http://pointspros.com/
 

http://pointspros.com/

I recently used this service. I wanted to book a round trip to Asia, but one way with OW, and the other with *A. He presented me with a schedule that I hadn't thought of, but that I liked.

I believe the price was worth it, considering I didn't have to deal with any airline, and everything was done through e-mail.

How much?@

$150.

Obviously you have not ever booked a complicated routing involving very hard to find award seats segments, at the peak seasons or last minutes.

There are times the money paying for the experts to hunt these down for you is money well-spent when you either dont have the knowledge or the tools to look for such, or you simply dont have the time to hunt for such.

And it is time consuming.

Above all things, it is the KNOWLEDGE that one is paying for.

Those pros know the alliances route maps like the back of their hands. They can come up with routing that none of the newbies here can think of, or know about.

Of course if your award idea is a r/t to Hawaii, or a r/t to Europe / Asia with the basic routing, you would think paying for such service is crazy... UNTIL, you have a very difficult time finding award seats on the basic routing you know about... such as just to get to Rome in July by business class to meet your cruise ... Then those services may come up with very unusual routing that have seats to get you there... just an example.

I've used travelconcierge before (twice now) and Roland has been very good at finding what I want and from different alliances. I think he is Australian based, but is very knowledgable in finding routings for me that work. ^

I used up *A miles for my first trip and this time I am using up my *A miles one way and BA/Avios miles on the way back. Being able to fly the A380 on Air France was nice.

I agree on the knowledge thing....and they have a wealth of experience working with awards, thinking outside the box and making things work. They know not just alliance partners but non-alliance partners, etc.

Granted with a bit of work anyone can figure this stuff out...with the right tools. I would certainly consider using a consultant like this though if I had special needs beyond a simple, straight-forward ticket.

Fair point:D

Ridiculous:td:

:td:

Ive spent more than 300 hours on phone with US, burning millions of miles. There is no way I can help all friends and family with the time consuming ANA searches and phone calls with various US agents. However most I have done have been for family and friends. I have never charged any fees for helping anyone spend their miles. I even pay for it my self when urgent due to timing, travel etc. Will update with my experiences.

Which award service would you recommend and how much would it cost?

Need to book with U.S. Airways dividend miles for Biz or 1st class from LAX to SGN, PHN to YVR and YVR to LAX for late December 2012 to January 2013, approximately 3 weeks total for trip.

My service is in my signature line. :D

I would also like to recommend Award Travel Consulting and they only charge $100 per booking: http://www.awardtravelconsulting.com/ I am new to the game and ATC helped book two F class award tickets using US Airways DM. They take consulting to a new level because we experienced a bump on one of our segment back home and could not get in touch with US Airways but luckily I was able to get access to a computer before boarding and emailed ATC with the predicament. They gave US Airways a call and had the problem resolved when we arrived for our next connection flight.

I'm glad you enjoyed your trip...hopefully we'll get to see some pictures of you in the BKK Thai Airways First Class lounge soon! To clarify, we charge $100/person to put together an itinerary and $50/itinerary to call in and book. We have a full explanation (along with a picture taken in TK first class suites with wine and canapes :p) available--see link below.

Since people asked, I'll throw in a shameless plug for my service:
see link below

Back in November I was looking for help in getting some award travel booked. I got in touch with both Ben (aka lucky) and Gleffp (aka bookyouraward.com). Gleffp never bothered responding to me. Ben responded to me within a couple of days (the delay being due to his being on the road). Thus of the two ben gets my vote. However, in the end I decided to plump down for KVSTool, do some research and booked my travel by myself.

First Class and Beyond
 

Don't forget about the First Class and Beyond award booking service (see link below)!! It's been around for about 16 months and has serviced clients around the world. With the exception of being out of town - and even then, only sometimes does the following not happen - you will always get a response within 30 hours!

Thanks for your consideratoin!