian partner airlines - not something that I could just query and book on AA.com or United.com. At least not in 2002.

Only reason I don't join them annually is because I haven't done a complicated multi-country / partner award lately. But if I ever have another one of these trips that requires manual intervention, I won't hesitate to call these guys...errr...girls and have them do the legwork.

Agreed. I am giving HP one shot to book my LAS-LJU trip (on NWA metal) for the DO out there. If they can't get it right, this will be the best $ I could ever consider spending.

This sounds like a great service if you enter it with the right expectations. It is just like signing up for a FFP - or isn't that what got us in this mess in the first place. ;)

Not to throw water on this fire but my experiences with award planner have not been that great. I signed up for a 1 year membership as the endorsement here on FT was amazing (99% positive or a forum... when does that happen :p ).

I tried two bookings with them, both to europe, last year and both times they came up with not being able to find anything. Both times, my dates were not flexible but I had miles in 5 different programs spanning all three major alliances and I was looking for a business or first ticket so there was some flexibility.

While i most certainly found the person i was working with to be quite knowledgeable about airlines/partners etc. I found that two things were missing. 1) i had to go on this trip or else I was flying coach (12 hrs overnight) and going straight to work. In other words, in the end, they just could not be as motivated to make it work as I could
2) They were not as creative to find things as I was, and still lacked a full breath of understanding of the possibilities of partners etc. Specifically, using my KLM miles as an example, if I want to leave from the New York area and nothing is available out of New York, then PHL, BOS, DTW, ORD, YYZ all may be possibilities (with a cheap ticket from NY RT or as an open jaw back to NY). Often, I've found people within the airlines themselves who are willing and passionate to make this type of stuff work. Most recently at AA EXP desk, i found someone who spent 1 hr. with me on the phone hammering out an award ticket for my wife to Europe that was an open jaw from YUL connecting in LHR on BA and return to NY with a cheap 1 way to YUL from EWR.

In the end, for both of these trips, I found routings myself and even found a direct EWR-AMS-xx flight for the exact times I wanted. This opened up miraculously. When awardplanner got back to me saying they could not find anything I thought all is lost. Just as an exercise in futility, thinking that it might be fun to bang my head on the wall for a while, I call both BA and KLM myself again to see if I could get them to open up a seat (no status on either airline…. Had status but expired). BOTH airlines had possibilities with KLM having the direct flights I mentions. Just left me with the feeling that they just did not try often/hard enough.

Still, i have yearly membership so I will definitely give them a shot again.

I'd give them a shot for a reasonable fee, but not prepaying a year.Too bad that there are no other options. If even pay the year if it was partially refundable on a strike out.

Nicki at AwardPlanner scored a complex YVR-HKG-SYD itinerary in CX J for me and my family using BAEC miles.

She organized a conference call with me and the BAEC agent to double-check that the flights and dates were acceptable. When the dopey agent misspelled my name on the itinerary (and I had a minor heart attack because I know BAEC treats awards as absolutely unalterable after booking, and I find their agents to be very unskilled communicators), Nicki got back on with BAEC and straightened it out. A couple of months after making the booking she got the CX seat assignments we wanted and set up Australian visas for the family. And she got me a Hilton award in SYD that I couldn't shake loose on the website.

All for $39.95 -- which is what Randy was charging for a one-trip consult last year. As I told Nicki sincerely, they could've charged $399, not $39, and I would still have found it reasonable.

$100 for a year's worth of consults is a huge bargain, I think, even if you only have one big trip annually.

To understand anyone's use of a word really requires an understanding of their corporate culture. Here's our story.

The girls i was referring to was not even a term that i invented for them, it actually came from themselves.

Not sure why people freak so much over these words. At a previous job us females decided to term ourselves "the chicks" (in a very male based field). So you had the marketing chicks, the IT chick, the phone chicks. And we were very proud of our titles, despite it scaring the guys calling us chicks in the beginning for fear of being attacked for using the phrase.

Lehava, it has to be initiated by the women. I live in a town/culture where using the term "girls" to refer to female employees can literally lead to legal action against the man who said it. It all depends on the attitude of the women; there's no predicting it, and no rulebook. That's why men, at least, freak out. I am very cautious about calling women co-workers anything except "my colleague," even those I've known for years and consider myself on good terms with!

