FlyerTalk Forums - Award booking services

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This might be asking too much so if it is, feel free to delete mods.

Can anyone throw AwardBandit.com up on the Wiki? I've gotten some inquiries from folks regarding my service and I'd rather have my M.O. on a singular page.

$150 for one passenger; $200 for 2+ passengers.

Thanks!
-Dominic

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcperilli (Post 26202070)

Can anyone throw AwardBandit.com up on the Wiki? I've gotten some inquiries from folks regarding my service and I'd rather have my M.O. on a singular page.

$150 for one passenger; $200 for 2+ passengers.

Thanks!
-Dominic

Done.

I'm reasonably new to the game and apologies in advance if I'm not in the correct post for my specific concern, but I've got a question about award bookings in general: do these services need access to my specific FF accounts/credit card numbers, or is it more along the lines of 'I (the booking service) find flights that meet your needs and put them on hold, you (the client) call the airline and make the reservation yourself'?

Naturally, I'd rather not be giving out sensitive information haphazardly to strangers over the internet and I'm assuming this has a pretty straightforward answer, just wanted to know before getting started. Thanks for the help!

Quote:

Originally Posted by rancaguino (Post 26213378)

Quote:

Originally Posted by jc8097654 (Post 24463083)

Quote:

Originally Posted by pkerr (Post 24465522)

Quote:

Originally Posted by jc8097654 (Post 24463083)

New to using Award Booking Services and want to have realistic expectations... I know that services provided will vary, but in general how do the services respond to the following questions:

Do Award Booking services provide support when things go wrong i.e. winter storms, cancelled flights, missed flight?
The service I used said they would but everything went fine but they gave me suggestions on what do do if certain things happened.

Will the Award Booking services need very propriety info from me (ex: Amex Membership Rewards login)? Yes.. they'll need login info so they can book your flights using your points.

Will I need to be on the phone when the booking involves use of a credit card?
No. .

Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retale_88 (Post 24506660)

Quote:

Originally Posted by jc8097654 (Post 24463083)

Do Award Booking services provide support when things go wrong i.e. winter storms, cancelled flights, missed flight?Some will provide 'service after the sale' but others don't. You would need to ask if that's included up front.

Some will provide 'service after the sale' but others don't. You would need to ask if that's included up front.

Quote:

Will the Award Booking services need very propriety info from me (ex: Amex Membership Rewards login)? Will I need to be on the phone when the booking involves use of a credit card?

This will depend on whether the award service includes the phone booking as part of their service. I would highly recommend you choose a service that does provide the phone booking, as even if they tell you what to say or what segments to ask for, it can be a painful and extremely time consuming process.
To answer your question about proprietary info, yes, if you're having the award service do the booking - then you'll need to provide them with your credentials and CC info to make the booking for you. I was not required to be on the phone when I had an award booking service use my CC info (to pay for taxes/fees), FWIW.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HMPS (Post 24507509)

This issue of giving up such data bothers me too. I suppose I can change the PW on related sites immediately but not the CC numbers unless I report it lost.

I am reluctant to give up data on the basis of someone " hanging out a shingle"
Of award booker.
That is why it is of utmost importance that names are named.

Quote:

Originally Posted by abaheti (Post 24508018)

The person I have used asked, and I allowed him to use the card I had on file. In another case, he added his credit card to my profile with a note "award booker" or "awar consultant". I paid him back afterwards. He didn't seem concerned, but I deleted his card info as soon as I was booked so I wouldn't accidentally charge a ticket to his card. I guess he (like me) doesn't mind getting the miles for the purchases. :-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackal (Post 24508480)

How is giving your credit card number to an award booker any different than giving it to any other merchant?

PCI compliance issues aside, if the business is trustworthy enough for you to use them, then they should be trustworthy enough to use your credit card information responsibly and delete it when they are finished with it. Many POS systems allow businesses to retrieve credit card details after you are gone, and the very nature of some credit card transactions (such as ones where your full number is imprinted on carbon paper) means that your credit card information remains accessible to the business after you finish the transaction.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HMPS (Post 24517257)

there are some valid points in what you say. Of course I make sure the websites on which I part with my CC etc has been verified as to the " https" , reputation, physical address, etc. Even thenI do pray.

In the award booking sector, reputations have not yet solidified, forget about physical address or company registration, many have declined to give out phone numbers. Those who ask for payment upfront with no avenues for redress take the cake.
yes I have used a booker once.....since then the first or second contacts with a couple have left me disappointed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rancaguino (Post 26213378)

Dominic @ AwardBandit.com here.

I currently offer phone booking as part of the package. This is how I operate:

-I give you high-level details of itinerary and we agree on payment.
-You pay.
-I call airlines and set up bookings under your FF number. You can then call back, reference the record locator and pay taxes and phone booking fees on your own.
-In the event you want to avoid paying the phone fee, I record a video using Screencast (so you can see my screen) showing exactly how to book the awards online. Typical phone booking charges are $30+ so I charge $15 extra to record the video.

Any other questions, feel free to PM me.

Thanks for the quick responses and invaluable information TWA884 and dcperilli. Specifically for TWA 884, is all of the information you referenced found within this specific thread or found elsewhere? I made a good-faith effort to search out the answer to my question through the search bar, but you gave me much more than my initial search brought up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rancaguino (Post 26217963)

All the messages that I quoted are in this thread. Clicking on the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/image...s/viewpost.gif to the right of the original author will take you back to the original post.

Cheers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TWA884 (Post 26218909)

Ended up going through the entire thread this afternoon-made for a very intriguing read! Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction, much appreciated.

