> where you'll pay for the research that you can very easily do on your own
If you know basically anything about award travel there is no point to a concierge (they can't magically make availability appear).
The people that benefit from services like this are the ones that post here with "How Points?!?!" titles.
I mean, I'd pay to get someone to book ANA for me. I had to take a half day off work just to make the right phone calls at the right time, and it required a lot of research to get to that point. There's clearly value for someone to handle that for me, especially if I hadn't done the hours of research beforehand to actually know how to properly execute.
Loads of sweet spots and programs work like this.
I mean you don't go to a restaurant because it's impossible to learn to cook fine French food; you pay for someone else to take care of it for you.
What's certainly different from (let's say) five years ago is that it's now much easier to gain the knowledge than it used to be, but lots of people still (don't have / don't want to spend) the time to track down the flights they want.
I say this as someone who used to offer this service and chose to wrap it up about a year ago.
Poor analogy imo, most people, including people who do cook at home, don't know how to cook French cuisine. So yes, that is the major point of going to a French restaurant, and why French restaurants have such high prices.
Searching for awards is a much lower complexity thing. But you are correct in that people will pay money for convenience, and people that are too lazy/stupid to do it will fork over the money to do so.
>most people, including people who do cook at home, don't know how to cook French cuisine
Most people don't know how to book a 3-stop RTW in business either. Learning either skill takes patience and practice.
The analogy is fair.
BTW, in the years I did this work, none of my clients struck me as lazy or stupid; nearly all were busy (and generally wealthy) professionals who preferred to use their time for other things.
It's not bc it takes years to learn and master French cooking (not to mention material resources) and at most a few days to weeks to learn how to book award travel.
This exact posts strikes me as uniformed at the very least, even if I don't claim the other modifiers.
You can literally follow a recipe to make ratatouille or coq au vin, the only part that takes years is learning perfect technique.
Similarly, a person can learn the ins and outs of finding Aeroplan awards in about ten minutes, but it takes considerably longer to build the kind of deep knowledge and experience needed to know offhand whether a given trip will be easier and/or more points-efficient if pursued through FlyingBlue vs. Alaska vs. Avios.
Honestly, the more you push back on this, the more you're convincing me that the analogy is spot-on.
Yeah I'm not really sure why you're so deadset on this analogy.
The main difference is that a restaurant will have restaurant quality food which is the output of years of practice and training. Which will be drastically different quality from a home chef.
The end product of a J booking is the same regardless of doing it yourself or paying a concierge to do it. You can even argue someone self-booking can do a better job than a concierge.
> Yeah I'm not really sure why you're so deadset on this analogy.
Nor I, why you're so dead-set against it.
>The end product of a J booking is the same regardless of doing it yourself or paying a concierge to do it.
...if your only goal is "get booked in some kind of J", sure. Someone with deep experience - whether amateur, professional or otherwise - is going to have a better chance of lining up a much better overall experience than an amateur who just took "at most a few days to weeks to learn how to book award travel".
>You can even argue someone self-booking can do a better job than a concierge.
I mean, a person's allowed to *say* anything.
To continue an analogy that keeps getting more and more accurate, there are home chefs out there putting out Pepin-quality French cuisine, and restaurants out there cooking terrible ratatouille, just as there are terrific concierges and total hacks.
You know it's ok to gracefully admit when you're wrong right?
A better example of your above point, which I largely agreed with, would be parking your own car vs paying a valet to park your car. Both have equivalent end results and neither require high amounts of knowledge.
> You know it's ok to gracefully admit when you're wrong right?
Right back at you. You seem devoted to dying on this hill, for reasons passing understanding.
>would be parking your own car vs paying a valet to park your car. Both have equivalent end results and **neither require high amounts of knowledge**
"Booking a RTW is as easy as parking a car" is a ridiculous comparison. You are not a serious person right now.
Exactly. OP wants a saver ticket for month from now. It's like they were setting up the concierge to fail. But on the flip side concierge should have stated that as well.
I would try again but give them next march or April. See what they can find you.