Actually, in that case, not using AwardPlanner can be more interesting -- I called United last year with dates and a desire for an international business class ticket to somewhere for my wife's spring break, and we wound up going to New Zealand! :)

Dan

That does sound really good. Thanks to FT I have enough miles, plenty in fact. Just need a destination.

Lehava, it has to be initiated by the women. I live in a town/culture where using the term "girls" to refer to female employees can literally lead to legal action against the man who said it. It all depends on the attitude of the women; there's no predicting it, and no rulebook. That's why men, at least, freak out. I am very cautious about calling women co-workers anything except "my colleague," even those I've known for years and consider myself on good terms with!

When people get up tight about the usage of words like "girls", it seems that some people go about looking to be offended. If no offense is intended, then no offense should be taken. I think the term "girls" is used commonly as the opposite word for "guys" because the word "gals" has gone out of common usage in many areas of the country.

On the contrary, in many places South America, they refer to each other with nicknames in the workplace that explicitly describe physical attributes such as sex, race, color, weight, etc. and there is no offense taken. In fact, it is usually considered friendly.

If all people are equal, as they should be considered, why take offense when no offense is intended?

Not to throw water on this fire but my experiences with award planner have not been that great. I signed up for a 1 year membership as the endorsement here on FT was amazing (99% positive or a forum... when does that happen :p ).

I tried two bookings with them, both to europe, last year and both times they came up with not being able to find anything. Both times, my dates were not flexible but I had miles in 5 different programs spanning all three major alliances and I was looking for a business or first ticket so there was some flexibility.

While i most certainly found the person i was working with to be quite knowledgeable about airlines/partners etc. I found that two things were missing. 1) i had to go on this trip or else I was flying coach (12 hrs overnight) and going straight to work. In other words, in the end, they just could not be as motivated to make it work as I could
2) They were not as creative to find things as I was, and still lacked a full breath of understanding of the possibilities of partners etc. Specifically, using my KLM miles as an example, if I want to leave from the New York area and nothing is available out of New York, then PHL, BOS, DTW, ORD, YYZ all may be possibilities (with a cheap ticket from NY RT or as an open jaw back to NY). Often, I've found people within the airlines themselves who are willing and passionate to make this type of stuff work. Most recently at AA EXP desk, i found someone who spent 1 hr. with me on the phone hammering out an award ticket for my wife to Europe that was an open jaw from YUL connecting in LHR on BA and return to NY with a cheap 1 way to YUL from EWR.

In the end, for both of these trips, I found routings myself and even found a direct EWR-AMS-xx flight for the exact times I wanted. This opened up miraculously. When awardplanner got back to me saying they could not find anything I thought all is lost. Just as an exercise in futility, thinking that it might be fun to bang my head on the wall for a while, I call both BA and KLM myself again to see if I could get them to open up a seat (no status on either airline…. Had status but expired). BOTH airlines had possibilities with KLM having the direct flights I mentions. Just left me with the feeling that they just did not try often/hard enough.

Still, i have yearly membership so I will definitely give them a shot again.

Well I gave them another try. one ticket EWR(NYC) to ATH. Again, response from the awardplanner team that no availibility for my dates and that best they could do was one day off my desired dates. I call myself, on my second phone call, using my AA miles I'm able to get the exact dates and times I wanted out of the most convenient airport for me. In addition, the EXP agent offered me three separate unique alterante (more convoluted... like EWR-ORD-LHR-ATH) routings that were available.

YMMV

From a letter in Wendy Perrin's column in the April 2006 Conde Nast Traveler:

".....I turned to LaDonna Epler at awardplanner.com ($100 for a one year membership). Using her secret strategies, she has promptly found award seats for me and my family on convenient flights to Venice, Miami, and Rome. Next month, do your readers a favor: instead of an exotic location, put LaDonna Epler on the cover."

I just signed up with awardplanner.com last week based on the rave reviews from this forum. I called them and request an award (on Tuesday, I believe) - I then sent them an e-mail updating my request on Wednesday, and I haven't hear back anything from them at all. I will call them on Monday, but I just am disappointed that they didn't give me any updates or anything. I will try to remember to update this thread if they get their act together, but I just wanted to share this with anyone who was thinking of signing up with them.

...I then sent them an e-mail updating my request on Wednesday, and I haven't hear back anything from them at all.

You might check your bulk mail or spam folder if you have one - I had a similar experience and the message was in my Yahoo bulk mail folder with a subject line something like "AP Update" and a person's name as the sender.

One of the best shared under the radar secrets of FT and IF


What is IF, please?

