MilesBuzz! - AwardPlanner experiences?

I plan to book about five international awards of medium complexity over the next year, and wondered if anybody has tried AwardPlanner for their award bookings -- is it worth the $49/year fee? Does it make the process easier, or has anybody encountered headaches? Thanks for your ideas!

yes, worth it.

I used them around a year ago. There were some problems, mainly becuase I asked them to organize the transfer of points from Amex MR->Starwood for me, and many of the transfers didnt come through on time. Even though this was the fault of Amex or Starwood (they both blamed each-other, of course) because I know the request was made on time, the people at Awardplanners still refunded my money WITHOUT ME EVEN ASKING. That's customer service.

So I would say-> go with award planners. they'll take alot of the "waiting-on-hold" time and minor details off your hands. Just make sure you give them enough advance warning of your plans to avoid unforseen problems.

Ron

After trying to coordinate, a Hilton Honor stay with three Delta awards durin a high demand week, I would definitely consider the use of a service.

Any one else have any experience on their actual performance, we know they are ethical based on the previous post

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"A Southwest line never gets longer, It only gets wider"
Follow this link to find out how to earn UAL Miles:
http://www.epoll.com/signupform-b.asp?ARP=1727
(http://
http://www.epoll.com/signupform-b.asp?ARP=1727
)

I have had the service for about a year. I tried to use them on two occasions. One was a hotel stay in Japan and the other was some airline tickets using Latinpass. In both cases the dates of travel were not available even though they did try very hard to help me out. I ended up making my own paid reservations. I would only recommend them if making difficult reservations. Hilton has a similiar service that may give you more luck in getting a free hilton stay.

Does the Hilton service allow you to use your Airline Points ir do they use you HH Points for airfare.

------------------
"A Southwest line never gets longer, It only gets wider"
Follow this link to find out how to earn UAL Miles:
http://www.epoll.com/signupform-b.asp?ARP=1727
(http://
http://www.epoll.com/signupform-b.asp?ARP=1727
)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dcwcce:
Does the Hilton service allow you to use your Airline Points ir do they use you HH Points for airfare.

</font>

http://www.hilton.com/en/hhonors/rewards/reward_planner.jhtml

The service from the HHonors site is called RewardPlanner, and seems to offer a similar service as what AwardPlanner offers. (I stress "seems" because I know nothing about RewardPlanner beyond what is on the HH site.)

They appear to be able to do planning for both HH and other award program redemptions. It doesn't explicitly say that they book non-award travel, but I can't imagine that they don't, given that a combo trip would result in commissions for the agent in most cases.

You pay for your yearly service with HHonors points instead of cash. If both services are equal (and I have no idea whether they are), AwardPlanner at $49 is a better value for most uses of an HHonors point.

(The reason I am reading/posting to this thread is actually to learn more about AwardPlanner, Webflyer's service. If anyone has any experiences with them that haven't already been posted to this board, please share them!)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pinniped:
The service from the HHonors site is called RewardPlanner, and seems to offer a similar service as what AwardPlanner offers.</font>

Unless I'm mistaken, they are one and the same. HH just outsources this service to the AwardPlanner (which is one of Randy Peterson's companies).

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pinniped:
You pay for your yearly service with HHonors points instead of cash.</font>

That's not the only option though. You can pay $40 cash for a one-year membership, and earn 1,500 HH points.

http://www.hilton.com/en/hhonors/points/points.jhtml#reward

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Eugene:
Unless I'm mistaken, they are one and the same. HH just outsources this service to the AwardPlanner (which is one of Randy Peterson's companies).

</font>

Randy, if you read this, can you please confirm if we are truly talking about the same company here? Thanks!

You are correct!
RewardPlanner by Hilton HHonors and AwardPlanner are the same service, run by the staff at Randy's office.
We contract the service out to HHonors members, to allow them the choice to use HHonors points to join.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by rewardplanner:
You are correct!
RewardPlanner by Hilton HHonors and AwardPlanner are the same service, run by the staff at Randy's office.
We contract the service out to HHonors members, to allow them the choice to use HHonors points to join.</font>

Great. Thanks for the quick response! While you are here, do you guys have any experience planning Galapagos trips? (If you don't want to answer in Milesbuzz, I asked a similar question in a Galapagos-specific Travelbuzz thread.)

Edited to add: I just got off the phone with someone from RewardPlanner/AwardPlanner. Apparently, they do not have a travel agency and would have to refer me to another group to book a cruise, likely at an addition fee. I may still join for the purpose of getting a somewhat complex award itinerary (involving a mix of LatinPass and other program awards) booked, but I guess you can disregard my question about booking cruises...

[This message has been edited by pinniped (edited 12-17-2002).]

duplicate post

[This message has been edited by rewardplanner (edited 12-18-2002).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pinniped:
any experience planning Galapagos trips </font>

Off-topic: pinniped -- If you find a way to use miles/points for a trip to Galapagos, let me know (perhaps, offline, my e-mail is in the profile). Thanks!

RewardPlanner and AwardPlanner services specialize in redeeming miles and points, and are not "travel agents".
We do have an in-house travel agency (which is a separate company), that we can refer your paid travel to, but there will be additional costs/fees accrued directly through them, separate to the fee you pay for the awardplanning services.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by rewardplanner:
there will be additional costs/fees accrued directly through them, separate to the fee you pay for the awardplanning services.</font>

I am now thoroughly confused.

http://www.awardplanner.com/faqs.shtml

Am I completely misinterpreting the fifth and eighth questions in this link? If so, what *exactly* are the costs/fees to include paid travel in the midst of my award itinerary?

Just thought I'd post a follow-up since I started some AwardPlanner discussion about a month ago:

I subscribed to the Awardplanner service and asked them to plan an itinerary including 3 airline awards x 2 people, a hotel award, 2 stopovers in addition to end destinations, and an open jaw.

They successfully found good routes at the "Plan Ahead" award levels and were successful booking the hotel award I wanted on the dates I wanted it. The even recommended an airline award that I hadn't thought of - using an AA partner I hadn't even considered. One of the awards was a 35,000 mile UA award to Hawaii (hard to get) and another was a Hilton GLONP (sometimes hard to get for a Gold). Putting all of this together on my own would have probably taken me hours on the phone - if I even got it put together at all.

Therefore, after one experience with AwardPlanner, I would recommend their services. I feel that their service has been well worth the cost - even if I don't need them to plan another award trip for me in the next year. (Of course, I'll probably have them do 1 or 2 more...)

Nikki spearheads the operations there, and she is incredibly knowledgeable and savvy about both FFPs and the destinations themselves.

If I didn't enjoy making my own award reservations so much, AwardPlanner would be my go-to guy (girl!).

We're thrilled with what they've done for us!