Need award help?

Having trouble using your miles for that dream trip? Consider using my award travel booking service, Points Pros. You can find more details, including what we do, how to contact us, our pricing, testimonials, and more, at PointsPros.com.

  1. October 26th, 2010 at 1:51 pm

    sam said,

    Want to use American Express points to fly Bussiness Class to Vietnam in July.

    Which airline will give me the ticket for the least amount of points? Can I fly from New York into Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City and out of Siem Reap Cambodia?

  2. October 28th, 2010 at 1:46 am

    lucky said,

    @ sam — On most airlines you can do an open jaw ticket, which would be flying into one city and out of another, as you describe. The airline that would require the lowest number of points is entirely dependent upon the availability for the dates you need to travel. Feel free to send me an email at ben@pointspros.com with more details and I should be able to help out.

  3. November 9th, 2010 at 8:37 pm

    Ben said,

    I noticed you are a college student, and was just wondering how you are able to travel so much. I am a college student as well, and would love to be able to travel 300,000 miles per year and gain elite status. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time or money.

  4. December 7th, 2010 at 3:55 am

    Simon Chen said,

    Lucky,

    I wanted to say how pleased I was with your award planning service. You handled the multiple changes, the time zone I was in (ie Singapore) and the never ending list of questions.

    Your service is worth every cent. I’m sorry it took so long to agree on a final itinerary.

    You are a true pro. I will definitely use you again.

    SIMON
    (eightblack)
    Moderator-EK Forum

    And tired 1K MM flier…

  5. February 3rd, 2011 at 8:02 am

    Eva said,

    I would like t o know how I can fly round tripMiami to London on Virgin using Amex points via ANA? I will pay you for your advice-we a
    are two people an have 130.000

  6. February 9th, 2011 at 2:03 pm

    johnny said,

    Lucky,
    Great blog- I need to know if I need your award help or not. Need to go to Ukraine next year with Mrs. via BA and 241 voucher. Will start in IAH and stopover in London and on to KBP. Is it easier to get awards in Business or First? Not usually a redemption issue but it will be during Soccer Euro 2012 hosted by Poland and Ukraine and I expect them to be more scarce. Should I call Call center 1 day before awards are released on internet?

    thanks

  7. February 10th, 2011 at 12:24 am

    lucky said,

    @ johnny — Generally speaking, first class awards are easier on BA than business class awards, and I find that to be especially true out of IAH. As far as whether or not you need my help, you are looking at a basic roundtrip, so if you plan far out and are persistent, you should probably be able to do it on your own. Otherwise, I’m always around!

  8. February 22nd, 2011 at 1:03 pm

    Phil (philemer on FT) said,

    Hi Ben,
    My wife & I each have 100K BA miles & would like to fly Business Class BOI-MUC (this Sept. or Oct.) to visit a friend for a few days, buy tix to LHR, tour England and Scotland and then fly home from LHR (or maybe out of Scotland). I know we can use partner AS to get us from BOI to a gateway city. Does this sound like something I could do easily? We are flexible on dates & cities.

    Phil

  9. February 23rd, 2011 at 9:50 am

    lucky said,

    @ Phil — British Airways does have pretty good award availability, and September and October aren’t *too* high season, so with a bit of flexibility that shouldn’t be too difficult. Just route through a hub with a lot of award availability (like DFW), and you should be good to go.

  10. March 26th, 2011 at 12:32 pm

    Kelly said,

    Looking for two tickets to Denver CO from DCA or Dulless using points from American Express. When I phone Am Ex they tell me to call airlines first. Call the airlines and they tell me I have to transfer miles first. But how do I know which airlines to trsf to when I don’t have a reservation??

  11. May 10th, 2011 at 9:55 am

    Kalboz said,

    Three of us flying in December LAX-BKK in business … what are our best options for award seats? How many miles needed?

  12. May 25th, 2011 at 9:49 pm

    Jeremy said,

    Hi Lucky,
    I have family in Hawaii so we fly out there alot I normaly fly out of Albuquerque NM on United and connect in SFO or LAX as it is cheper then doing ABQ-DEN-OGG or DEN-OGG. When I use miles I try to go for the SFO or LAX conections from ABQ way to much so I try direct from Denver and its perfect for me in terms of miles I would have to use can you please tell me why when I use money its cheper to go threw LAX or SFO then with miles and why its cheper to go threw Denver with miles then cash
    Thanks

  13. June 13th, 2011 at 2:30 am

    curt said,

    In April my United MP miles were about to expire. I tried to redeem them and a system glitch prevented me from being able to book anything. The miles then expired because I could not get support to fix the problem. It took me 6 weeks to get the miles back into my account, and now when I go in to book the same flights in July / Aug as before, they suddenly are 50,000 miles instead of 25.000. Is there a way to get them to give me the 25,000 rate? Also heard that on June 15th United is changing their MP redemptions too… will that help or will it not matter in this case?

  14. June 15th, 2011 at 12:06 pm

    Kim said,

    I recently got the Citi AA cards for both my DH and myself (150K each). I’m looking at AA.com for milessaver business class from SFO to CDG. However, there are no such award tickets available at this level. I’m looking out into march, april and may next year. I prefer to only use 100K for a round trip ticket. What aa shows on its website is 100K Anytime for one-way ticket. Do you have any suggestions? Should I try to redeem these miles on BA instead?

