Disappointed with awardplanner.com
 

Due to the excellent reviews of their service on the forum, I decided to use awardplanner to book our honeymoon. Signed up for the service a couple weeks prior to the magic 331 days. Hawaii / Kona is our destination.

When we got to the 331 day threshold I looked online and saw seats available in First so called to see if they were working on it. "Not yet." Waited about another week and see the seats disappearring online. Call and they are still not working on it.

At this point I grab what is available and place it on hold. Another week goes by and still no call from awardplanner. Went ahead and finalized the reservations myself and called to ask for refund of my fee from awardplanner.

Obviously, I can do this myself. I was trying to leverage their experience and also put less stress on myself. Re-learned the lesson that if you want something done.....

Long story short I booked ALON2 at HWV and have first class on Delta iah-salt lake - Kona. Just hope Delta stays in business. I'm CO silver and never flown Delta before.

Anyway, just thought I would vent a little and offer a warning. I know that awarplanner is associated with Randy and this website. Perhaps your success has created a need for more staff.

-Mike.

same way here they never find anything for me iah-ogg i been looking myself and find 3 FC on delta for next july i just waste mu money for nothing i can do their service my self only diference a lot much better

Hi Mike-

While I'm sure the folks at AwardPlanner will offer a reasonable explanation about your situation, I thought it might be helpful to explain the '330 day' strategy.

Since a roundtrip itinerary must be confirmed before a mileage award ticket can be issued, you/AwardPlanner must actually wait until 330 days from the date of your INBOUND, not your outbound itinerary.

Further, while I am familiar with the urban myth of contacting the FFP call centers at the stroke of midnight on the 330th day (of your inbound travel!), the 8-10 hour delay in waiting for AwardPlanner to open at 800a MST should have negligible impact on the ability to find award space.


If you are insistent in securing space on your outbound travel on the 330th day, there is an alternate strategy. For example, using ORD-HNL Dec 5 outbound, HNL-ORD Dec 15 inbound.

1. Call on the 330th day (Jan 1) to book HNL-ORD as a 'phantom' outbound anytime before Dec 5. Book the ORD-HNL as your inbound on Dec 5.

2. Hope that the FFP will give you a a 14 day courtesy hold. If not, call them after the initial courtesy hold (say 7 days) and ask for an extension, which is typically granted.

3. Call on the 330th day (Jan 10) to book HNL-ORD on Dec 15. Replace the pre-Dec 5th HNL-ORD with the intended Dec 15 HNL-ORD.

Your ORD-HNL flight flipflops from an inbound to an outbound flight because you've replaced your HNL-ORD flight to being AFTER the date of the ORD-HNL.


Mike, I'm not sure you'll understand this methodology, but I'm sure the pros at AwardPlanner will.

This strategy allows you to actually secure BOTH your targeted outbound and inbound flights on exactly the 330th day!

When AwardPlanner receives a travel request that is beyond the 330 days from the return date, it is placed on “hold”. Due to the numerous requests that are received each day, we can in no way begin each request on the exact date that the seats are supposed to be released by the airlines.
We DO BEGIN requests 330 days from the return date, so we are then able to book an entire round trip itinerary, rather than in segments. We have been providing the service for many successful years and use the process that is most efficient for both us and the client.
The routing that was originally requested (IAH-LAS-KOA-IAH) was not the routing that was eventually booked(IAH-SLC-KOA), leaving out what looks like a major stopover.
I am sorry that the service was not up to your expectations, cabolew, but I can assure that this experience is not the norm.

Thanks for the replies.

Just to clarify, I did give awardplanner a much more detailed itin. I was hoping to take advantage of their experience to get as much travel for my miles as possible.

After my return trip had been available to book for over a week it appearred the FC reward seats were being rapidly booked up. Since this was a honeymoon trip to a popular destination I did not feel I could take the chance and wait to see if awardplanner could do any better. At this point I booked the travel myself.

I did call awardplanner twice to see if the trip was being worked on prior to booking it myself.

There's no hard feelings. The fee is being refunded with no arguements.

The 330 day strategy is not a "myth." Earlier this year, I called at midnight airline time (actually earlier in my time zone) exactly 331 days out and had no trouble securing 2 outbound seats in business class from US to Europe. It was not necessary to book a return flight at that time, since I received a 2-week courtesy hold. ^

After 14 days, I called back (again, exactly 331 days out) and booked my return flight. Got my first choice of flights, first choice of carriers (in this case a OneWorld member) and 100% satisfaction with no hassles. :cool:

I don't know how AwardPlanner operates, but it appears from this thread that they are unwilling or unable to perform as I described. If that is the case, why bother? By not following this protocol, you definitely risk losing your first choice of award seats, particularly on popular routes like Hawaii and Europe. Is it worth the risk? :eek:

AAdvantage, the program I am assuming you used for your award, seems to be more generous with award holds than most other programs. While AA typically allows a 2 week hold, most other airlines only give 3 days, if that. In addition, AA usually lets you hold a one-way while you wait for the return portion of your trip to come into the 331 day window. AA, in my experience, also has significantly better award availability than other FF programs and in most cases releases at least some award seats 331 days out (I had no problem securing two first class seats IAD - HNL 331 days in advance for my honeymoon two years ago and the return two weeks later.). Other FF programs release seats in a somewhat random fashion tossing an element of luck (unless you check everyday) into the equation, while others (such as CO) seem to have limited "saver" awards no matter when you book.

The OP's problem seems to be that he is using DL miles. I have little respect for the SkyMiles program. Next to CO's NonePass program, I have found that Skymiles are perhaps the most difficult to use for booking awards at "saver" levels. I started looking for a SkySaver award at 331 days out for a trip next October, coach IAD-ABQ. Can get there on desired day, but there are no SkySaver seats at anytime on the day I want to return. None. It's ridiculous when you are talking about a domestic coach seat that far in advance. I had my choice of flights on AA and UA, and went with AA.

