Best points booking service for large families?
 

Hi everyone,
I have been gearing up to book my family of six in business class to Dublin and London next summer on El. Now we have suddenly had an opportunity for a three week Christmas home exchange in Barcelona fall into our laps, and I don't know much about getting my group from AUS to Barcelona (during the holidays no less). I know I need to get it booked quickly and rather than make a mistake costing miles, I am considering using a flight booking service. The problem is, most of them charge per person, and I have a group of 6, who will all be booked on the same flights... Does anyone know one who charges a flat fee or for the first few passengers?
Thanks for any info.
Charlie

Some charge a reduced price for additional passengers on exactly the same itinerary.

There's a thread somewhere on FT that lists and discusses award ticket booking services. Be sure to pick one that's good, reliable, trustworthy, and ideally very familiar with the airlines and miles you plan to use. Remember that these aren't travel agents and consumer protections may not apply.

The chances of getting 6 awards on 1 flight in very busy time are close to nil. All in business class: no hope. All in economy: very unlikely
You will need to consider splitting in 2 or 3 groups on different days/flights and/or different destinations, with local transport to the final destination.

We are a family of six and get business class seats to our holiday home in Florida (i.e. TATL) all the time. You just need to be flexible, resourceful, and a bit lucky.

As this is not specific to the Information Desk we'll try it in Travel Tools. Further consolidation may occur.

~beckoa, co-moderator Information Desk

Thanks for the responses and the proper placement with the great wiki. Anyone ever used MilesMamma? While the site so far doesn't inspire me with confidence its definitely the best deal for a larger group and they only ask for $20 down to find the flights.

Award booking services - a list and some reviews
 

I think awardchaser.com doesn't charge anything to look for flights. You only pay once they find options

Anyone familiar with an award booking service that will--

1. Look at the number of points I have, and determine a couple of options in terms of "interesting itineraries" which cover areas/regions of interest? Meaning, I give the award agent an open book, saying something like: "I'd like an itinerary that gets me ex US through South America (Ecuador, Peru, Chile) for a week, then onwards to South Africa, in Biz, and I'm willing to pay an extra $500 p/p to connect segments here and there" or "I'm open to Asia ex Europe, would like to see Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Singapore in J on the long-hauls sometime in Fall 2016".

2. Be able to help me with the BA Avios companion ticket booking? I can easily book it myself by looking at the availability, but what I don't have is an automatic alert system which tells me when X amount of seats in J or F open up. Right now I can find only space avaialable on the return flight, but nothing on the departure...and I know these things change by the hour, and I don't have the resources to constantly monitor the site.

I used an award service/consultant who said he could do the actual booking for me if I gave him access to my FF account as well as the necessary info on travelers, etc.

It was pretty simple -- he just said to change my password to something new, then give him the new password, and as soon as he was done (an hour later), re-change the password back to the original. Obviously, you have to have some confidence in the guy not being a scammer, but worked like a charm. I only gave him access after he found the flights I wanted and I felt pretty comfortable he was legit.

Reminder

I've used Scott Grimmer's (but has others working for him) MileValue booking service twice now, and my experience has been that open-ended requests don't really work. A few years ago, I had a long list and the ideas were not that great. As soon as I settled on China, then the ideas came out - "how about a free stopover in Europe?" I said, "Greece?". "SURE!" This was back in the hey-day of US Airways.

I ended up getting two ridiculously great-valued awards. Both times, I had gotten frustrated during the process, but ended up with a big smile.

1) 2 passengers from Ohio to Athens, 5-day stopover, then on to Beijing; he convinced the agent that Beijing and Shanghai were co-located, so I got a free, against-the-rules open-jaw, and flew back... All in flat-bed business, for 90k miles/person. (I proposed to my wife on this trip)

2) 2 passengers from Ohio to Sao Paolo, 5-day stopover, then on to Cuzco, Peru and then back home in Flat bed business.... for 50k miles/person!!!! (He admitted he had no idea why it didn't price at 100k miles/person, but he somehow pulled it off!). That discount itself paid for the award booking service.

I have gotten 4 first class to Europe on the same flight twice Sometimes it requires calling back a bunch and booking one seat at a time. Try Kam at Award Advocate. He was just very helpful with a domestic booking... He helped me book roundtrip tickets for 4 from different airports-on specific dates, at specific times. Close flights-on tiny planes, but very expensive both in dollars and in points. After trying all of the tricks I knew, I called Kam. He saved me $800 and over 50K points. I highly recommend!

Award Planners
 

Had booked a three airline, two mile sources in June. Dennis of Award Planners was very helpful, quick and professional.

I started playing on the return portion to see if I could move up to F from J. Inthe meantime AA showed no inventory in J ( original booking) ! Called Dennis, was quick to mind me two J immediately and will keep looking for F as my travel date gets closer.

No EXTRA charge. Recommend him.

Are you sponsoring a Syrian refugee? Awarding Canada will waive all of our fees for a one-way trip to bring a Syrian refugee (or family) to Canada.

Just throwing my name in the ring. Have worked with two very high profile award bookers in the past, but decided to go out on my own. This is an activity I truly enjoy, and love getting to know the wants / needs of my clients. I take a highly hands-on approach, and encourage phone calls, etc., in order to ensure whatever award I find matches the pace and "style" of the traveler.

My website is MilesConcierge. Would be happy to help with any award booking types, although I'd say my forte is Asia across all alliances.

Thanks,
Dan

P.S. Feel free to PM me versus submitting on the website, or at least note that you found me on Flyertalk if you do submit on the site!