Booking airline awards can be a challenge. And, getting the most from your miles can be really hard. Luckily there are professional award booking services that can help. Here are some potential advantages to going with a good award booking service:
- Better Award Availability. Many people assume that if their airline tells them there are no award seats available, then it must be true. A good award booking service can often find the seats that don’t appear to exist.
- Save Miles & Money. A good award booking service will know which of your points can get you to your destination and back for the lowest cost in terms of both miles and cash. Ideally they know which options to avoid due to high fuel surcharges or unfavorable award charts. And, they know how to stretch your miles further by taking maximum advantage of flexible routing rules such as layovers and open-jaws.
- Better flight experience. A good award booking service will know which flights have the best seats and service and will try to get you on those flights. And, they’ll proactively find itineraries with the fewest stops and shortest layovers (while avoiding layovers that risk missed connections).
- Less Aggravation. Booking award travel can be a huge headache. Simply finding available award seats can be difficult. With some airlines, booking award travel can be extremely difficult even when the award seats are available! A good award booking service will do the hard work for you even if it means calling an airline a dozen times until they find someone who knows how to book your flight.
Available Award Booking Services
We do not run our own award booking service. Instead, below is an incomplete alphabetical list of available services. The presence of an award booking service on this list does not mean that we recommend this service. For reviews, please see this FlyerTalk thread, or the user-comments, below.
- Award Advocate
- Award Booking Service
- Award Magic (disclosure: this is an affiliate link)
- BookYourAward
- Cranky Concierge
- JJ Award Travel
- MileValue
- point.me (disclosure: this is an affiliate link)
- Point Me to the Miles
- The Hub ‘N Wifi
- Travel is the Point
- UPGRD award booking service
If your award booking service is missing from this list, please let us know via our contact Frequent Miler page, and we’ll add you in.
Reader feedback
Have you used an award booking service? If so, which one? How would you rate the service? Was it worth the fee? Please comment below.
Any idea what happened to Award Advocate? Theor facebook and site were not updated since 2019. Also, I sent a request a few days ago and have not heard back 🙁
What happened to the Juicy Miles Website? Is that going to come back or only their concierge service? Is there anything similar to that available? Thanks!
The replacement site should come out soon.
[…] process of searching for and booking the award travel on the airline’s or hotel’s website, many award-booking services are available; these can be particularly useful for booking premium-class flights where […]
[…] process of searching for and booking the award travel on the airline’s or hotel’s website, many award-booking services are available; these can be particularly useful for booking premium-class flights where […]
[…] process of searching for and booking the award travel on the airline’s or hotel’s website, many award-booking services are available; these can be particularly useful for booking premium-class flights where […]
Please note that Awarding Canada is closed effective 26JAN2020.
Hi there. Adding Travel Codex: https://www.travelcodex.com/award-booking-service/
We used Bookmyaward.com. Sorry to say it was not a positive experience and was expensive. There is the initial fee paid to the broker and then additional fees for every time a flight is changed.
Part of the problem was due to a lack of understanding of how their program actually works. From the initial conversation, it was explained that their program trolls the internet looking for award travel that the common traveler does not have access to. Although that is true, there is a hitch.
In reality, searches are done individually, one at a time and there is a cost for every search, to the broker. It is to their benefit to keep the number of searches to a minimum, as it is more money in their pocket.
Both of the flights they booked were in segments, with legs missing to the final destination. We were assured that there was plenty of time to get the flights and times we were hoping for, as we were planning a year in advance.
For our first flight, I found a flight that matched our requirements and contacted them to make the change. A bit later, while surfing the airline site, I found an acceptable return flight and was hoping they would catch it on their end. They did not.
Their return flight was booked a day later than originally hoped for and missing the final leg home, which would mean spending a day at the airport.
Five months out from the trip, the agent recommended an outright purchase for the last leg of the trip.