What is IF, please?
InsideFlyer.

Just wanted to give an update - the awardplanner staff got back to me and have been very helpful.

I just signed up with awardplanner.com last week based on the rave reviews from this forum. I called them and request an award (on Tuesday, I believe) - I then sent them an e-mail updating my request on Wednesday, and I haven't hear back anything from them at all. I will call them on Monday, but I just am disappointed that they didn't give me any updates or anything. I will try to remember to update this thread if they get their act together, but I just wanted to share this with anyone who was thinking of signing up with them.
No excuses because I don't know for sure.

However, in Randy's explanation of the term girls, he mentioned that they are the "Vanna Girls" during the annual Freddie awards... which are tonight (4/27.) Perhaps they've been otherwise occupied.

Please do update us.

Any updates? I am seriously considering using them for 2 award trips next year. the major one is J or F for 3, possibly adding one later to Italy, with a stop in MUC & open-jaw FCO//VCE. I am out of town on day 330 & limited computer/phone access, so I'm really thinking this is the way to go...

Any updates? I am seriously considering using them for 2 award trips next year. the major one is J or F for 3, possibly adding one later to Italy, with a stop in MUC & open-jaw FCO//VCE. I am out of town on day 330 & limited computer/phone access, so I'm really thinking this is the way to go...


Brenda, hope you saw the update, two notes above yours. This is a great program, and I hope thye can help you!
Kate

Thanks Kate! After speaking with them, I still desparately need advice from FTers!!

I've booked awards for years, but nothing quite this complicated & the OneWorld awards are new for me and... I have many options with the AA & AX points. Will also be in Hawaii (& would prefer to be vacationing & not stressing) when the 'magic' 330 day window opens.

The woman I spoke to was very honest & said:

1.) The 330 day magic number is not that at all & most a/ls do not load award inventory on that special date
2.) Many carriers will not let you book only a ow, waiting for the return dates to open. I've had luck booking ow's with DL, but not always & we're talking about a whole lot more carriers/possibilities here
3.) TravelPlanners will not book anything until the return is able to be booked, so I am afraid I will lose any available outbound seats (assuming I can talk an a/l into booking a OW & holding)

With the AX points & a LAX/FCO//VCE/LAX itin, I could book AF J through DL, LX J or F

On AA points - AA J (really don't want to do this), Oneworld on BA J or F, but I am really unclear on how that works, if I book it with AA, etc.

Would also like to throw a MUC or CDG stop in there somewhere if possible.

So, quandry - do I start this process on vacation & drive myself nuts, or do I take my chances with Travelplanner & wait until our return (2 weeks later) inventory is loaded? This is the first time I've heard the 330 is a totally pie in the sky number... The $99.95 fee is micenuts to me - well worth it if they can do it! But it will drive me crazy waiting & if they can't find anything after I've passed the 330 day window I don't know if I'll be able to deal!

Am absolutely delighted to report that LaDonna Epler at awardplanner.com came through in a big way for Mrs. Rahmanbar and me.

I had 160000+ "old miles" in my Delta FFP account and wanted to take advantage of them before they were converted to "sky miles" and are utilized on a less-generous schedule of awards.

I gave LaDonna the assignment of obtaining for us (using the orginal Delta Frequent Flyer Program schedule and miles, of course) a BusFirst trip to London.

To make a long story short she not only got us our (essentially) preferred travel dates but also the perfect itinerary for New Yorkers, on the newly-announced JFK/LGW nonstops.

The only compromise we had to make was (for the return trip) was delaying one day and spending an additional night in London. More than we originally planned for but that's not a big deal. ^ ^

From a letter in Wendy Perrin's column in the April 2006 Conde Nast Traveler:

".....I turned to LaDonna Epler at awardplanner.com ($100 for a one year membership). Using her secret strategies, she has promptly found award seats for me and my family on convenient flights to Venice, Miami, and Rome. Next month, do your readers a favor: instead of an exotic location, put LaDonna Epler on the cover."

Hi SanDiego1k:
I read the same piece but did not realize the reference was indirectly linked to FT. Thanks for bringing this to my attention and I hope LaDonna gets a nice bonus for her reported excellent performance. :D

Am absolutely delighted to report that LaDonna Epler at awardplanner.com came through in a big way for Mrs. Rahmanbar and me.

I had 160000+ "old miles" in my Delta FFP account and wanted to take advantage of them before they were converted to "sky miles" and are utilized on a less-generous schedule of awards.

