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Award Booking Services

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    Using An Award Booking Service

    Earning miles and points is really easy.

    But using the miles and points to book trips can be time consuming and tricky!

    Not all airlines make it as easy as Southwest to redeem miles or points for award seats.  Most airlines have different types of award seats which cost different amounts of miles, different award routing rules, and different alliance and non-alliance partners with whom you can book award seats.

    There are ways to search for airline availability on partner airlines by using tools such as ExpertFlyer, AwardNexus, the ANA website, the KVS tool, or my guide to booking awards with American Airlines miles.  But it takes time to figure out how to use them.   And then you have to actually call the airline and feed them the flights segment by segment and have them book the award for you.

    All this can take hours to complete.

    I love the thrill of piecing together my awards, setting ExpertFlyer alerts and calling the airlines, but not everyone does!  And it can be frustrating when you can’t use the miles to get to the places you want to go.

    USING Award Booking Services

    But you don’t always have to book your own award tickets!

    An award booking service usually charges ~$100 to $150 per ticket when they successfully book for you.  This fee includes presenting you with options and calling the airlines to book the flights.

    And you DO NOT pay until you are satisfied with the flights which they find for you.  So it never hurts to ask an award booking service for help since there is usually no cost to asking!

    Paying a $100 to $150 fee is often worthwhile because an experienced award booker can save you:

    Check out these 6 tips to get the most of your award booking service experience.

    Award Booking Services

    Readers often ask me if I will book award tickets for them for a fee, but I’ve never had the time to offer award booking services.  I’d rather forgo the money than have an award booking service where quality suffers because I don’t have the time to devote to it.

    I usually tell readers that since there is usually no cost to emailing an award booking service to ask for help, it doesn’t hurt to send them ALL an email with your request and choose the service which has the best customer service.

    Always double check and confirm prices before choosing a service.

    Here’s a link to a FlyerTalk & MilePoint thread discussing award booking services and candid experiences using the services.

    I’ll post a reader’s experience in a few days, but there is a lot of variability in the service provided (even from the same service), likely because of time and other commitments.

    Bottom Line

    Award booking services can save you time, miles, money, and frustration when it comes time to book your award tickets.

    You usually don’t pay anything for asking an award booking service for a suggestion, so it doesn’t hurt to see if an award booking service can make it easier to book an award.  If you do use an award booking service, check out these 6 tips from an anonymous reader to get the most value from your award booking service.

    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)