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.

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.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

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.