I gave LaDonna the assignment of obtaining for us (using the orginal Delta Frequent Flyer Program schedule and miles, of course) a BusFirst trip to London.

To make a long story short she not only got us our (essentially) preferred travel dates but also the perfect itinerary for New Yorkers, on the newly-announced JFK/LGW nonstops.

The only compromise we had to make was (for the return trip) was delaying one day and spending an additional night in London. More than we originally planned for but that's not a big deal. ^ ^

Not to rain on the parade, but this is not a very complicated booking and could have been done by an avid flyer in about 10+ mins. Again, my experience with awardplanner has been less than inspiring. In every case with them, they've come back with no options, in every case I was able to find not only options, but my preferred options and a couple of others (this after I paid the $99 1 year membership). In my membership year I've tried to sued them 4 times with 4 failures. I've been able to get all the 4 tickets myself on my preferred dates and even in 2 cases on my preferred flights. The simply just did not spend enough time on the phone with the FF program desks. YMMV

Not to rain on the parade, but this is not a very complicated booking and could have been done by an avid flyer in about 10+ mins. Again, my experience with awardplanner has been less than inspiring. In every case with them, they've come back with no options, in every case I was able to find not only options, but my preferred options and a couple of others (this after I paid the $99 1 year membership). In my membership year I've tried to sued them 4 times with 4 failures. I've been able to get all the 4 tickets myself on my preferred dates and even in 2 cases on my preferred flights. The simply just did not spend enough time on the phone with the FF program desks. YMMV

Actually I did try to book this trip myself - kept getting nothing but "Sky Choice" on routings involving change of planes in CVG and ATL.

That's when I decided to give awardplanner a try.

When Delta announced it had obtained approval for the JFK-GTW non-stops I began trying again but they kept showing no inventory available on the returns (GTW-JFK).

On top of everything else I had zero flexibility inasmuch as the only way I could claim an award was via the old schedule - didn't have enough miles even for a standard skymiles award under the current one, so I had a limited amount of time to get anything. (From an inventory view Delta considers the old FFP schedule to be for ordinary inventory, hence it is not only viable afterl 12/31 and it's also greatly limited in terms of seats available.)

What it came down to was a calculated risk with $100. and in this case it was worth it (being able to fly non-stop; not getting involved with stopovers, hoping to make connections - if we're late taking off, so what - not the case if I had had to connect.

BTW, another complication is dealing with Delta personnel when it comes to trying to get them to book an award under the old schedule - the ignorance about the myriad of terms, conditions and regulations is incredible.

That was confirmed when I went to pick up the tickets (which you have to do with an FFP award). It took two people at the counter consulting with a person in Atlanta to generate the itinerary (with the indication of seat assignment) representing the electronic ticket.

So, yeah - the itinerary iwa not complicated.

What was was locating and obtaining it as well as actually claiming it.

Frankly I'm much more comfortable with AA's Aadvantrage program - they maintain two sets of miles pertaining to two schedules and I've never had a problem booking an award with them without help using either old or new miles.

In this case I'm glad I had the help considering complexities above and beyond what was my first choice of flights - an admittedly simple itinerary which was very complex with regards to securing it.

Finally, this was my experience - I'm not excluding that others could experience a different one.

About three weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to join an art dealer's trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg. She was taking a number of her customers, including a friend of mine and while my wife and I had expressed interest in going, the dealer's plan was to take her customers, which we are not. At almost the last moment, two of her clients cancelled and we were asked if we'd like to go. We said yes, pending acceptable travel arrangements. I'm AA EXP, UA silver but had no luck with them. I was able to use the outrageously overpriced DL skychoice business award and even then had to back track via Aeroflot on the return from St. Petersburg to Moscow (something I wasn't anxious to do because Aeroflot uses TU aircraft on the route). I decided to try award planner and within three days, Michelle offered me an itinerary using UA miles, on my dates, with a good LX biz connection in ZRH on the outbound and a good LO biz connection in WAW on the return. And, 80,000 miles per ticket, vs. the 250,000 on DL. I thought the service was terrific on a difficult short notice itinerary.

Pay $99 and no guaranty. No way. If perhaps they offfered a second year at a steep discount I'd consider it. Also, if there was a reasonable one trip fee I'd consider it.

Based on the business model this seems more a hobby than a business. Any competition out there?

In my membership year I've tried to sued them 4 times with 4 failures.

