Gleff - I agree with you - as I stated above I haven't had problems redeeming AA or UA miles, but clearly YMMV judging from some of the complaints in those forums. And there is no question that award seats to Hawaii during peak periods (school vacations) get zeroed out faster than you can hit the return key. As for CO - those are exactly the people that need assistance, since it appears impossible to book saver awards on CO.

Probably sound advice. Alas the "chicken game" doesn't work for most of us working stiffs who need to request vacation time well in advance of travel dates and can't afford to pay unrestricted coach rates if the award seats fail to materialize. So we are faced with some unpalatable alternatives:

(1) Book 11 months in advance, and hope that a hurricane or office emergency doesn't wipe out your plans. Works well if you are an advance planner, can do it, as mileage awards can usually be re-deposited for a relatively small fee.

(2) Wait until you see a great discount fare to your destination (usually 2-6 months out, but sometimes longer for winter season), then snap it up. Often my preferred option, as it is relatively easy to discern seasonal fare patterns. However, this approach is problematic if you want to upgrade using miles as C/F award inventory to popular destinations tends to disappear quickly. Also problematic if your relationship dissolves and you end up with non-transferable non-refundable tix. Perhaps this is where awardplanner's expertise is useful - if they can help pick the right flights to upgrade.

(3) Book your trip 2-4 months out (which is the timeframe I prefer to schedule my vacations, particularly for ski resorts where conditions are unpredictable). At this point you are rolling the dice for award seats to popular destinations, particularly on peak travel days.

(4) Wait until last minute, quit your job, and burn your miles for that dream trip that you've always wanted to take. Of course, you never really know if inventory will open (particularly in the summer or holiday periods) but no worries - you'll be able to use your miles to go somewhere.

Of these alternatives, I usually end up going with #2 or #3, which is why I have good balances in several programs. But facing inevitable devaluation, I am starting to go with option #1 to zero out my accounts. The horror! The horror!

Awardplanner seems to be exactly the ticket for a certain kind of problem, and not so much for others. If you like to call, plan, scheme, etc., then go it alone. Why pay anyone else to do what you like to do best? On the other hand... A few years ago, I was invited to a wedding in AKL, about 5 months out, at the beginning of January. Right, peak season to Lord of the Rings Land. I had the miles for C on *A, with some flexibility before and after, but when I called, there was zip, nada, nothing, not even in Y. UA told me to call back every day and check. Were they kidding!?! I did this for about 2 weeks, when, wouldn't ya know it, the wedding was called off. Saved by the break-up. But I would have gladly paid Awardplanner to make those daily calls for me, wait on hold, etc.

The other scenario where I could imagine using them is for a trip I'd like to take with my SO to AKL (for real this time...). I want UA p.s. to SFO/LAX then either NZ C (the new BP class) at least 1-way or SQ/AH/TG F r/t. Here, I want something specific, not just any routing. I'll try on my own as soon as I have my dates, but after that, Awardplanner.com gets my $ to make it happen without my having to call UA every day.

I would like to reiterate what Gleff said concerning needing to book 330 days out.

I have burned through about five million miles travelling on all major US and many of the major international carriers, all at saver levels, some coach and some premium awards, and have never booked more than 8 months out. Travel has often been during peak travel periods and all these redemptions have been in the last three years.

I do all my booking myself, know/research my options very well, am usually told no go until I get an agent to check the specific flights I found on my own already - using an availability tool or multiple airline websites.

As Gleff said, diversifying is essential! I maintain miles in all three alliances, trying to build the easier to redeem balances the most. In my experience, OneWorld is best, and Star next, with SkyTeam the hardest to get peak redemptions on.

JMR- I didn't mean it as an insult. It is just a convoluted procedure...that took me some time figure out too!

I tried them two years ago and had a similar experience. I gave them my 200K+ balances with 4 different airlines and asked for any 2 week period over the entire summmer. I got a message back that basically said "Sorry, nothing available on United with your US miles." I asked about the others and got an "Oh, yeah, we can check those too", followed by "sorry, nothing there either" and that was the end of the effort for my $$$.

I've heard stories about them working several days on creative alternatives, using "tricks of the trade", etc. - both of my responses came within a day, so I'm not sure anything other than checking the CRS was done. I suppose I wasn't out too much $$$, but it was the last time.

I've heard others that have had much more success.

i signed up for a year and AwardPlanner was never able to book anything for me.

I'm one of the success stories. I used them for 4 tickets to the Athens Olympics, booked 330 days out, and split among coach and business.

There's been a couple threads since I went to Athens asking about Award Planner. I can't recall anyone posting negative experiences in those threads. Maybe if some had posted these experiences the OP would have decided differently.