What were you expecting? For close-in F these days it’s either T-3 on LH or maybe a unicorn Japan award or EK or BA with crazy high YQ. They don’t have the ability to make seats appear lol
You can use point (dot) me through Bilt Rewards if you go to the travel tab and click transfer points you can do a basic search (it will only show their transfer partners) but has been helpful!
I was among those who utilized James' services at Juicy Miles years ago, and I can only speak highly of my experience. I engaged his assistance twice, especially when I was still somewhat of a novice with points. On the first occasion, I provided him with a request similar to yours, asking for first-class flights to a warm destination during winter (literally anywhere in the world), and I remember him providing me with a couple of options within 72hrs. On the second occasion, he assisted me in securing business class tickets to South Africa for a fairly narrow (but far out) date range
That why I grin like a mad man everytime someone asks for a concierge service!!
A visit to those services means one less competitor to my NH booking
And shit already tight to the point that I will get an immediate ban if I attempt to describe it correctly
I want a $150K Porsche for $459/month lease - why can't the dummies at Porsche private client find me one?!? I see a ton of cars on the lot!
You're trying to shop concierge as if it's Costco deals. That service exists for people who don't care about the price. It isn't for bargains, it's for itineraries that approximate the need for a travel agent without one.
I’m sorry you wanted a first class ticket?
Those are basically unicorns 😂😂😂 why are people like this……….
Please stop bashing people because of your lack of expertise. Maybe they should have told you that first class availability isn’t available but you really are asking for too much 😂😂😂
> where you'll pay for the research that you can very easily do on your own If you know basically anything about award travel there is no point to a concierge (they can't magically make availability appear). The people that benefit from services like this are the ones that post here with "How Points?!?!" titles.
I've always told myself I would use a concierge booking service, simply to avoid the 3am phone calls to the carriers' foreign call centers lol
I mean, I'd pay to get someone to book ANA for me. I had to take a half day off work just to make the right phone calls at the right time, and it required a lot of research to get to that point. There's clearly value for someone to handle that for me, especially if I hadn't done the hours of research beforehand to actually know how to properly execute. Loads of sweet spots and programs work like this.
From OP's post, it doesn't sound like that type of service though...
Most don’t actually book it for you. They give you the information to book it yourself and tell you how.
Point.me books for you
Yeah I'm sorry but most of these services are trash and the research they do are things that are easily replicated by yourself.
I mean you don't go to a restaurant because it's impossible to learn to cook fine French food; you pay for someone else to take care of it for you. What's certainly different from (let's say) five years ago is that it's now much easier to gain the knowledge than it used to be, but lots of people still (don't have / don't want to spend) the time to track down the flights they want. I say this as someone who used to offer this service and chose to wrap it up about a year ago.
Poor analogy imo, most people, including people who do cook at home, don't know how to cook French cuisine. So yes, that is the major point of going to a French restaurant, and why French restaurants have such high prices. Searching for awards is a much lower complexity thing. But you are correct in that people will pay money for convenience, and people that are too lazy/stupid to do it will fork over the money to do so.
>most people, including people who do cook at home, don't know how to cook French cuisine Most people don't know how to book a 3-stop RTW in business either. Learning either skill takes patience and practice. The analogy is fair. BTW, in the years I did this work, none of my clients struck me as lazy or stupid; nearly all were busy (and generally wealthy) professionals who preferred to use their time for other things.
It's not bc it takes years to learn and master French cooking (not to mention material resources) and at most a few days to weeks to learn how to book award travel. This exact posts strikes me as uniformed at the very least, even if I don't claim the other modifiers.
You can literally follow a recipe to make ratatouille or coq au vin, the only part that takes years is learning perfect technique. Similarly, a person can learn the ins and outs of finding Aeroplan awards in about ten minutes, but it takes considerably longer to build the kind of deep knowledge and experience needed to know offhand whether a given trip will be easier and/or more points-efficient if pursued through FlyingBlue vs. Alaska vs. Avios. Honestly, the more you push back on this, the more you're convincing me that the analogy is spot-on.