Although an expensive lesson, there were several things learned. First, booking one way trips today is comparable in award travel points to booking a round trip. Second, if you are travel savvy it is possible to find your own flights and not have to depend on someone else. Third, using this service was not more convenient or cost effective.
We just used Bookmyawards to book an international trip. To be honest, I was not happy with the service for what it cost. The agent on several occasions sent us partial bookings with the notation “we will add in time” for missing flight segments. On our outbound flight, I found the flight that had all of the legs and an acceptable travel time. He had not seen it and booked it after I called him. For our return flight, I again found a nice flight home. I should have called him to let him know it was there, but was thinking his search program would see it and he would call. He did not and his return flight, months later was on the wrong day with a missing segment AGAIN. It was to be a placeholder until he found something better. Come to find out, that it really wasn’t a placeholder. We were informed that the airline award program we are using has limited options and probably couldn’t do much better. His final suggestion was to purchase the last leg of the trip outright. This is not what was expected. So, there is a long flight home with too many stops, long layovers and additional expenses beyond the award booking service fees. What did I learn? Book trip flights separately (one way) for award travel. If I would have known this, I could have saved myself money, time, aggravation and had the flights I wanted.
Thanks to others for recommending Kam @ AwardAdvocate.com I ended up filling out the form on his online website. He called within 12 hrs. I was a little skeptical never having used a booking service before. It was so easy and worth the money. If I was going to use my points I wanted a good deal and good flights to Europe. I ended up getting business one way and economy on my return. This was fine because I’ll sleep on the way (business) and be up on the return (economy). Kam also knows the planes and which are the best. It was a huge time saver and you may even save money rather than doing it yourself!
[…] you still find it impossible to book awards with your United MileagePlus Miles, consider hiring professional award booking services. Against a charge, they help you to put your air miles to the best available […]
Glad I found this post, and really glad I decided to go with PointsPros. (pointspros.com) I’ll start off by answering what this post is asking: For me, ABSOLUTELY worth the price!
I had a last minute window open up at work so my wife and I could get over to Thailand for my brother’s 60th birthday celebration.
I have a paid ExpertFlyer account and thought it might have been fairly easy to do myself, but after looking for 2-3 hours a day for 3 days ,I was getting frustrated. I’m president of a software and payments company, super busy right now with the new year on us, and with just a couple of weeks to put it all together I decided to reach out to a service rather than do it myself. So I started searching for info about booking services and found this post.
I have read, envied, and admired ‘Lucky’ for a few years now as I have been learning more about points, miles and award travel, and so it’s that familiarity and confidence in Ben’s experience, along with a mention on ThePointsGuy website that helped me decide to go with PointsPros.
I signed up as a member on the PointsPros website (not required, but I will definitely maintain it) and was contacted almost immediately by Tiffany to review my itinerary and goals. Tiffany then sent me an introductory email to me and Jordan, my PointsPros rep, and within 24 hours Jordan already had several options in front of me.
I was initially thinking I had no choice other than a JFK departure which would mean another segment for us to get from Maryland to JFK the night before travel. But Jordan was able to put together an amazing Business Class itinerary for us leaving from BWI which is just a 20 min drive from my home in Columbia MD. That alone saved us about $800 in flights/meals/hotel had we been forced to leave from JFK!
Jordan guided me through several points transfers and even booked the tickets for us. I know some of the sites just find the availability for you and then you still have to do all the booking, but what I got from Jordan and PointsPros was really concierge-class service, with end-to-end bookings, and tickets in hand within a couple of days.
My brother is blown away that we will be able to join him and his friends and family in Thailand, and it’s thanks to Tiffany, Ben, Jordan especially, and the whole PointsPros team that we will be riding in the front of the bus the whole trip! #frontofthebus 🙂
FANTASTIC AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Maybe something has gone down hill with Points Pros since you did your booking 8 months ago, but I’ve just had a really rough time with them recently. Communication was just awful–weeks passed between emails. I too signed up for their membership for $300, plus booking fees. Waste of time and money. Look elsewhere for your rewards booking services.
