I am going to start my own award booking service. I am designing the website but it's not finished yet.
Price is going to be $100 for the first person and $50 for any additional personnel.
Please contact me via private message and I will send out the initial form for more information.

yes.

However my experince was We will charge you $125 because this is a simple booking. because you have done some ground work on the way we call it "speculative " booking, whatever that is.
When I said to book the tickets I was told the price was $250 ! Because we have to........

I declined the service. Got a chiding email saying " we have already invested 2 + hours "
Completed my own in 20 minutes ! Go figure.

Agreed. Making a deal and reneging when you find something better is not cool -- just like I expect a vendor to finish the job I hired them for even if someone comes along willing to pay them more.

I've used Matthew for multiple itineraries and referred a lot of people to him, all of whom have been happy. He's always been completely ethical and above board and never asked for anything extra -- in fact, just the opposite, when I first used him I had to pester him to invoice me..

This consulting is like any other -- if you know how to code, you don't hire someone to write a simple program. If you know how to fix the leaky faucet and have the time, you do it, but others spend $250 on a plumber for what you know is "simple". Others may call the plumber once and watch/learn and do it themselves the next time. (On mileage awards, I've certainly learned a lot from others so now have more success myself.)

For very inexperienced folks who don't want to learn at all about savers etc it is worth it. For someone like me who knows enough to do the basics but sometimes needs a miracle routing (that I never would have thoughts of) or number of tickets, it is worth it.

Easy Award Booking - Review
 

Hi,

My challenge was to redeem 4 Business class seats to Europe for early summer 2015. Being from Canada the only real option was Aeroplan or BA Avios. Trying to find award seats for 4 persons in Business with stops in London, Istanbul and Vienna was not easy :( .I contacted Alex ( @ Easy Award Booking ) after unsuccessfully attempting to book seats myself finding only Economy seats with high fees.

Anyway after a few emails asking me what I wanted, Alex presented me with multiple options based on my dates. Both economy and business flights. I was extremely happy with his services and his professionalism. At $400 for 4 persons I am more than willing to recommend his services and I will be more than happy to use him again in the future.

John (yyznewbieflyer)

I have had a similar experience with Matthew regarding having to ask to pay. Can be a little inconvenient at times. Great service overall, my family and I have benefitted from his service several times and recommended him as well.

My only other complaint (I would prefer to just keep this positive, but I feel obliged to full disclosure to the community that made all this possible for me): his request tracking system doesn't keep the dialogue history, so I have to refer back to what was said before in my own emails. Not a big deal, and it's great that he has a tracking system at all as some don't.

Those drawbacks aside (we're all human), he is extremely good at what he does. His experience, depth and breadth of knowledge are phenomenal, IMO. I read a *lot* of travel blogs, and I have tried to work with several booking services, and it just seems he's one of the best for what I need: 2-4 pax in C & F on same flight, mini-RTW's, low fuel surcharges. I still recommend him highly and appreciate everything he's done for me and my family.

I looked through the wiki then searched the thread - do you mean Alex at PointsPros?

You did waste my time and showed poor form by booking a next-day appointment, then hours later asking to speak to "make sure I was the right fit" and then canceling when I was not willing to call you immediately.

If you cancel a doctor's appointment the day before, you get charged anyway. Time is limited and in order to accommodate you I had to turn down other projects. You have this thread, my blog, and the dozens of reputable publications I have been featured in to evaluate my skills and performance - additional free consultation is unreasonable.

I implore people searching for award experts to realize that we are people too, offering a time-intensive, personalized service to save you money and miles and not just a faceless company to be taken advantage of.

Thank you - the point was not to attack the client but let him know that what he did was unreasonable.

Thank you Arun - I appreciate your kind words and continued support.

Hope you won't bail on me for Alex because he's a bit cheaper! :)

I have appreciated working with you too on many occasions and hope to work with you on your summer 2015 family trip.

not really. theyre luxury travel agent who does award booking, CC blogging, and seem to do PR work as well. their travel agency business is so good (combined with PR/blog?) that theyve gotten comped stays at ~$1K+ per night hotels that dont do award stays.

It was Alex from www.easyawardbooking.com

John

Alex might not actually be cheaper, "For more complex bookings, please contact me for a personalized quote." You know all too well how complex my bookings are... In my experience, it's only the most persistent that can do an all C booking like this for two people for only 125k US Miles - that was an awesome trip! ^:)

Please do invoice me what I owe so I don't have that hanging over my head... or let me know what the thought process is behind the delayed invoicing, perhaps there's good reason? :)

Looking forward to the next one!

Hi,

In terms of complex bookings I refer to a multi stop round the world ticket (I will update my website to reflect this). 99% of bookings fall into the $99 price.

Thanks for pointing it out.

Alex

Thanks, Alex. 80% of my bookings are mini-RTW's w/multiple stops - what do you charge for those?

Mini RTW's are fine I have no problem charging $99 per award. I do not think it needs to be more. My only challenge is if someone is going away for 2 months and requires multiple flights (i.e 10-12). Then of course I would have to charge more than $99.

I hope that answers your question :)

Alex

Partially, thank you. I don't mean to beat a dead horse here, just to clarify: my "mini"RTW's if booking via Aeroplan are usually 12 segments+ (not all destinations, just to get to them), I once booked my own 16-segment award with 6 "destinations" (several <24-hours "layovers"). Is that also $99?

As long as it follows the Aeroplan rules, then yes it is fine. However I am not going to advertise my services to find an illegal booking.

Alex

Lately, folks have been emailing about illegal routing and trick bookings.
Just a friendly reminder to folks.

Please be ethical. If you want to book an illegal routing to take advantage of miles or anything, please do it by yourself.

Travel & Awards