Just to contribute to the conversation re: credit card security, I will explain how Awarding Canada keeps your information secure.

Most of our clients are using Aeroplan points. For these transactions, once I have built the itinerary with an Aeroplan agent, I will conference call the client into the conversation. Aeroplan has recently updated their credit card system, where the client simply types in their information using their phone. Aeroplan nor I hear your credit card information. Rarely, the system doesn't work (because of the conference call). If this happens, I give the client two options: I can take down the number and process the payment (which I record on a piece of paper which is promptly shredded in a 12-sheet cross-cutter), or I can end the conference call and allow the client to enter their information themselves. When I take down credit card information, I do not record the security code (CVV). I take a similar approach when I deal with other frequent flyer programs.

I never preserve a client's credit card information, and everything is securely destroyed.

I want to give shout out to MilesConcierge for the excellent service he provided.

I think of myself as a very savvy traveler and when it comes to paid fares I really can help to score a deal (I did pretty good in making money on FlightFox back in 2013) but when it comes to awards, I know my weakness, I'm not very good at finding award space.

Enter MilesConcierge, he did a fantastic job of not finding one but two separate trips and for the dates I needed. Giving me plenty of options (I really didn't know where I wanted to go) and different airlines. He found two business class seats on Tahiti air, talk about impossible. This didn't work out (thank you Citi for converting my card and not depositing my points!) but he understood and told me he will try again once I had my points.

Even after I booked the trip, he still looked after me to make me aware of more convenient flight. He called AA (three times!!!) to reserve me a ticket because they couldn't see the availability. He also answered all my questions providing excellent customer service. I will be one happy flyer in CX First to HKG.

I will use him again because I believe that he is really passionate about what he does and this is not just a job.

Reminder:

Award booking services reviews that appear to be solicited, based upon content and posting history, will be deleted.

TWA884
Moderator

I've received several private inquiries after I posted the above reminder. Let me share one of my responses in order to minimize confusion:

Quote:

Originally Posted by TWA884

FlyerTalk doe not allow promotional messages for commercial products; we do permit members to post reviews of products and services.

I have repeatedly made it clear that reviews of Award booking services must be unsolicited and must include sufficient details in order for the reader to form his or her own opinion concerning the value of the services rendered.

I am particularly vigilant when I read reviews without supporting particulars posted by members with scant or no posting history, especially when they have registered to FlyerTalk on the same day that the review is posted.

On the other hand, I have left standing detailed reviews by newly registered members; it all depends on the contents.

The review which I deleted was posted by a member with only one prior post and consisted of the following:

Quote:

+1 for <redacted> at <redacted>. He was able to find some great deals and went above and beyond to book those flights. I'll definitely use his services again.

I'm sorry, but that that review does not meet my standard by any stretch of one's imagination. I am not interested in seeing the documents; I want the readers of the thread to be aware of how difficult it was to find suitable awards and how complicated it was to book the itinerary.

Hope this helps.

I would like to share my very positive experiences with two of the Award Travel Booking sites and one of the Business Class Ticket booking sites:

1) AwardBandit: Dominic Perilli and Adam Vesey

These two guys spent a lot of time trying to find available award travel for myself and a friend traveling Delta One from the U.S. into Italy (FCO, FLR, BLQ, MXP, PSA). This was being searched for pretty last minute, one week from actual departure date.

As I said, they spent a lot of time on an almost hopeless itinerary with regards to award travel. They did find some options for me, that I had not been able to find myself, but I ended up finding an upgradeable M class ticket, that was a better solution for the travel.

Both of these guys were very helpful, knowledgeable, and didn't give up. They have even followed up with me after my trip was over to see how it went. Despite the fact that I did not purchase through them.

http://theshortfinal.com/about-this-blog/

2) MilesConcierge: Daniel Topler-Garcia

Daniel also was looking at options for me. He was also very helpful and knowledgeable. As a result of his searches he suggested that I purchase a trip versus trying to use miles as it was not the most efficient use of my miles.

http://www.milesconcierge.com/#introduction

3) Cook Travel: Mary Ann Cicio

Mary Ann was very helpful in trying to find me Business Class tickets at an affordable price. She found me several options but I was wanting to fly Delta which was not affordable for a Business Class ticket within less than 2 weeks before the flight date. She built several itineraries for me and I appreciate the time that she spent trying to find something reasonable.

http://www.cooktravel.net/

I found each of these businesses based on information in Flyer Talk. I would recommend all three of them based on my personal experiences with them.

Thank you, Beth

AwardAdvocate.com

I have no experience with StarAlliance awards so wanted to hire an award booker to help with LH FC awards to Europe this summer. Read this thread as well as reviews on TPG, a BoardingArea blog (http://mommypoints.boardingarea.com/...ward-advocate/) and decided to reach out to Kam at AwardAdvocate. He got back to me very quickly, then we spoke on the phone to go over what I was looking for in terms of cabins, routing and within 24 hours had a proposed itinerary and a methodology for getting the miles to LH.

Before booking, our plans changed, and he was incredibly helpful/patient while I worked out our new dates. Also great with answering questions I had along the way. Not only did I get the award I wanted, but also learned about LH/Star Alliance award booking in the process. Easy going and was accessible start to finish. Highly recommend!

www.awardadvocate.com

Any of these services that someone can recommended that would would look at my Credit Cards and all my miles and points and more consult on how to move forward based on my travel wants then a service that actually books the ticket for me. Not at that point yet.