We just used Kam of Adward Advocate. We had tried 3 other services in the last week and none of them could come up with anything from lax to italy. some of the routings were not ideal. He called to talk with us and then promised something that afternoon. He came up with a route that had only 1 stop each way and into Florence which is one of our favorite cities. He helped us transfer the points and stayed on the phone with him. We will fly on Air France and KLM in their newer planes. We had used another service in the past and never got to talk to anyone. Everything was done by e mail and there were delays plus that service was way more expensive. His service is exceptional and very reasonably priced. He has also offered advice on what to do with miles, etc re new cards. Highly recommend.
My “magician”, Kam of AWARD ADVOCATE just booked 2 very complicated business class award tickets to Barcelona with return from Lisbon for the least amount of miles. My husband and I are on the same flights using a combination of points from three different frequent flyer points and miles from two different banks. Kam is quick to respond, friendly and exacting in detail. And did I mention he is very reasonably priced??? He’s the BEST!
I recently had a very difficult booking need (Family of 4) and contacted 3 companies from the below list. After 4 weeks of struggle 2 of them said, its very difficult to get one. Book Your rewards even have me move the miles to Asia Miles and then said its not available. Finally I contacted Award Advocate (Kam) and he was able to complete the booking on 2 hours. We had to spilt the booking between AA, BA, Asia Miles etc.. Just 2 hours and his fee was lower than others. Kam is the best !!! Next time I would just go straight to him..
Thanks for sharing that! (but sorry you had so much trouble!)
[…] Award Booking Services: If you don’t have the skill, knowledge, or time to find the best awards for your needs, consider employing an award booking service instead. […]
It would be really useful to indicate which are award BOOKING services vs. those which only FIND the routes and expect you to make the calls. I prefer to find my own routes (half the fun of the game), but on a few occasions (like now) I am too busy to search. And, frankly, if I’m too busy to search I’m too busy to spend an hour+ on hold with aa and HUCA over and over.
Some people prefer not to hand over their account info, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take for someone who does it all. I recently contacted JJ and he was great, but after many calls to various aa lines over several days I could never find a rep who could find the seats. JJ said the seats were still there, but he won’t do bookings so I’m still with no way to MEL. To his credit, he was very quick and friendly and didn’t charge me, so I’d definitely recommend his service for those who don’t want a booking service.
Thanks. Good suggestion.
Thank you for the kind comments.
How do you know you’re getting a good deal? WHat if they use more points than you should….
You could use a tool like AwardHacker (https://www.awardhacker.com/) to get an idea of how many points it should cost and then compare that to whatever the award booker finds.
Just wanted to introduce our company, which is now on the list, https://www.jjawardtravel.com. We never charge a deposit to start searching for your award itinerary.
We would be happy to help anyone out in your upcoming award travel. Thanks for posting, Greg, we appreciate it.
Award Bandit Web site is down.
Thanks. Removed.
Just want to add my company, Awarding Canada (www.awarding.ca). We’ve been in business for about two years, and have served over 300 happy customers. We specialize in Aeroplan, but are very capable in almost every frequent flyer program. I’m also a Boarding Area blogger (dcta.boardingarea.com). Would greatly appreciate being added to your list!
Added
DuMo and Gil: thanks for the info. I’ve removed Easy Award Booking since the website appears to be down completely
I have used Alex Smith with EasyAwardBooking a couple times before. Happy with the service. I sent him an email yesterday. Email came back today. Bounced. Out of business?
I unfortunately used Alex Smith with EasyAwardBooking. While I was initially impressed with his knowledge, in the end the experience was a nightmare.
He dropped the ball and failed to communicate in a timely manner. He left us stuck with flights which from the very first conversation we’d indicated we’d never accept, and only reserved because he said he’d be able to find us better flights. We would have preferred to fly on a non-stop coach flight instead of what he instructed us to book. He had stated that he fully understood our priorities, but he did not have the follow-through or professionalism to do what he said he’d do.