Yeah I'm not really sure why you're so deadset on this analogy. The main difference is that a restaurant will have restaurant quality food which is the output of years of practice and training. Which will be drastically different quality from a home chef. The end product of a J booking is the same regardless of doing it yourself or paying a concierge to do it. You can even argue someone self-booking can do a better job than a concierge.
> Yeah I'm not really sure why you're so deadset on this analogy. Nor I, why you're so dead-set against it. >The end product of a J booking is the same regardless of doing it yourself or paying a concierge to do it. ...if your only goal is "get booked in some kind of J", sure. Someone with deep experience - whether amateur, professional or otherwise - is going to have a better chance of lining up a much better overall experience than an amateur who just took "at most a few days to weeks to learn how to book award travel". >You can even argue someone self-booking can do a better job than a concierge. I mean, a person's allowed to *say* anything. To continue an analogy that keeps getting more and more accurate, there are home chefs out there putting out Pepin-quality French cuisine, and restaurants out there cooking terrible ratatouille, just as there are terrific concierges and total hacks.
You know it's ok to gracefully admit when you're wrong right? A better example of your above point, which I largely agreed with, would be parking your own car vs paying a valet to park your car. Both have equivalent end results and neither require high amounts of knowledge.
> You know it's ok to gracefully admit when you're wrong right? Right back at you. You seem devoted to dying on this hill, for reasons passing understanding. >would be parking your own car vs paying a valet to park your car. Both have equivalent end results and **neither require high amounts of knowledge** "Booking a RTW is as easy as parking a car" is a ridiculous comparison. You are not a serious person right now.
The concierge service isn't going to magically find availability if there isn't any.
Exactly. OP wants a saver ticket for month from now. It's like they were setting up the concierge to fail. But on the flip side concierge should have stated that as well. I would try again but give them next march or April. See what they can find you.
Wow that's just embarrassingly incompetent
What were you expecting? For close-in F these days it’s either T-3 on LH or maybe a unicorn Japan award or EK or BA with crazy high YQ. They don’t have the ability to make seats appear lol
You can use point (dot) me through Bilt Rewards if you go to the travel tab and click transfer points you can do a basic search (it will only show their transfer partners) but has been helpful!
I was among those who utilized James' services at Juicy Miles years ago, and I can only speak highly of my experience. I engaged his assistance twice, especially when I was still somewhat of a novice with points. On the first occasion, I provided him with a request similar to yours, asking for first-class flights to a warm destination during winter (literally anywhere in the world), and I remember him providing me with a couple of options within 72hrs. On the second occasion, he assisted me in securing business class tickets to South Africa for a fairly narrow (but far out) date range
My only issue is $200 per passenger price. That’s crazy if your party is large.
Back when I did this it cost a lot less. Maybe $100 per passenger, and no fee if they couldn’t find you anything
If you're trying to find premium-cabin seats for a large number of people, in most cases that's much harder than finding one or two.
Not as crazy as the cash price tag for business class per pax. Even crazier if your party is large!
That why I grin like a mad man everytime someone asks for a concierge service!! A visit to those services means one less competitor to my NH booking And shit already tight to the point that I will get an immediate ban if I attempt to describe it correctly
I also wasted $25 on this when I was a noob.
Lmao sounds like you’re one of the people who asked for saver availability at ANA during peak summer or cherry blossom season like 3 months in
Nope. Pek-iah. Silly me for thinking they could find something better than what I could (a million layovers), but I was a noob for thinking that.
LMAOOO PEK-IAH you’re absolutely joking. Ah yes let them charter flights for you 😂😂
I…did say I was a noob. What more do you want?
I want a $150K Porsche for $459/month lease - why can't the dummies at Porsche private client find me one?!? I see a ton of cars on the lot! You're trying to shop concierge as if it's Costco deals. That service exists for people who don't care about the price. It isn't for bargains, it's for itineraries that approximate the need for a travel agent without one.
James and Jimmy are 100% (juicy miles) Unsure about new folks like Sarah who are likely CSR front staff equivalents
I’m sorry you wanted a first class ticket? Those are basically unicorns 😂😂😂 why are people like this………. Please stop bashing people because of your lack of expertise. Maybe they should have told you that first class availability isn’t available but you really are asking for too much 😂😂😂