    Thanks,
    Kim

  15. June 27th, 2011 at 7:08 pm

    Tee said,

    Hi Lucky,

    The feedback on your PointsPros site is awesome. I’m just getting started building up miles and want to plan ahead to book a RT first class award trip to LHR next summer. I have about 63k combined miles with UA & CO. How can I find out how many miles I’ll need for the flight? And should I fly UA/CO or a Star Alliance partner? Thanks in advance!

  16. July 2nd, 2011 at 8:54 am

    Help using sky miles - FlyerTalk Forums said,

    [...] all the booking work for you and low level and just get you want you want (for a small fee) Ben@ http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemil…ed-award-help/ or Gary@ [...]

  17. July 11th, 2011 at 6:12 pm

    karen G said,

    Hi there,
    Love this site..now to my question..

    I was wondering if there are any credit cards that we Australian’s can sign up for in the USA that will give us Delta skymiles?? Seeing all the bonuses is driving me mad!!!
    Or any other ideas to boost our skymiles from “down under”.
    Thanks heaps
    Karen & Tony…..trying to get to the USA in style one point at a time :)

  18. July 13th, 2011 at 8:42 am

    Pat S. said,

    Hey I heard you on NPR this morning! Excellent tip on the coin idea but what kind of overhead costs are there. It appears a $25 roll of $1 coins is about $35 plus $4.95 and $7.95 per bag for shipping. What’s the final cost of your award points then? Again man, really great site! Especially dig the picture story. Great comments hehehehe. Pat

  19. July 14th, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    Terry K said,

    I have 2.7 million miles on American Aadvantage program and that gives me annual Platnium. Is there any benefit of having 3 million miles except for conversation sake? i.e. Exec Plat?

  20. July 19th, 2011 at 7:02 am

    Hilary said,

    I have 175,000 miles on BA and was looking to fly my self and a friend to australia/new zealand in march of 2012. I have two questions. First, does Qantas open up more award spots as the date gets closer, or do they put them all out up front and once they are gone they are gone? Also, when I went through and selected a flight there were over $600 in fuel surcharges and taxes per ticket. Is this common, or is it something I should call and ask to have removed as with the American situation you mention above?

    Thank you for your advice!

  21. September 16th, 2011 at 10:22 am

    Morris said,

    we travel to Zurich from New York at least once a year to visit family. We would typically use points from amex to continental and go business first. (this is very important because my wife has back problems and simply can’t sit in coach for long stretches of time)

    The only airlines that fly to Zurich (nonstop) are: Swiss, Continental/UA; American & Delta (BUT Delta is summer only)

    I have about 600,000 amex points

    Should I transfer about 400,000 to Continental and then to UA (I do not like that idea because I do not know if I will like UA and I don’t like the idea of having so many points sitting at UA)

    Should I rely on the AmEx to BA transfer and then to AA when needed ( I don’t know what AA upgrade policy is or even if this is a viable solution)Apparently I can also use Unuted points on Swiss–that could be helpful

    Any other ideas?–I was confused by the advice I found in the net so far)

  22. September 18th, 2011 at 8:25 am

    Morris said,

    (I am new to this website–where would I find a response (if any) to my post on firda–I apologize if inapproporiate to ask

  23. September 22nd, 2011 at 4:45 pm

    Danny said,

    Quick question, who would you recommend Star Alliance wise for a mileage reward ticket (Singapore Airlines vs. Thai Airways) First or Business. Thinking about a trip to Asia for my 30th next year. Most likely Bangkok, also dying to go to Four Seasons Koh Samui, but main concern is over the water segment from LAX (home) or SFO.

  24. January 3rd, 2012 at 4:17 pm

    Patrick said,

    Warning! Under no circumstance transfer miles to British Air. They fraudulently advertise that you can take flights with your collected Avious milage but there flights are so limited that it is almost impossible to plan a flight on dates that you actually want to go. I tried 9 months in advance to get mid week tickets. They have plenty of flights available at full price but when I comes to actually redeeming miles they make it almost impossible, unless you want to go to perhaps Iceland in the dead of winter. I am getting the feeling they would like everyones miles to lapse before they actually have to honor their promises. I am thinking of a class action lawsuit for fraud and misrepresentation. Everyone who is collecting British miles beware.

  25. January 5th, 2012 at 3:44 pm

    Award trip to Europe for 3 using AA miles and Avios points? - FlyerTalk Forums said,

    [...] you some great info on using your miles and even provides a service if you want to go that far. http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemil…ed-award-help/ __________________ Slowly but surely towards the next MM – 2,448,568 – VERY slowly now w/o CC [...]

  26. January 16th, 2012 at 9:24 pm

    Suzy Bright said,

    I want to book my flights using Delta Skymiles. When I checked online on Jan. 6 I got an award price of 62,500 per ticket. When I checked back the next day the same tickets were 80,000 each. Why the increase?

  27. February 7th, 2012 at 12:55 pm

    Seva said,

    Hey, was thinking to book a flight from SFO – MSQ may 13-15 and back on may 31-jun3rd using 150000 BA miles… for 2 people or is that even possible? also have chase preferred 70k which i rather not use…. Thanks, would use your service if it is possible

    28. Add A Comment

home top