As far as Award Planner, I am surprised to learn that they were not all over the 330 day advance request. It seems like a slam-dunk that they would want to dispense with immediately. This bit of news suggests that you are better off attempting to book on your own that far in advance and only pay Award Planner once you can not secure award seats within the first few days of the availability window. Incidentally, I have never seen any statistics about the % of requests that Award Planner successfully fills. Would be interesting to know before throwing money down a potential rat hole.

Based on the above I do not think I would ever use awardplanner. With some programs waiting until the return date comes up almost guarantees you will not get your tickets.

I have never booked an award 330 days out. I have never failed to get the award I needed.

If you're looking for a basic roundtrip award with a year's notice and you have miles in one program to use, why outsource the redemption?

It seems to me that the value in a service like AwardPlanner is that they will be familiar with all the potential partners that an airline program has, helping you figure out how to piece together different carriers for a complex itinerary... and that they'll do the searching when there are several different routings only some of which are likely to have space.

I haven't used awardplanner because I personally enjoy the challenge of finding seats and piecing together itineraries.

But the vast majority of folks out there aren't experts in partners, routings, stopover rules, etc. and Awardplanner can help those folks.

The person who will stay up until midnight to book a straight return award probably isn't the target market for the service...

Your example doesn't show that the 330-day strategy is not a myth. It just shows that you got the flights you wanted by calling at the 330-day mark. To begin proving it a myth, you would need to call back a few days/weeks/months later and see if the same award ticket you booked at the 330-day mark was still available. Then you would need to repeat the whole process quite a few times (your sample size of 1 award doesn't mean much).

Many here have had great luck booking award at different intervals before the flight. I have had good luck with last minute awards (not that anyone should wait until the last minute to book a honeymoon trip) but have also gotten awards when calling a few months before the flight. I've redeemed many awards, have never failed to get where I need to go, and have never called at the 330-day mark (and I have booked many popular awards such as FL-Rome this past July with 2 weeks notice). I would think that this does more to prove this myth than your situation did to disprove it.

Honeymoons are indeed different, esp. if every little detail matters. Plus -- barring unforseen relationship issues! -- the trip is unlikely to change, making it much easier to book in advance.

As soon as my wedding date and location was set, I booked the basic outline of my honeymoon... 8 months out. (I claimed 2 AA awards in F, LAX-PPT/PPT-AKL-SYD/MEL-LAX for the precise dates I wanted.) Then I leisurely took my time filling in the rest of the pieces, e.g. hotel awards, flights to/from the wedding, intra-island flights PPT-BOB (which Randy's BoardingArea.com was most helpful with), my SYD-MEL segment, etc.

But this wasn't 330 days out, either! And just the kind of trip I would have turned over to AwardPlanner, if I didn't love the challenge of doing it myself so much!

But frankly a simple Hawaii roundtrip with miles out of a single account isn't what I'd look for help with. But again, that's my own style.

Glad to hear they refunded your money. That's certainly going above and beyond the call.

No disrespect intended, but I doubt your experience is typical, particularly if you have top airline status which often permits rules to be "ignored" or "special" inventory to magically appear.

Have you tried to book a trip to TLV on CO using a saver award several months out? Or perhaps to Hawaii on 2-3 months notice? Good luck.

Because awardplanner claims to have special expertise in such matters. One wonders what exactly that means if AP doesn't take advantage of the new inventory loads at the 330 day mark. I guess they just tell the client "sorry, we tried" when the seats disappear...

Agreed. AP could definitely pay for itself by saving customers hours on the phone with CSRs particularly some of the outsourced ones who are clueless :rolleyes:

Clearly. As MileKing suggests, the best option for savvy FTers is to try your own hand with reservations at the 330 day mark, and use AP as a fallback option if you continue to strike out.

I personally have had good success booking many FF trips on UA and AA :cool: both domestic and international, and very little on CO or US. :mad:

No, but that's the point

1) I know not to put all my eggs in the CO basket.

2) I have tried to book saver awards a few months out to tons of European destinations -- in coach, business, and first. While one airline won't have availability, or even several won't, another carrier or their partner will. I've yet to be disappointed. I keep a portfolio of miles in various programs and someone has managed to get me what I needed. Btw, I have NEVER been disappointed trying to use United miles to Asia in premium classes or American miles to Europe, though frequently that meant using Swissair (due to the annoying restriction on BA transatlantic flights).

3) I have booked tons of Hawaii using United miles with no problem at all.

None of the above has relied on status to waive capacity controls or make appeals to inventory management for release of seats.

If you build up your miles in CO and are looking to redeem on CO, NW, DL, KL, etc. well you've made what I would consider to be the first mistake.

oneworld and Star Alliance both offer far better award redemption. You're in for disappointment if you don't have options in those alliances to redeem with.

With all due respect, if you're focused on Continental, you'll need far more than awardplanner to help you IMHO.

Boraxo-

I think in today's award redemption environment, persistence and date flexibility are far more important than being the proverbial early bird.

In fact, in many instances, I am finding that FFPs (or is it inventory management from the airline itself) release award seats, often in First and Business, as well as the expected Coach, 2-5 days prior to my desired dates of travel.

If you are willing to play 'chicken' with the FFPs and wait until the bitter end before your trip, you'll quite likely be successful. Especially, if you call up the airline about a week before your desired travel date and itinerary, and ask if you could PURCHASE 9 seats in Business Class. If they say 'Yes', thats a pretty strong (though not foolproof) indication that Business Class has enough unsold seats to warrant releasing award inventory.