I sure hope you mean you tried to use them, not sue them :) . Just for not finding seats for you would be a tough basis to sue. Maybe that is why you tried to sue four times, not once, and failed all four times :D

Thanks Kate! After speaking with them, I still desparately need advice from FTers!!

I've booked awards for years, but nothing quite this complicated & the OneWorld awards are new for me and... I have many options with the AA & AX points. Will also be in Hawaii (& would prefer to be vacationing & not stressing) when the 'magic' 330 day window opens.

The woman I spoke to was very honest & said:

1.) The 330 day magic number is not that at all & most a/ls do not load award inventory on that special date
2.) Many carriers will not let you book only a ow, waiting for the return dates to open. I've had luck booking ow's with DL, but not always & we're talking about a whole lot more carriers/possibilities here
3.) TravelPlanners will not book anything until the return is able to be booked, so I am afraid I will lose any available outbound seats (assuming I can talk an a/l into booking a OW & holding)

With the AX points & a LAX/FCO//VCE/LAX itin, I could book AF J through DL, LX J or F

On AA points - AA J (really don't want to do this), Oneworld on BA J or F, but I am really unclear on how that works, if I book it with AA, etc.

Would also like to throw a MUC or CDG stop in there somewhere if possible.

So, quandry - do I start this process on vacation & drive myself nuts, or do I take my chances with Travelplanner & wait until our return (2 weeks later) inventory is loaded? This is the first time I've heard the 330 is a totally pie in the sky number... The $99.95 fee is micenuts to me - well worth it if they can do it! But it will drive me crazy waiting & if they can't find anything after I've passed the 330 day window I don't know if I'll be able to deal!
Not sure why you're STILL obsessing over the 330-day window? :confused: It's surprising how many people still seem to think that award inventory is all loaded way in advance and you have to jump on it to get it! Totally false. My understanding and experience is that airlines use yield management for award inventory just as for any inventory. Award availability gets loaded throughout the year (NOT just 330 days in advance), based on forecasts of supply and demand. A lot of us have snagged good award seats 4-6 weeks (or less) before flight date.

You might pose your questions on the AA forum rather than here (which is a generic miles forum) for more detailed answers. Anyway, stop obsessing about booking awards 11 months in advance!!! :eek:

The FFPs are pretty guilty of instilling the 'book 330 days out' propaganda line. So, its not overly surprising that many folks are fixated on that booking window. Most non-FTers I know bandy around the '330 days' reference as well.

Clearly, IF airlines do open up invemtory at 330 days, than being the early bird will be a big advantage. So, no harm in checking at 330 days, but temper your expectations.

I also have some questions, do they do upgrade award? Esp Int'l coach to Business.

A year later, and I'm still waiting for an answer to this question (see above). :confused:

It is not easy to book upgrades, particularly when they are rarely shown on the airlines' website (which does not even consult all possible connections/routings) and/or upgrades that require special fares, i.e. H or M on UA.

As for OP's experience, no offense, but anybody can book an award trip to Zurich in February. Last year, I did it myself in about 10 min. at the 330-day mark. Europe in the summer or Hawaii at peak season is a bit different, particularly if you want C or F seats. :cool:

Based on this thread, I have no doubt that awardplanner is a valuable service, particularly for those who do not want to spend hours on the phone with outsourced CSRs attempting to snag difficult "saver" awards.

The FFPs are pretty guilty of instilling the 'book 330 days out' propaganda line. So, its not overly surprising that many folks are fixated on that booking window. Most non-FTers I know bandy around the '330 days' reference as well.

Clearly, IF airlines do open up invertory at 330 days, than being the early bird will be a big advantage. So, no harm in checking at 330 days, but temper your expectations.

But, if you're hunting as I was (and I realized it belatedly, LaDonna, I bet, picked up on it right away) that JFK/LGW itinerary which included many months worth of inventory would have become available much sooner.

Remember, Delta (or the feds) announced that approval for the route was granted at the end or August for one set of outbound/return flights retroacitvely scheduled effective 11/1/06. (There's another pair that was approved effective 5/1/07).

That would mean that for each of those flights would have (or will in the case of the May 07 effective date for the second pair hit the Delta website at the same time and for many of them the 330 day rule (even if it is inviolate) didn't come into play until 330 days from whenever August date their invenrory was loaded..

Yesterday I took a look at the seating of our bookings going and coming in the middle of July 07 (less than 330 days from now).

