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Award booking services - a list and some reviews

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Old Feb 3, 2014, 1:11 pm
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This list is not an endorsement of any particular award booking service.
Please do your research and read this thread.

Please refer to the FT Disclaimers for disclaimer of responsibility for use of these services, etc.

Please feel free add other services and options you are aware of to this wiki.

Also, please post any personal experiences you may have with any of these services in this thread.

Reviews which appear to have been solicited by the service providers based upon content and posting history will be deleted. If you are a brand new or a member with a low post count and wish that your post not be deleted, please be sure to include the following details in your review: program(s), number of miles or points and the desired destinations and hotels. Please also include the itinerary booked by the service including the airlines, routing and hotels, the number of points needed to book that trip and the fee charged.

Award booking services (alphabetical):
  • Award Advocate - Domestic $100 p/p International $125 p/p, no additional charge for last minute. Changes $50. Also 10% discount for families traveling with children and active military
  • Award Booking Service - $25 up front search fee plus $150/ticket & $49 per 30-minute skype consultations (ask anything!)
  • Award Butler - Award Search: $79 for up to two passengers; flight info provided but does not include booking. Booking starting at $149 for first two passengers.
  • Award Chaser - Search fee starting at $79. Itinerary only - no booking provided
  • Award Expert - (MatthewLAX on FT, Live and Let's Fly blog) $150 first passenger, $100 each additional passenger; $250 per person for RTW; $50/ticket booking fee.
  • Award Flight Assist - Specialising in Australian frequent flyer programs; from AU$199 for the first passenger, additional charges for complex itineraries and more passengers
  • Award Planners - One way $129, additional person $99; Round trip $199, additional person $99; Multi City $249 additional person $149
  • Award Travel Consulting - Award Search: $125/person; Booking ticket: $75/itinerary; changes: new trip
  • Awardmagic - $179 per person OW/RT plus one stop or $279 per person for three or more destinations
  • BoundlessMiles - (Dominik Żmuda/Travelling the World): Booking: starting at $50 per passenger; Changes: half of award flight service fee paid
  • CabinChief - Bookings are $49 per pax
  • CatchUsFlying - $125 CAD/person for round-trip, $225 CAD/person for complex round-the-world. Consulting available at $75CAD/hour. (loganre17) on FT
  • Chatflights - Use app to chat in real time with real travel hackers to book travel for points or cash. Booking fee $295 pp coach and business, $395 pp first class.
  • Cranky Concierge - $75 per person each way domestic; $95 per person each way international
  • First Class and Beyond - "Concierge-style" bookings. Fee is based on the value of the retail ticket, $250/person minimum.
  • Flightfox - Consultative flight searching; fees start at $100 (requires credit card authorization up front)
  • Flyermiles - (Graham / YOWgary) $150 + 50 per additional person, $250 for RTW awards. Offers detailed information on how to book your own award.
  • iflywithmiles.com - (Mike/Melissa): 150 USD first person, 85 for additional person on same itin. Change fees vary.
  • JJ Award Travel - FT Member since 2012 - No upfront fees. Basic one-way or round-trip air award travel consisting of a total of 8 legs or less for the entire itinerary: $250 for the first person and $125 for each additional person. Complex one-way or round-trip air award travel consisting of a total of 9 or more legs per direction is additional. FT members get a 10% discount.
  • Loophole Travel - Award Travel Coaching $150 for first passenger and $100 for each additional passenger. Points Earning and MS Coaching also available.
  • Luxury Travel Consulting - (Jasper2009 on Flyertalk): $150 per person per ticket
  • Miles Help - Domestic: $100 OW; $140 RT/complex. International: $150 OW; $200 RT/complex. $50 each additional person
  • Miles Momma Booking Services - Airline Booking: $200 up to 2 passengers. $75 additional passengers. $50 non-refundable up front. Changes $50
  • MileValue Award Booking Service - (Scott Grimmer): Booking: $125 per person per award; $15 up front. Full payment required for successful search even if not booked. Change fee not currently listed; previously $79
  • PMM Travel Consulting - (Miguel R. Quinones/AwardWallet Blog): Booking: $125 per passenger for the first two, $99 for each additional. Additional charges for complex itineraries. Credit card advice and travel planning services.
  • Point.me - merger of services formerly provided by PointsPro (Ben Schlappig/One Mile At a Time) and Juice Miles
  • Reward Flyer - Domestic: $50 first person; $25 each additional person. International: $100 first person; $50 each additional person
  • SFO777.com - (SFO777 on FT) Booking: $200 first passenger, $100 each additional passenger; change fees vary
  • Travel Codex - Per person pricing: $50 for North America award / $100 for International award.
  • The Flying Mustache - $100 per ticket; additional fees for more than eight segments. Change fees vary
  • The Short Final - $100 per person. $100 upfront deposit that is fully refundable if no itinerary found.
  • Travel Is The Point - USA, Canada/Mexico & the Caribbean – starting at $50 per person. All Other International Destinations – starting at $100 per person.
  • zainman - FT member since 2009. Booking: $200 first passenger, $100 each additional passenger; change fees vary, consultant services for $ as well
  • Zero Hassle Rewards - $100 per person. Discounts for domestic and one-way
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Award booking services - a list and some reviews

