About three weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to join an art dealer's trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg. She was taking a number of her customers, including a friend of mine and while my wife and I had expressed interest in going, the dealer's plan was to take her customers, which we are not. At almost the last moment, two of her clients cancelled and we were asked if we'd like to go. We said yes, pending acceptable travel arrangements. I'm AA EXP, UA silver but had no luck with them. I was able to use the outrageously overpriced DL skychoice business award and even then had to back track via Aeroflot on the return from St. Petersburg to Moscow (something I wasn't anxious to do because Aeroflot uses TU aircraft on the route). I decided to try award planner and within three days, Michelle offered me an itinerary using UA miles, on my dates, with a good LX biz connection in ZRH on the outbound and a good LO biz connection in WAW on the return. And, 80,000 miles per ticket, vs. the 250,000 on DL. I thought the service was terrific on a difficult short notice itinerary.