In the 36-seat BizElite section on both our flights only three seats had been assigned, Mrs. Rahmanbar and myself and one other (crew seat, marshal, whatever).

And, Skysaver seats were still availabl - how many, I don't know. (Before someone asks, our outgoing flight (1) is on 7/11; the return (flight 2) is on 7/20.) We were informed that our's were available on 8/28 - unless I missed something that's pretty close to when the approval became public.

Ultimately I went with Awardplanner because of the complexity involved with using "FFP points" combined with the scarcity of seats that those points (their awards come out of the "Skysaver bucket) could get.

Before I was aware that there was a JFK-LGW itinerary in the works (LaDonna told me about it and said she was watching it carefully).

The bottom line is that I ended up with (if I had to pay for them) tickets that are currently being sold for $6,000 (deeply discounted BizElite w/advance purchase requirements and far too many restrictions to discuss). As time passes they surely will get more expensive.

Most importantly I got he ideal itinerary on my first choice of dates in the high season, (no ATL or CVG connections to be concerned about) when I was praying I would get something, anything (CVG or ATL) between 6/1/07 and 9/30/07.

I've got about 11 months of my one year-subscription to Award Planner remaining. Even if I don't utilize them again before it expires, for my purposes, the expenditure was well worth it.

Pay $99 and no guaranty. No way. Dude, how can they possibly offer a guarantee? When you charter a fishing boat, you're not guaranteed X pounds of fish. Especially if you are fishing for something particular, rare and weird. The point of this is to get a really good, experienced fisher-person on your side.

I will say it again: I paid $39 and for all that Nicki did for us, I'd have happily paid $399. YMMV.

Dude

Almost stopped reading at Dude. But with 4,000 + posts thought I'd read on.

I paid $39 and for all that Nicki did for us, I'd have happily paid $399.Suggest you send her a check or flowers at a minimum. For $39, I'd agree with you and not ask for a guaranty.

But for $99, that's a lot of bread (goes with Dude!). My suggestion was not for a guaranty or refund, but for a discount on renewal. By renewing you'd get two years to use Award Planner and Award Planner instead of losing a customer would collect even more dollars (oops, bread). What with a two year window, I suspect that Award Planners would have a good shot at finding something. That's win win and good marketing.

Award Planners sounds like a good business concept if more consumer friendly. It could do lots of things to become so. A simple $30 to $60 credit against second year fee is just one way to approach that. A $69 charge woth a $30 success fee is another. But $99 consumer win or lose seems to be bad business to me.

BTW, how'd you get a $39 fee?

Almost stopped reading at Dude. Glad you didn't, though. Didn't you like The Big Lebowski?
I agree that a cut-rate renewal might be a good enticement for people who did not have booking success in their first year, but I also have the feeling Randy doesn't run AwardPlanner as much of a profit center.
BTW, how'd you get a $39 fee? One year ago they were offering two ways in: a $39 one-trip fee or the $100 all-you-can-eat annual fee. I took the former deal and ultimately felt bad about it because with the hours Nicki put to our booking, including untangling mistakes the British Airways partner desk had made, we were paying something like $4 an hour for her time. We did send her a goodie box of Puget Sound treats -- something I'm told a lot of customers do.

You're likely right that Randy does not run it as much of a profit center. It seems like it could be. Perhaps we ought to back Nicki and have her buy it out.

My Travel agent will book award flights and take some time pressure off of me. But she really doesn't know enough to get past a sorry no seats by suggesting creative alternatives. Still she got two of us to Australia on Qantas (US Air partner at the time) in BC.

I did Rome in May 2004 for two myself with one call to Delta and London before that in late August for two, both BC. The London trip took a few calls and I'd have gladly paid $100 even to someone else.

I do one or two at best international pleasure trips a year where I might use miles. It might be worth the $100 even if the answer is no just based on time saved getting that answer. I am booked through year end, but I'll take a look at the 330 day window and see when it makes sense to give Award Planners a try.

Right now I want to go to Africa and the wife wants to go to Southern Italy in 2007. Guess I need to either read the threads on separate vacations or get ready for Italy!

Dude, how can they possibly offer a guarantee? When you charter a fishing boat, you're not guaranteed X pounds of fish. Especially if you are fishing for something particular, rare and weird. The point of this is to get a really good, experienced fisher-person on your side. .

This might be a good analogy for AwardPlanner to use when talking with prospective clients.