Roccco

I just shelled out $100 to this company that is a self-proclaimed expert at finding frequent flier seats.

I am hoping that they can pull a rabbit out of their hat and find me a frequent flier business class seat from Los Angeles to Europe to South Africa for late May, 2004 (3.5 months away). If so, I would go from possibly paying $4,000 USD for economy class to $0 + around 240,000 frequent flier miles for business class. Business Class seats would be around $15,000 USD, so it is worth the $100 gamble.

The only downside is that www.awardplanner allows itself 5 business days before getting back with an answer. Glad I contacted them on Monday.

So, anybody here have any success with Awardplanner.com??? Thanks.

AAFrequentFlyer

AwardPlanner is a company started by Randy Peterson, frequent flyer guru. He is also the owner of FlyerTalk.com, a great place for FFers to get together and share ideas, advice and information. The company is very reputable, but don't expect them to find something that's not there to begin with. They do not have access to any extra seats. It's their knowledge of the programs that makes them successful in many, many cases.

Just curious, but since you're flying from the west coast, why fly through Europe to get to South Africa? Why not fly through Asia? It wouldn't be that much longer, and it will open options for you, unless Europe is a stop over.

Mama

We waited for two weeks before we got any reply from them and it wasn't anything we wouldn't be able t do in a couple hours of searching. I hope you will have better luck with them than we did. Let us know results when you hear from them. Please
By the way, we asked them to return our money as they did not deliver what they promised.

BeachBoi

Mama......Did they return your money?

AAFrequentFlyer

In all fairness, awardplanner.com DOES NOT guarantee a seat. The membership entitles one to their expert services/advice. They will do the best to get you a seat/hotel room/vacation using points, and that's where they really shine, when a combination of travel needs have to be put together. I agree that flight awards on their own are no big deal, but even these are somewhat complicated if one considers or doesn't know about alliance awards. For example, sometimes what may seem like the only option to you or me, may fall under another possibility (OneWorld awards, StarAlliance, etc.) that may/may not be few more miles and you may/may not get more out of it, but will definitely get you to your destination. There are some transfers possible as well, but that takes knowledge. An average Joe may just look at AA awards and if he doesn't get the ticket he wants, he gets mad or simply gives up. My point is that in most cases there are OTHER options, and again that's where awardplanner shines. And we all have to consider that some folks value their time and they are willing to part with $100 for a year membership, so they could call and just tell them whats needed and wait for the itinerary to show up. Not everybody is as crazy as me to study, research every rule, possibility to squeeze out the most out of miles/points. I will never use them, but for some folks it makes perfect sense.

Here is a link to their FAQ page:
http://www.awardplanner.com/faqs.php

and as you could see, they never claim to have any extra seats.

Mama

We are still waiting for our refund. Almost three weeks.

AAFrequentFlyer

Mama,

Let me try to understand this. You did get a reply, and from your post I'm assuming that they did get you the flights, but at that moment you realized that you could have done this yourself and now you want a refund?

AwardPlanner

Mama,
I have noticed your post and would like to assist with your request/refund. I am an agent at AwardPlanner and would be happy to look into your situation. If you'd be so kind as to contact me directly at [email protected] and refer to this Fodors.com post so I will recognize you.

Roccco

Just to conclude this post, Award Planner did a GREAT job for me. First, I was assisted with seats that I actually found myself on Virgin Atlantic that took me from JFK-London-Johannesburg and back. However, because this flight required 115,000 miles per ticket and still required for me to find my own way from LAX-JFK, I ended passing on the over, at first opting for only the London-Johannesburg leg of the trip on Premier Economy.

However, then my dates changed, and Award Planner found me a BUSINESS class seat on Delta Airlines for 80,000 miles and the best part of it is that I was able to add-on a Business Class seat from Johannesburg-Lusaka, Zambia, where I will begin an 11 night safari. This add-on was absolutely free! The value of this add-on exceeded $1,500 ($750+ per Business Class ticket).

The rep that I was assigned from Award Planner has been great all the way through and seemed to take a genuine interest in helping me achieve my goals for this holiday. Although Award Planner states that the customer should allow up to five days for a response, each time, my enquiries were responded to within a few hours and I was able, despite a couple changes, to get the exact flights I needed, within a couple days from the time I started.

Personally, I think that it was the best $99.95 that I have ever spent for a travel-related service and I would happily endorse Award Planner.