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Old Feb 20, 2019, 12:06 pm
  #676  
 
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 268
Originally Posted by RBirns
I may be interested in using a service to book award flights to Hawaii in 2020. Airline bookings are not even available yet. How early should I contact a service?
Most airlines you can book 331 (?) days out. Depends on when in 2020 are you looking for?
Anyway, I'm assuming that if you're using an Award service, you have lots of miles in diff. programs as opposed to just one program?
If that's the case, I'd contact them 3+ months prior to the 331 day booking, so that you can give them all the info and take into account their advice/suggestions (ie, you may need some time to acquire more miles or transfer points between programs, etc.). Also if you're looking for saver/low redemption rates for First class, (my only experience was with AA), it seemed that you needed to book at 300 - 330 days in advance else the one seat in first class on Alaska for the low miles would disappear.

I booked AA flights for Hawaii from East coast at 300 days in advance. Less than 2 months later, the entire first class cabin had been booked on the DFW to OGG flight (lie flat seats).
luv2vacay is offline  
Old Feb 20, 2019, 1:52 pm
  #677  
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 169
Originally Posted by luv2vacay
Most airlines you can book 331 (?) days out. Depends on when in 2020 are you looking for?
Anyway, I'm assuming that if you're using an Award service, you have lots of miles in diff. programs as opposed to just one program?
If that's the case, I'd contact them 3+ months prior to the 331 day booking, so that you can give them all the info and take into account their advice/suggestions (ie, you may need some time to acquire more miles or transfer points between programs, etc.). Also if you're looking for saver/low redemption rates for First class, (my only experience was with AA), it seemed that you needed to book at 300 - 330 days in advance else the one seat in first class on Alaska for the low miles would disappear.

I booked AA flights for Hawaii from East coast at 300 days in advance. Less than 2 months later, the entire first class cabin had been booked on the DFW to OGG flight (lie flat seats).
Yes I have some miles with AA and DL, and almost a million amex points. Looking for first class from NYC to HNL (or Maui) in March-April 2020. So if you recommend 3+ months prior to 331 days, that would be right about now.
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Old Feb 21, 2019, 8:01 am
  #678  
 
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 268
Originally Posted by RBirns
Yes I have some miles with AA and DL, and almost a million amex points. Looking for first class from NYC to HNL (or Maui) in March-April 2020. So if you recommend 3+ months prior to 331 days, that would be right about now.
Yeah, it can't hurt. I used JuicyMiles and was glad that I contacted ahead of time because my original plan was faulty. I had originally planned on using Skymiles to book Korean Air as the points were significantly less. But I didn't realize that Delta never (well almost never) releases any first class "lowest saver" seats from East Coast which is what Korean Air requires. Let alone getting 2 seats. So I had almost enough AA miles for 2 FC tickets (this was before the increased lie flat seats), but needed to quickly get another AA credit card to get the miles, so the extra 3 months bought me enough time.

But that was in 2017 (booked for 2018), and things may have changed. I know at the time Delta wanted 280,000 miles round trip for EACH first class ticket (um, don't think so), so I used AA and got 2 FC round trip for 220,000 miles total with lie flats out of DFW. Delta could've had lie flats out of ATL (not sure about JFK).

Good luck!
luv2vacay is offline  
Old Feb 21, 2019, 9:32 am
  #679  
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 2,652
Originally Posted by saaveraward
Is there a FT folder where one can solicit advice on best use of miles for a complex itinerary? I'm not sticking to one alliance.

I don't need a service to book flights, just some community help to figure out best award routing on a potential RTW.
Bumping my own post as no one replied a year ago. I'm happy to pay a service to go over "best practices." I just don't need anyone to search availability and book. Strategy only and happy to pay for the service. Someone who's knows the complex ins-and-outs.

Feel free to PM if you like.
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Old Feb 21, 2019, 9:46 am
  #680  
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Anywhere warm
Posts: 33,745
Originally Posted by saaveraward
Bumping my own post as no one replied a year ago.
I've seen requests such as yours in the Information Desk forum.
SanDiego1K is offline  
Old Feb 21, 2019, 9:59 am
  #681  
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 2,652
Originally Posted by SanDiego1K
I've seen requests such as yours in the Information Desk forum.
thanks. I'll give it a shot, and as mentioned, also willing to use the services of an expert to consult.
saaveraward is offline  
Old Feb 21, 2019, 10:06 am
  #682  
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Programs: AA Lifetime Platinum; Amex Plat; Four Seasons; Fairmont; HH; etc.; "Retirees-In-Training"
Posts: 658
Originally Posted by saaveraward
Bumping my own post as no one replied a year ago. I'm happy to pay a service to go over "best practices." I just don't need anyone to search availability and book. Strategy only and happy to pay for the service. Someone who's knows the complex ins-and-outs.

