Originally Posted by milevalue (Post 19615269)

As the proprietor of one of the largest Award Booking Services

Originally Posted by milevalue (Post 19615269)

As the proprietor of one of the largest Award Booking Services, I wanted to say a few things. First, to OP's concerns:

For most awards, I need the following info: full legal names, gender, birthdays, account info and pin/pw. For AA awards, I don't even need account info, gender, or birthday.

Then I put an award on hold, and you book it with your own credit card. In some situations, it is not possible to put an award on hold. In those cases, you can choose between giving me the credit card info by phone, which I shred afterwards, or calling in to book the award yourself with step-by-step written instructions.

Now, to the value proposition:

At $149 for two passengers on one award, my price, almost everyone gets incredible value from a good award booking service.

First, it will save you tons of time. Any time you have to get into a phone call with the awfully-trained agents of a few airlines, you are staring at an hour. What do you value your time at?

Second, it will save you taxes and fees. My personal record is saving two people almost $2,000. In many cases, I will save $50 in phone fees by using phone-ticketing tricks.

Third, you can add free oneways and extra legs. You may know the rules for all airlines in this regard. We do.

Four, you will not have to think about which of your 5 types of miles/points is best for the job.

If you just want a domestic oneway on United, an award booking service would be a waste of your money. But if you want anything with any complexity, and you aren't a complete expert yourself, you will get good value.

Finally OP made another interesting point: "And, also considering most services operate blogs, isn't their service the exact opposite of what their blogs attempt to provide?"

The short answer is yes, which is very interesting for me to ponder. If you read and understood every post on my blog, you would basically have the same award-booking acumen I do. I am giving away for free what I charge for. I can't think of other businesses that do that.

Altruistic reason: the main purpose of milevalue.com is not profit.

Selfish reason: It turns out to be a successful strategy because it advertises my acumen and draws in more potential customers.

Originally Posted by oneworld82 (Post 19617532)

I would pay anyone who can help me find avaialbility on SQ F/J using US Air Dividend Miles 200-300 usd gladly :D

Originally Posted by foofiter (Post 19617800)

Well put milevalue! PS: it was great to meet you in Chicago!

I am fairly certain I am the only award booking service that does not run a "real" blog.

I do have a blog on my site but I just post interesting tips and offers as I find them. I DO NOT have any affiliate or credit card links on it. I don't want to become a marketing/sales slave for American Express or Chase.

I have booked a lot of awards for myself and others over the years and I want to help others. I am not going to get rich off of it but its a hobby that I can make a little extra travel money doing.

To echo others it really comes down to time value. You can spend 5 hours learning the airline program rules and fighting with phone agents if you like. Same as you can spend 5 hours learning about plumbing and replace your own toilet in your house.

I have many satisfied customers who say I charge too little. There is exactly where I want to be. I only plan to raise prices if I get overwhelmed (which is what any business does!).

I am happy to answer any questions via private message--whether you decide to use my service or not!

Foo

Originally Posted by MSPpete (Post 19616632)

I tried using Ben's service earlier this year. Very poor customer contact experience from an associate of his. No reply to my emails after the initial inquiry. I canceled my request and still received no reply or contact.

I like his blog, but the award booking service needs attention.
:td:

Originally Posted by glenny84 (Post 19617773)

Seconded on this.

Originally Posted by pinniped (Post 17779530)

I guess my point is that a travel agent doesn't add any value to me for airlines and hotels - except perhaps if we're talking about boutiques or B&B's that the agent knows very well. In fact, I've had cases where I used a 3rd party agent and then had problems changing, canceling, viewing, or otherwise managing a reservation directly with an airline or hotel. The involvement of the TA actually injected problems into the situation.

My other point was that I would pay for something that a human travel agent can still bring to the table in 2011: ridiculously good local knowledge that can effectively "curate" the gigabytes of review information on the Internet and in guidebooks. So yes, I would let them handle all of those bookings and make commissions on that...

Later this year, I'll have a few days in each of Mumbai, Delhi, and Kathmandu. I know little about any of those cities or regions. I will probably sniff around, do some of my own research, but may end up finding a travel agent who really knows how to plan activities in each one. My hunch is that I'll book some things through the agent - drivers, guides, etc. - and they'll make commission that way.

Originally Posted by b8b (Post 19637279)

Contacted www.milevalue.com - >24 hours ago (after submitting form, it said I response in <24 hours), still no response.

Originally Posted by KiranSatish (Post 19783024)

I have used http://www.worldclassperks.com/ 3 times in the past month for 2 future vacation trips and one trip for my friends - total of 9 tickets and their service was fantastic. I'm not a big miles junkie but understand the value. We were provided multiple options, cabin layouts, difference between first and business pricing and how first class for our Asia trip was better (have a boat load of United mies). Our 2 trips were booked within 24 hours and our friends within a few days as they were exploring additional destinations.

Originally Posted by WorldClassPerks (Post 20054598)

WCP charges a minimum $200 award booking fee per ticket ... the rate could be higher...

Originally Posted by MatthewLAX (Post 20186429)

Let our Award Expert Team ...we book millions of miles each week and can help you on any and all award redemptions.

Originally Posted by b8b (Post 20186552)

I didn't see Award Travel Services on the list - I also booked one with him, he was able to find me a great award booking, accomplished what appeared to be an impossible US award - something I couldn't easily do myself, if at all.