Hello,
We ask for everyone's DOB and passport names so that we can hold tickets if need be. Often times, we find some space that might not be there in the morning or by the time someone responds so we automatically hold that said space. To do that though, Airlines require the DOB and full name as on passport.
Hope this helps!

Tahsir

Juicy Miles
 

I just used JuicyMiles (their Facebook, an announcement) to book my flight to honeymoon in BKK, family in TPE & HKG & SBA to & from JFK all in business (w/ CA First for PEK-SFO) for 2 for <350k UA pts with Edward, their S*A specialist.

Totally satisfied with the huge responsiveness, 2-way interaction & very helpful attitude & great result! Their S*A expert Ed is truly truly an expert.

In more detail, Ed & I emailed about 40x over 2 weeks, trying many many itineraries which changed as the bride's preferences changed. Despite the aggrivating back & forth, Ed's calm always stayed. His ability to quickly find both the itineraries I'd imagined but also alternative routings that were even more considerate of me & my bride than even I had in mind was truly special. As a bonus, Ed had been the very same destination & property I'd most wanted (by coincidence).

Again, I can't rave enough about Ed's level of thoughtfulness & patience & am so excited to get going on the honeymoon!

Can you please add www.upgradeguru.com.
$150 first, $75 each additional.

Thanks
Chan

Can anyone here provide some insight on award magic? I started emailing with someone from there yesterday - initial responses were very timely and helpful. Since then - nothing. Basically since I gave him my dividend miles information it's been 1-5 word responses, no update on whether or not the reservation has been held, almost completely MIA.

Haven't paid them yet but a pretty bizarre customer experience when someone told me that the itinerary they found won't last and we should hold it - and then 24 hours later I have no idea if it's been held.

If you agreed to hold it I'm sure it has been held. Award Magic did a great job for us; we couldn't be happier. You just started working with them yesterday? It does take quite a bit of research and depending on the complexity of your request, perhaps several phone calls. I've no doubt you will hear back soon. Happy travels!

Just wanted to chime in here about my experience with Matthew at UPGRD.

I had a pretty convoluted honeymoon trip, flying to South Africa and the Seychelles with specific stopovers needed for certain amounts of time, an open jaw, and very specific timing. Furthermore my trip is in June/July, which made things even harder. Matthew was extremely resourceful with routings, finding us flights on great airlines that fit all our needs and even taking care of all the bookings for us. Further, when one of my flights was suddenly canceled (the route no longer exists) from an airport with no other *A flights, Matthew proactively got in touch with his contacts at United corporate to negotiate some compensation.

My only minor quibble was that sometimes it took Matthew a few days to reply to my emails, but it's more likely because he was on another continent and I tend to email a lot. Considering that everything was booked up 8-10 months prior to the trip, a couple days of delay wasn't a problem anyway.

Prior to signing up with Matthew I attempted to look for these things myself, but with no status and no subscription to the online tools I wasn't even able to see the flights that Matthew booked that same day, so there is no chance I could've done this on my own. Given the magnitude of my trip, I am 100% happy with my decision to work with Matthew and I would confidently recommend him to others (and already have).

Just a brief review of PointsPros:

I filled out their online form and was contacted within 24 hours. The initial contact was very cordial and asked a ton of good questions about desired travel dates, seat preferences, etc.

I was then put into contact with one of their specialists, and over the span of 3-4 days, we emailed back and forth a couple of times.

I gave him my SkyMiles login/password and voila, all flights were booked and seats (all economy comfort!) were selected.

We ended up getting RDU-ATL-HNL, KOA-SEA-MSP-RDU near Easter/Spring Break, all travel on Saturdays, for 55,000 SkyMiles per person.

Our out of pocket expenses were their fees ($200 base + $100 for additional person) plus the flight from HNL-KOA which we booked on our own. The payment to PointsPros was via PayPal which made is super easy.

I'd gladly pay $300 to PointsPros again to not have to deal with Delta's insane online booking system, and to travel at such good mileage rates.

Summary: 55k points per person, RDU-Hawaii. Great overall experience.

Hi, pls add MilesElite to the list.
we charge $99 for award search and $149 for award search and booking.
www.mileselite.com

Done!

And, fellow members, the uppermost post is a [u]wiki post[/b]. Any signed in member with ninety or more posts can edit the wikipost to add or edit information. "Leaving it up to George" is not really much of a FlyerTalk value; helping each other is. :)

BTW, restricting members to one review is also contrary the spirit of FT operates. More reviews mean more data points, and more recent information. Every genuine review adds value for all of us.

JDiver
Senior Moderator

RewardFlyer.com
 

Came across this site from one of the bloggers.

Essentially the website does the following:
- Shows you award availability
- Shows you which cards to apply for to get award flights
- Free award booking service if you apply for cards through their site

Pretty cool concept and definitely one to think about for the churners as you'll score the free award booking service by applying for any credit card.

Will add to the WIKI.

Hello all,
I plan on making a LAX-MAD-DUB-ATH-LAX (4 people) trip starting in mid May 2015 for 3 weeks. At what point should I start getting my information to an award booking service? Should I send it to more than one award booking service? Can I get an extra trip like a "open jaw", do I have to ask the booking service for this or will they tell me here is an extra trip you can get for free? I'd like to go in business at least the transcon legs and I can have 2 out of the 4 people go a few days after the first 2 for flexibility. I have the following miles currently available...

660K UA, 250K AA, SPG 250K, UR 250K, WN 245K,
Can somebody point me in the right direction?

Another Award booking service
 

Stumbled across this site today. I know nothing about them but thought I would add it to the mix. TravelSort.

Easy Award Booking
 

Easy Award Booking will help you to find the perfect award. We specialize in Canadian award with significant knowledge on Aeroplan tickets. Including mini-rtw. We charge $99CAD per award. PM or visit www.easyawardbooking.com for more info.

Award booking services
 

I would appreciate any help in locating a service that provides help in using miles/points to get award seats to a specific destination.

You might find this thread useful:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...e-reviews.html