His website has also been down for the last few months at least, leading me to think he’s gone out of business.
Thanks for posting the list of award experts, we ended up using Award Advocate. Kam was pretty awesome – he was able to send me and my whole family to Hawaii with some points I didn’t even know I could use with my citi card. Very consultative and knowledgeable. Will definitely use Award Advocate again!
Are there any services that will place an alert on their system for specific flights over a period of time (e.g. 90 days) to see if those flights become award listed vs. just doing a one-time check for award flights?
I can perform a one-time check for One World flights on specific dates. It is the frequent checking back and identifying when an award flight becomes available that is worth paying for.
Wandering Aramean Travel Tools allows you to setup One World alerts. You’ll get an email or text when an award becomes available: http://wandr.me/
Also, Expert Flyer offers alerts for a wide range of airlines
After reading up on here as well as Flyertalk, I decided to reach out to a couple of these Award Bookers. I eventually ended up with Alex from Easy Award Booking. Super nice and talked me through exactly what the process was. Was looking to book a family of 5, yes 5! to Japan for the Spring Festival 2017. Was able to find us all seats on the same plane in Business Class! Excellent Service….
You guys should add this site to your list.
I used MilesHelp ( https://mileshelp.com/ ). They found me First class on Emirates Airlines to Dubai . It was my best vacation with my family. Site is automatized and very easy to understand.
Thanks. Added.
Used Book Your Award for the first time, seemed easy given their access to my Award Wallet account. The experience was really quite comically bad. After receiving a routing that was a complete nightmare, 5 minutes on the delta.com site yielded same miles, less cost, 3 versus 5 total stops, no overnight layover and all first class instead of one coach “purchase” leg. May have caught them on a bad day…but it was a really bad day and I’ll be trying another service next go-around.
Same problems with Award Wallet. She never phoned me once, only emails, so it took forever. Had me leaving on a connection 23 hours before I arrived there. Missed an entire leg of one necessary connection. Charged me $275 because I had more than 2 stopovers. Used more miles & points than necessary. Had me buy miles when I could have transferred points. Since then I’ve been scared to try any service since they had all my details on Award Wallet, so should have been the easiest way. Since then I’ve done it myself, but an expert should be able to do it much quicker, and I value my time.
Award wallet is very bad service. Had me move my points and then said no tickets.
After all the praise of Kam at Award Advocate I finally contacted him for a search for two persons to Asia for November. After an initial search he presented option which included long layover and on airlines which I had not even heard of before. After looking into the airlines I decided I would like to maybe have other choices to which he responded that he had searched and that I either took these options or that was it! It was a very rude experience and after so much promotion it would seem that a lot of this is self promotion. I would be careful with some of these booking sites since they seem to spend 30 mins and give what they first find and be done with it.
Would I call Award Advocate a scam? No, but I did not pay for his services and I would never recommend him and would advice readers to contact these companies prior to hear them out.
Thanks for the list. I contacted 4 of the award booking services from your list and Dominic Perilli from AWARD BANDIT was AWESOME. He was PROMPT and answered every questions right away no matter what time I sent my message. Got a great Business Class Award to Bali…Whooo-Hooo! Can’t wait. 1 service did not respond, 1 wanted an up front nonrefundable fee, and the other did not respond for 5 days. My trip was all taken care of in a matter of hours. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND AWARD BANDIT and I will definitely use Dominic Perilli’s service again!
Kam at Award Advicate is fantastic. He responds quickly and gets the job done. Money well spent for his services. A++
[…] Award Booking Services […]
I sent requests to several sites. Kam at Awardadvocates.com was wonderful, highly recommend.
