I recently used Mile Value to plan a trip to Tahiti and Australia - they were quick to respond and within about 30 hours after my first email to them, they booked me two tickets from ATL - LAX - PPT - AKL - SYD - LAX - SYD. 3 legs in business (LAX - PPT; PPT - AKL; and SYD - LAX) and the other 3 in coach. All ticketed as one. Total price for two tickets: 320,000 Skymiles and $440 in fuel surcharges per ticket. The $250 we paid to Mile Value was money well spent! (Incidentally, the person who helped me said they had to spend over 1 1/2 hours on the phone with Delta to get it ticketed....not surprised). I was curious and added up the cost if I had actually paid for the tickets - $19,725.19!!

I wouldn't dream of using any of these services recommended by low-post count screen names here.

Yet they continue to do it so some FTers must be biting?

To be fair, the RTW1 quote was directed toward another site. I think they stopped pumping when confronted (by humble me) back in August.

But you just outed another new "contender." I hope sites/services like this will realize reviews from newbies or low post count FTers won't help their business as they had expected on FT.

If I were launching a new award booking service, I'd offer 50%--or maybe even 90%--off to the first 10 FlyerTalk members with at least 1,000 posts who promise to review my service in this thread. :)

Just noticed this post.

Glad you were satisfied with our service. It was a pleasure helping get you started and we're here whenever you need help in the future.

Hope you're able to get as much enjoyment out of this hobby as I've been able to, it's truly magical what can be done with miles when you know how to maximize.

Don't know if anyone is referring to me since I do have low posts (but lurk all the time). If anyone wants to see the awesome itinerary Mile Value booked for me or any of our emails back and forth PM me and I'm happy to share. Not trying to promote them per se.... just saying I had a great experience. ...after having a not so good experience with another service (one that was pumping it's own service on here in fact...). And if anyone doubts I'm real due to my low posts thus far, come meet me at DC FTU. I'll be there!

We tried using Milevalue but the results were not good. I had to clarify the dates and destinations, which was my fault as we were trying to give lots of flexibility. But the end result was a return date later than we specified and one too many destinations. Not sure why my booking was a problem as I have read many of Scott's posts with extremely complicated bookings.

I'll second that! Used PointsPros and Mero starting last Nov '13 when the perfect storm of LH F availability opened up out of Montreal 9 months out and just before United jacked up F award prices.
I'd do it again in a heart beat.

Just saw that Milevalue posted a blog entry today about the trip the recent trip they booked for me (ATL to LAX to PPT to ACK to SYD to LAX to ATL). Interesting read and shows exactly why I used an award booking service on this case. Also shows how clueless many Delta agents can be.

UPDATE WIKI: MileValue Fee
 

UPDATE WIKI: I just did a MileValue booking & was charged $175/person for a "more complicated itinerary".

What "complicated" itinerary did you book?

JuicyMiles worked well for me
 

At the risk of being dismissed as a first time poster, and therefore without credibility, let me say that I am a long time reader and make use of this board to do my own due diligence on a variety of subjects. Having no particular expertise of my own, nor the desire or time to become a subject area expert, I have visited to benefit from the expertise of others who dwell here.

With that context, you will understand that I came looking one day for help in identifying resources for using miles on a complicated trip. I worked on my own for quite some time, trying to make my miles fit my intended trip. I came up empty, and frustrated. So I investigated various options mentioned here and chose to use JuicyMiles and Christopher for this exercise.

No one asked me to post a review here, and I only do so to help other lost souls, like me, who simply want to know if various providers are trustworthy, honest, resourceful and a good value. On all these points, I can say from my experience that my money was well spent in using Juicy Miles to help me. I now have the trip I wanted, using the fewest possible miles (many fewer than even my least ambitious itinerary that I tried on my own), and did not have to spend many more hours circling the drain. Would I use this group again? Yes. Would I use Christopher again? Absolutely. Are they the best? I have no idea -- I just know that I got what I bargained for and am happy with the process and outcome.

I am glad I was able to find this resource and appreciate the time and energy the members of FT have put into this and other topics, to the benefit of the broader community.

Excellent first post ^ Having joined in 2009, you're not the typical newbie to post :p Can you tell us a little about the itinerary you booked?

Route
 

XXX-LAX-BNE-AKL-ZQN-BNE-DPS-MNL-SYD-LAX-XXX

I tried combinations myself for many, many hours before I looked for help. I wanted to stay in the Southern Hemisphere, and did not want to do a lot of north/south hours to hit the Skyteam hubs, and was running into limited seats due to some Asian holidays and events. I found many reasons why I could not accomplish this on my own, with the miles I had to spend, in the class I wanted, with acceptable partners to the places in which I had an interest.

Update Wiki Again!: MileValue Fee
 

First, let me clear up. I was quoted $175 for a "complicated" itinerary. And $125 for a simple one. So the fee "depends". I can't remember how he differentiated, perhaps for stopovers, one-ways, or not-so-legal routings.

Here was my trip - which was TOTALLY worth the $350 for 2 people (I'm a sucker for this stuff, I even gave the guy a $50 tip).

XXX-LGA/JFK-VCP (stopover) GRU-LIM-CUZ (destination) CUZ-LIM-DFW-XXX

Apparently the agent kept saying that VCP and GRU was an open-jaw, but he got through that.

There WERE a lot of communication problems at first, and I thought I would be greatly disappointed, but he pulled through at the end. I will explain all in another post.

PS. It wasn't Scott Grimmer himself who took care of me.