Feel free to PM if you like.
I don't remember which awards service it was (not one that we actually use), but when I was searching through some of the listings (on *their* own websites, not just here on FT), I'm pretty sure that at least one did offer services by time, for complex situations or extra questions. Presumably they'd include "general consulting about awards" in that...?
Sorry I don't remember which service it was.

GC
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Old Feb 21, 2019, 10:42 am
  #683  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Hawai'i Nei
Programs: Au: UA, Marriott, Hilton; GE
Posts: 7,141
Originally Posted by saaveraward
Bumping my own post as no one replied a year ago. I'm happy to pay a service to go over "best practices." I just don't need anyone to search availability and book. Strategy only and happy to pay for the service. Someone who's knows the complex ins-and-outs.

Feel free to PM if you like.
I've never used his services, by FTer @SFO777 would be my first stop if I wanted help:

Award Booking Service | SFO777

Last edited by 747FC; Feb 21, 2019 at 10:54 am
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Old Feb 21, 2019, 10:54 am
  #684  
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 2,652
Originally Posted by 747FC
I've never used his services, by FTer SFO777 would be my first stop if I wanted help:

Award Booking Service SFO777
Strangely enough, I love his site and read it often but the time I did contact him though PM here and directly at his site, I did not get a reply. Probably just an oversight while he was on a OW mileage run :-)
saaveraward is offline  
Old Feb 21, 2019, 11:10 am
  #685  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Hawai'i Nei
Programs: Au: UA, Marriott, Hilton; GE
Posts: 7,141
Originally Posted by saaveraward
Strangely enough, I love his site and read it often but the time I did contact him though PM here and directly at his site, I did not get a reply. Probably just an oversight while he was on a OW mileage run :-)
Please report back as to which service you were able to find to help you out.
747FC is online now  
Old Feb 22, 2019, 11:16 am
  #686  
 
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 268
Originally Posted by saaveraward
Bumping my own post as no one replied a year ago. I'm happy to pay a service to go over "best practices." I just don't need anyone to search availability and book. Strategy only and happy to pay for the service. Someone who's knows the complex ins-and-outs.

Feel free to PM if you like.
I'm sure you could reach out to JuicyMiles to inquire first if they'd do that.
Also I think I saw a forum on the OMAT site (onemile at a time) you can post and see/get advice on an itinerary.
luv2vacay is offline  
Old Feb 25, 2019, 11:32 am
  #687  
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 9
Is there any one that offer award monitoring service ?
So like I pay some upfront cost then whenever the award open that meet my criteria, alert me so I can book myself.
I know I can use expertflyer but there are some limitation, for example: expertflyer doesn't show cx availability.
bingunginter is offline  
Old Feb 25, 2019, 1:08 pm
  #688  
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: FRA / YEG
Programs: AC Super Elite, Radisson Platinum, Accor Platinum
Posts: 11,874
Originally Posted by bingunginter
Is there any one that offer award monitoring service ?
So like I pay some upfront cost then whenever the award open that meet my criteria, alert me so I can book myself.
I know I can use expertflyer but there are some limitation, for example: expertflyer doesn't show cx availability.
Like most things, I'd assume most services would be open to negotiating such a service. However, since running a regular search will generally cost the award booking service time and/or money (software usage fees), such a request would only make sense cost-wise if the search parameters were very narrow (I've occasionally offered such a service when clients were looking for availability on 1-2 specific flights, or a 2nd CX F seat to open up within ~two weeks of departure, or other requests along those lines).
Jasper2009 is offline  
Old Mar 1, 2019, 1:17 pm
  #689  
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: LAX
Programs: UA 1K, AA Exec Plat, SPG Gold, Hilton Gold, Ritz Rewards
Posts: 162
Originally Posted by bingunginter
Is there any one that offer award monitoring service ?
So like I pay some upfront cost then whenever the award open that meet my criteria, alert me so I can book myself.
I know I can use expertflyer but there are some limitation, for example: expertflyer doesn't show cx availability.
Did you manage to find a service that would help you?
davewho?? is offline  
Old Apr 9, 2019, 8:09 pm
  #690  
b8b
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: SXSW
Programs: DL Plat; HH Diamond; SPG & Hyatt Plat
Posts: 996
Tried MileValue - several emails back and forth, then no response.

Tried for the same search with Award Butler, back and forth a bit, then again, no response.

Tried to email them both back several times and neither responded to requests for at least a response like "sorry, couldn't find anything." or something. Nada.

Still looking for a good award search service. I have a relatively simple search, but I just don't have the time to do it.
b8b is offline  


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