I Do Not Recommend upgrading.com. Even though I told Matthew I had gone another way, upgrade.com is charging us for their ‘research’. All the other companies do not charge unless they find you the right itinerary, all the other companies I sent requests out to, accepted that someone else had got the job done already, they graciously said ‘thank you and enjoy your trip’.
Upgrd.com is in no way more efficient than any other but they charge you as if they are above all others.
Use someone else.
Gotta link my buddy Dominic from AwardBandit. Incredible service and pretty cheap. Helped me book a great award for my girlfriend and I to Italy this summer. His site is relatively new, but my experience was awesome.
Had a couple of options on the table that I inquired to, but felt Dom was the most attentive so I went with him. prices on par with the rest
Added. Thanks for the suggestion.
[…] Award Booking Services […]
[…] Award Booking Services […]
Thank you-AwardAdvocate.com!!! Amazingly effective!
Using European plans, Kam of AwardAdvocate.com spent fewer milage points to get me and 4 family members first class and business class flights to the middle east at high season than I used to book passage on a much shorter coach flight for my son to Europe. A pleasure to work with and has the patience of a saint. I’ll never book overseas travel again any other way. I cannot more highly recommend the services of AwardAdvocate.com!!
I highly Recommend Kam with Award Advocate. Honeymoon travel all finished up!. I will never use another service than AwardAdvocate.com or look for myself again when I am planning a big trip. Kam was absolutely fabulous! We had points spread around everywhere and wanted to do 2 weeks in Europe. Not only did he find us great flights both ways in Business / First but he gave me recommendations for a stopover in Prague for a few days based on what I told him my future wife likes to do. He absolutely maximized my points and minimized my taxes and fees. On top of all that he was a great communicator, and when something was important he called or texted and if it was not urgent he used email. What great respect for my time! What a super experience. I will be using Kam anytime we are taking a big trip and need to maximize points.
[…] booking services aren’t new. There are a number of U.S. sites that have been up and running — and profitable — for years. But Campbell says his is one of […]
I’d like to say that Nick is the man! I constantly travel for work and use my miles/points for hotels and flights. I used to take care of this myself; but things had gotten so hectic that I started using some award booking services — much to my dissatisfaction — that is, until I discovered http://www.awardadvocate.com. Anyone that wants the biggest bang for their buck (or points) needs to be using http://www.awardadvocate.com. Nick was 1) prompt, 2) courteous, 3) knowledgeable, 4) helpful, and ultimately the best rewards resource I’ve ever used. I managed to go to Europe, 4 countries in 12 days, stayed at some amazing hotels and flew business/first each time. Seriously, even if you have the time to figure out the best way to utilize your points, you probably won’t be able to do half the job that Nick does. He made things so easy and convenient for me, every step of the way. I will be going back to Award Advocate for all my traveling needs!
Hi,
I have just completed an award booking with Alex from http://www.easyawardbooking.com I just wanted to make a comment on how smoothly the whole process went from A-Z. At first I was hesitant to use an award booking service. However after speaking to Alex over the phone he went through the whole process and helped me to book myself and my husband on a mini rtw using my Aeroplan points. I contacted another award booking service and was asked to pay $260 per person however Alex ensured me that he never charges his clients any more than $99 per person. Within a couple of days my flight was booked and seats chosen. I am excited to finally be travelling to Asia with my husband!
Helen
Kam from award advocate helped me book a first class ticket from LAX to India using AA miles. He knows what he is doing and he called the airline and put the ticket on hold, and then I called and used the booking code and paid for the ticket. He saved me a lot of time. If you have not booked a ticket using miles, I recommend getting help the first time. I did not find the AA agents very helpful for offering me various options. They only mentioned British Airways and appeared very rushed and annoyed that I was asking for other choices.
I have used 3 different award booking services and 1 of them took forever to get back to me and get anything done, another one expected me to use full nonsaver miles, ridiculous.
