Originally Posted by
nature1370
I just dont get why people are paying a high amount of fees ($100-$150) for such simple mouse clicks and searches. Is it really hard to learn all the tricks? From my point of view, they are easy like baby steps.
Further, I strongly suspect that the typical demographic of award booking service customers is not the FT crowd. If I have a stockpile of US miles, I might naively go to US Airways' website, try to book an award ticket to Bangkok and find myself stymied by its limited search functionality. I could call in and wind up with an agent unable to find me flights with availability.
I typically spend several hours to find award inventory and build an award trip (note, I don't run a booking service, so I'm speaking of what I've done for myself and assisted friends on). At the prices many award booking services run, this almost certainly undervalues my time (if not for the fun this hobby provides me). For those uninterested in the intricacies of award inventory, $100-150 sounds pretty cheap.
Originally Posted by
nature1370
If you do not have search tools like them, just sign up for expertflyer site or buy some special searching tools advertised here on FT.
ExpertFlyer's *A-wide search is a very, very recent innovation. Previously, you needed to sign up for an ANA account to get that information. That's a moderately high bar for someone who has only flown US Airways (and maybe occasionally United). PMUA was nearly as bad (showing only UA and LH metal).