Mrdonut

I've seen some Travel Pro blogs where services were offered at a rate of $200-ish or $75 per hour to book Skymiles front cabin travel at reasonable rates. Foolishly, I didn't bookmark those sites.
I'm one of those who stockpiled miles and currently have a million on hand (apparently, again foolishly).
Thanks for any suggestions or directions to find capable, reliable assistance to get the most bang for my miles for new reservations.

MrDonut

355F1

I'm willing to bet some of our FT members (who ARE in fact experts) would be willing to help you for less than that.

Some maybe free...but I'd at least throw a $50-$100 gift card in the mail to them as a token of appreciation.

Hawaiian717

Brett Snyder, writer of the Cranky Flyer blog, also operates Cranky Concierge, which offers flight booking assistance, among other things. I haven't personally tried the services, though I have met Brett in person. http://crankyconcierge.com/

tkey75

http://bookyouraward.com/

benrules

http://www.awardbookingservice.com/

SanDiego1K

Here is a lengthy list of those who provide award booking services:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ices-list.html

FederalFlyer

Agreed. You may want to start by posting where you are traveling from, where you want to go, how many, what class, and when (with any flexibility).

MichaelKade

I'd like to give it a shot (at no charge) for the practice. I'm certainly not the most experienced but I bet there are others here in the same boat as me...

LuvAv8n

+2^

Seems FTers are usually up to a good challenge. However, you may also hear from a small contingent that will probably call you a freeloader. Such is the nature of our happy family here on FT.

Av8n

stan1162

I too, would like to practice. Especially would like to compare what I find with the experts. See if I am anywhere in the same neighborhood as they with the results.

Can you post what your are looking for??

Middle_Seat

PointsPros did an excellent job recently for me, booking biz-class award travel from USA to Zurich by way of Mongolia. Due to some unusual travel constraints on my part, this was a rather challenging assignment, but Jimmy figured it all out in just a couple of days and got it ticketed using 90K US Air miles.

I assume he is equally capable of working with Skymiles.

view-with-a-room

Pricing such a service would be difficult at best. Last US Airways award booking involved some 20 hours of advance effort, 6 phone calls and 4 hours on the phone. Last Delta award booking involved 15 hours of advance effort, 10 phone calls, and 6 hours on the phone. Last United award booking involved some 10 hours advance effort, 6 phone calls and 4 hours on the phone. And all of which involved endless schedule changes and phone calls after the initial booking. Knowledge of the process is equally valuable after the booking due to the schedule changes, intended or unintended schedules changes.

But the US Airways award booking included Swiss in First to India and back, the Delta award booking included business class for two on Korean Air to Seoul and back, and the United award booking included Lufthansa in First.

FederalFlyer

Not to stray off topic, but how long ago was this? Swiss doesn't appear to release any First to US/UA as far as I know.

timmy83

MrDonut, You will get ample amounts of free help if you provide the group here with some more detail. Booking awards can be extremely difficult, but we can provide you with some assistance if we have any clue as to what you're looking for.

MSPeconomist

My impression is that some of the award booking sites are more knowledgable about some FF programs or alliances than other ones. I would expect the results to be better with an outfit that has lots of experience in booking DL or SkyTeam awards if the OP still wants to try the paid route.