The last one I used, http://www.awardadvocate.com/
actually did a really good job of getting back to me quickly and finding me exactly what I wanted for less miles than expected and even charged less. I guess it can be hit and miss sometimes, it’s good to talk to the booker on the phone and feel them out and see who you like.
I’ve used Points Pros ( http://www.pointspros.com/ ) and could not be more pleased with their responsiveness, expertise and ability to find desired award seats.
[…] Award Booking Services […]
Hi,
I am a Canadian who recently used http://www.easyawardbooking.com. They specialize in Canadian award especially Aeroplan points. After getting frustrated with the high prices of Aeroplan’s taxes I looked for a service which could find me a flight without these high fees. I highly recommend Alex and his team. He responded within a few hours and helped me to find a perfect flight.
Regards,
John
This service is a dud: I sent a booking request through their website on 05/12/2014 and received the confirmation below.
“Thank you for choosing awardbookingservice.com! We have received your request and will respond within 24 hours.” Thank you!
Today is 05/22/2014, which is well over 24 hours later and there has been no response whatsoever from awardbookingservice.com regarding the request submitted to them.
My advice to anyone planning on considering them is simple: Caveat Emptor.
***MileValue***
We worked closely with Chris G. He responded within hours of our request which was days before the United devaluation. Two other services took days for an initial response.
His proposed itineraries were truly a custom solution and he even provided invaluable destination selection based on his personal travels.
A potentially catastrophic problem arose with the airlines that prevented the itinerary from ticketing after purchase. Chris didn’t quit until after resolving the issue that was out of his hands at that point. The end result was the airline agreeing to fix the issue when they didn’t have to and even honor pre-devaluation rates and award seat availability.
*******HIGHLY RECOMMEND!*******
Rick was very responsive and easy to deal with. He took the emotion out of dealing with difficult airlines/miles programs. As advertised, we could not find a ticket for me (due to availablity) so he did not charge me. I immediately turned him over to my wife who he was able to find a sweet first class roundtrip ticket for her trip. The amount of time he had to spend researching and communicating (HOURS!) with the airlines on our behalf was well worth the $125. Without a doubt, we will use them again. Thanks Rick!
Larry, which Award Booking service is Rick part of?
MileValue!
Larry was gushing about the work Rick did for him on the award, so I asked him to post it here. 🙂
Yes,
Here is their website:
http://pointmetothemiles.com/need-awardtravel-help/
Thanks!
Thanks. Added to page
I think you should add 0 Hassle Awards. They are very responsive and courteous!
I haven’t heard of that one. Do they have a website?
I recently found milevalue.com and used their booking service for business class seats to Australia and New Zealand. Scott the founder of the site is very responsive and Jen on his team is awesome. Jen was in contact with me multiple times a day and looked for every option I threw on the table. The fee is very reasonable and the experience was just fantastic! I would and have recommended the site and their services to anyone that will listen. The site also has so much great information about the most up to date deals for airlines and the best credit card offers. Definitely check it out, you won’t be disappointed!
I’ve used MileValue’s award booking service twice and been thoroughly satisfied both times. Scott booked me and my girlfriend on a Cathay Pacific business class flight from New York to Bangkok using AA miles, and Brian booked us on a European vacation on American Airlines and partner airlines using AA miles and SPG points. Each time I felt I received first-rate treatment and the results I wanted much faster than I expected. I will definitely use MileValue again.
I can’t compare MileValue with the other booking services because I’ve never used them. And, quite honestly, I don’t see any reason to. No knock on them. It’s just that MileValue, I feel, scored perfect marks.
We highly recommend Award Magic! Kevin always replied promptly, offered suggestions, and did an incredible job compiling a very complicated award booking for us at a very reasonable mileage expense…we would have never been able to do this ourselves. First class on Cathay Pacific! Yes, way! Their fees included actual costs payable to the airlines for ticketing that were paid up front on our behalf; considering that, the actual charge for such excellent service was very reasonable and worth every penny.
[…] Award Booking Services […]