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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.

I used Michael at Award Magic recently. It was a pretty easy booking I think as I already had info as the most likely airline with dates available and so forth. He was very diligent however and really nailed down every single detail with the airline rep to make sure it was all done properly and would go through without any problems.

Just need to make my seat assignments, couldn't seem to get the online thing to work though. Flights aren't until Aug/Sep 2016.

Looking for assistance with the use of Skymiles.

Hoping redeem miles to book Business class on Delta partner: Virgin Australia (LAX-BNE) or Korean Air (LAX-GRU).

The trick here is that I need to book for two!

If you think you can find availability for two on Delta and assist me with my itinerary, please DM me.

Thanks in Advance!

If you don't see space on DL.com for those routes, award booking services won't see it either.

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I'm hoping someone can advise me if these services would be useful for an upcoming honeymoon trip in first class. We will be headed from the US to Athens, Greece in June. Since it is a honeymoon our dates are more rigid and our departure date can vary by 1 day and the return date can vary by +/- 3 days. We have roughly 500k skymiles between two accounts.

Using Delta's website for the dates within our range it is costing roughly 300k a ticket from our home airport. I can find from ATL at around 220k a ticket (or DTW through Moscow for 125k... which I don't think we really want to do). Is this a scenario where one of these services might help? Or is my best bet just using Delta.com? Also, which of the listed companies do you recommend based on the nature of this request?

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for your help!

Welcome to FT! Your question is a difficult one for any of us to answer. It all depends on your specific circumstances and what kind of pain/risk/time you are willing to put into the search. (Note I am not a Delta guy, so my advice may not be spot on here.)

The award service folks don't necessarily do anything you couldn't do yourself. But like with any professional who focuses on something, they can know more and do the task more efficiently and more creatively. For my honeymoon trip, I used a consultant after trying myself for two weeks. He, in a day, had multiple options which included routings I never would have thought to check. So, was it worth it for me? Yes. For trips that aren't as sensitive, or where I'm just checking to see what might be possible, I don't use a consultant.

The analogy I use often is a handyperson for your home repair stuff. I know how to do most of it myself. But there are some times when I really don't want to do it, am afraid I won't quite get it perfect, or think it will take me 3-4 hours vs someone who does it everyday taking 1-2 hours due to experience or a creative trick of the trade that I couldn't know, where I call someone in to do the job.

With the caveat f my not being a Delta person, I personally wouldn't hesitate to use a consultant. It is your honeymoon. The dates are rigid. You want your spouse to have the time of their life. The tickets will be free ('ish), so for the price of a fancy dinner in LA or NY, you can be free of the hassle. I'm sure the two of you have a lot more to stress out over with wedding, family, travel plans, etc. Of course, YMMV.

assistance in booking travel using miles and points
 

hey guys,
been awhile. I vaguely recall someone charging a fee for the service of booking travel using miles in the most optimal way. apologies if this is the wrong forum but I haven't been able to find who does this. if someone could help point me in the right direction. I would like to book 4 tickets from sfo to icn this summer using british air/aa miles. thanks

You're looking for an award booking service. I'll merge this into the appropriate thread.

TWA884
Moderator

Starting a new site MilesHelp.com. This is not just another award booking service. Whole transaction goes thru the website, including details of the trip, communication with award experts, itinerary review, acceptance and credit card payment.

Currently we have only one Award Expert, but it's based on the many Sharing services and we are expect to have multiple independent award experts(not one company), users will be able to choose with whom they want to work.

I also want to make award booking more friendly and helpful for people who like to go at it alone(without an award expert), therefore I am adding very cool travel tools, such as "How Many Miles Do I Need" that displays award charts(with GeoCharts) for different airlines(Always expanding) and more tools are coming.

Come in and test it, if you have suggestions or have other ideas for the tools, PM me.

So like this http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...demptions.html
http://www.economicalexcursionists.com/travelTools/

Similar, more tools are going to be implemented :), Also it includes award booking service.;)

All - I'm the CTN (Chief Travel Nerd) over at AwardBandit.com

I offer a double the savings, no pay guarantee. Essentially, I want whatever savings I get for you to be NET of my cost. Meaning, if my fee is $150 and I don't save you at least $300, you get your money back.

Who doesn't like free money?

Am not following you.
On an award booking how do you define savings. Theoratically the cost is miles, fees, (airline) and taxes.

please provide an example where you helped a traveler.

Sure thing, great question.

A customer came to me unsure of how he should use his miles to book a trip from PHL-FCO for this summer. He had tried doing it himself and ended up finding a flight that routed him through LHR which would've ended up costing him roughly $1,000 in taxes and surcharges. The direct PHL-FCO flight he wanted for the day he was leaving cost more points than he had. At this point he already booked his stay at an SPG property in Rome.

I asked if he would be willing to use his remaining HHonors points to stay one night at another Rome hotel, to which he agreed. I was able to find two economy seats on the direct PHL-FCO flight a day earlier and we booked him and his fiance at the Hilton property for the one night.

All in all he ended up spending just around $200 for the two tickets by avoiding LHR.

So in this case I was able to save him $800 off of the itinerary he put together. My fee was $150, but I want my customers to save as much as my fee MINUS my fee. So in this case my goal was to save him $300 and I surpassed that. If I was only able to save him $299, I don't take payment.

Thanks. I see your point.Some of us avoid LHR and especially BA for the ransom they want :D