I receive many emails a week from readers asking for my help to book an award ticket. While I like to help my readers as much as possible, I unfortunately am not able to get around to all of the in-depth award booking requests. Booking an award flight can take A LOT of time and unfortunately most of my time is taken up by chasing around my 2 year old and writing the blog! While I do not have my own personal award booking service, there are experts out there who can help you with all of your desired trips!
For those looking to redeem their Delta miles from NYC to LAX, for example, you’ll probably be able to do it easily through the Delta.com website. But, if you are looking to redeem your miles for a two week trip which includes starting in Los Angeles, stopping in NYC for a few days, then heading to Paris, taking the train to London, and flying home from London, that can be quite challenging! With that itinerary you have a stopover in NYC and an open-jaw between Paris and London. You also want to use miles from a few different programs. Piecing together this itinerary can take a lot of time and if you are not aware of certain tips and tricks it could end up costing you many more miles.
My Experience with Juicy Miles
Last year, a friend of mine was looking for a flight between London and The Maldives with a stop to either Sri Lanka or South Africa. She asked for my help, but at that moment I really didn’t have the time to fully invest in chasing this award, especially since her desired departure date was during the Christmas/New Years holiday! While I always do my own award bookings, I told her I’d take it over and use an award booking service. I personally wanted to see first hand how good the results would be. I used the award booking service Juicy Miles since I’ve known the founder, Adam, for quite some time and fully trust him and his team. I’ve also been meaning to write about this service, so figured having first hand experience is always good. Plus, my friend was the one paying for the service, not me!
Overall, I was extremely pleased with the service I received (on behalf of my friend!). They were prompt in responding with flight options and were fully accurate with their findings. My only lesson learned was to be extremely specific. For example, my friend was not willing to spend the miles on business class. She’d prefer to find a totally different trip over “wasting” miles. Some of the options included business class redemptions which I never specified was not an option. Ultimately, after a few emails back and forth they were able to book her an itinerary that she was happy with. Originally, she was going to just use Chase’s Ultimate Rewards points through the travel portal which was going to cost her a TON of points. Using this service saved her lots of points where she was actually able to book one way with United miles (by transferring Chase Ultimate Reward points to United) and the return with Delta miles. While there was a fee, it was much less than the difference in miles she was going to spend. She also ended up with a much better itinerary.
The great thing about this service is that there is no obligation to use them. If they are not able to find you an itinerary you are happy, there is no fee. You only pay once you are satisfied with a proposed itinerary. They charge $125 per person for the first two passengers on the same itinerary plus $100 for each additional passenger. It doesn’t matter how complex the routing is (aside from around-the-world itineraries), the pricing is the same. You can learn more about their pricing and fees here.
I suggest checking them out if you are having difficulty finding your desired trip!
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Thanks for your willingness to help and let us know.
How about if we pay you back by using your referral links for our next application of apporamas and amazon purchase? I am sure it will work out for some readers who ask for help too. We always use referral links from blogger who always nicely respond and help us, rather than using referrals from bloggers who just pimping it like TPG or MMS but never personally help nor response to our question. You are different from them, helpful, and responsive blogger we know so we want to support you for helping us!
@Justsaying – Thank you!
It is $125 PER PERSON for the first 2 people. The way I read what is above is its $125 for a total of 2 people and an additional $100 per person.
For $250 plus all the associated fees assessed, may as well BUY the tickets.
@AirBoss – It totally depends on how you are looking to redeem your points/miles. For a domestic economy class ticket I totally agree. But, for a business class ticket to Asia (just as an example), purchasing a ticket is super expensive.
@David M – I updated the post to make it more clear. It is $125 PER PERSON.
good luck! I wouldn’t charge more than $40 for first & 10$ additional passenger and don’t pay until you are satisfied~
Do you offer a service, Dan?
I actually used a booking service last year – Points Pros – and the result was fantastic. I didn’t have much lead time and was going from Los Angeles to Tanzania with an alumni group so I needed to arrive by a certain date. Points Pros figured out a way for me to go on KLM Economy Comfort and return on Turkish Air – business class – using AMEX miles and cash. The result was that I paid a little more than roundtrip economy flights offered by the travel group. I know I paid Points Pros but it was well worth it for such a long flight (and only 1 stop going; 2 returning — and 1 was just re-fueling so we didn’t leave the plane. Having thousands of points accumulated with no way to use them is frustrating. I would not have been able to figure out how to redeem my points, especially on short notice.
@Andrea – Great to hear you had such a positive experience!