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bean

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Just thinking-I like many just don't have the time to spend hours trawling through these threads and trying to work out how everything works, what the pros and cons and pitfalls are and how to best use and purchase points for travel. On the other hand there are obviously members who know everything inside out.

To these members-have you considered offering a service where you take care of everything for a fee? For example, I have to book 3 J class tickets to Thailand for travel next year and would happily pay for someone to take care of all of this for me if they could obtain a significant discount on the normal fare prices.

Food for thought anyways...
 
What are the fees/charges that people have used Flightfox.... Please
 
Interesting thanks, I had a look and it appears you have to pay an upfront fee...I'm a little dubious on this when I have you idea on the 'saving' they may offer? Anyone dealt with them?
 
This whole concept is not new, but it has many pitfalls. I do tickets for a few select friends and family, but only because they have some grasp of the complexity and work involved, and they have been informed by me the fact that as a non-TA, you can not do much to help if things go wrong.

I take great pleasure (it is my hobby) surfing the net and looking for loop holes - but the time involved is astronomical, and very few people will understand or value that effort.
 
Your not kidding with the amount of time, just reading the threads here takes an ungodly amount of time to scratch the surface
 
People using this method must be prepared to be flexible, and I mean flexible! For example the OP might say "I want to be in London on the 8th", and the result might be, "well I can get you to Munich on the 4th via a 14 hour transit in outer Mongolia". :shock:
 
People using this method must be prepared to be flexible, and I mean flexible! For example the OP might say "I want to be in London on the 8th", and the result might be, "well I can get you to Munich on the 4th via a 14 hour transit in outer Mongolia". :shock:

Actually, the opposite is the case. The OP needs to be specific on destination and date. They also need to specify that they refuse to fly airlines like Qantas etc.
 
Actually, the opposite is the case. The OP needs to be specific on destination and date. They also need to specify that they refuse to fly airlines like Qantas etc.

Well in my case I'm happy to fly any airline. Dates are reasonably flexible with a departure Melbourne on the 22nd of July 2015 +\- 4 days and departure coughet is also flexible any date after the 1st of August.

Ideally of course I'd like J class, 2 adults one child. I have 300,000 velocity points but can also purchase US airways miles.
 
Flightfox used to work differently to how it does now. It was 'crowd sourced' and had 'experts' who would help the punters. You'd put up an amount you wanted to pay, and the experts would bid for it, saying how much they could get you the fares for and if you picked them they got the cash (less a commission to Flightfox).

This ultimately failed (I was one of the experts). Now they 'match' punters to 'experts' behind-the-scenes. Apparently this was a better financial option for them.

I can see why though. The time I invested as an expert was ultimately a poor cash wise choice. I often made around $50-100 for probably 6-8 hours of work. For fun and games it was a few dollars for doing something I enjoy, but it was tough work too. There's a lot of people out there who are good at this stuff, and they were all putting up very compelling options to the people requesting them.

Options such as the forums here where you can put a fixed fee for help are good too. Bottom line is if you're happy with the deal you find, that's the main thing.
 
Flightfox used to work differently to how it does now. It was 'crowd sourced' and had 'experts' who would help the punters. You'd put up an amount you wanted to pay, and the experts would bid for it, saying how much they could get you the fares for and if you picked them they got the cash (less a commission to Flightfox).

This ultimately failed (I was one of the experts). Now they 'match' punters to 'experts' behind-the-scenes. Apparently this was a better financial option for them.

I can see why though. The time I invested as an expert was ultimately a poor cash wise choice. I often made around $50-100 for probably 6-8 hours of work. For fun and games it was a few dollars for doing something I enjoy, but it was tough work too. There's a lot of people out there who are good at this stuff, and they were all putting up very compelling options to the people requesting them.

Options such as the forums here where you can put a fixed fee for help are good too. Bottom line is if you're happy with the deal you find, that's the main thing.

Agreed. I was also an expert but once they changed the methodology i left.
 
Hi,

What you should google for is something like "award booking service" to find people that offer such a service. I don't know of any Australian services apart from Steve at I Fly Flat (that's the business name I think) but here are a couple of American services but they will work with people from anywhere:

Award Booking Service - Travel Codex

and

Book Your Award

I haven't used them myself so can't endorse any of them but there are similar services out there.

One thing you should do is make sure you have American Aadvantage accounts, LifeMile accounts, United Mileage Plus accounts etc opened up because when they run sales or you want to buy points you have to have had your account open for a certain amount of time. Also an Alaskan Airlines account is good for Aussies as there is no limit on how many points you can buy.

Dale.
 
The Frequent Flyer Concierge team takes the hard work out of finding reward seat availability. Using their expert knowledge and specialised tools, they'll help you book a great trip that maximises the value for your points.

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As others have said, massive amount of work and you need a level of flexibility which most people either don't have or are not willing to do. If I was to charge my standard hourly rate for the level of work I put into planning my trips it would simply have been cheaper to have gone to a TA and slapped the card on the table and told them to go nuts.

I spend the time since I do like doing the research, I like looking at the options and I like the fact that I have extremely few "bad" flights compared to some of my friends.
 
Cheers I hadn't seen that! :)

I doubt that option is what you are asking. I tried it and received some suggestions about alternate ports, but there were no offers of help which is what I think you are asking for. Realistically, what the others have said here is very true, to play the game requires a large investment of personal time and it won't happen overnight. To be successful at this, you need to do it yourself and you need to practice to hone your skills and knowledge. I think many AFFers are happy to spend the time for themselves (and perhaps immediate family) but more than that is not what they themselves want. I think the game requires passion and patience and mostly time to commit. If it was too easy, it probably wouldn't exist at all.
 
I doubt that option is what you are asking. I tried it and received some suggestions about alternate ports, but there were no offers of help which is what I think you are asking for..

Well it's as close to getting what the OP needs as this forum can do.

I think where it does fall down and what you alluded to is that this is a very time consuming and dynamic hobby of ours. What Bean is asking for would take a fair amount of time and I think it would perhaps surprise them how much time is involved.(maybe not, I can't assume) But the other thing is that as far as points go the route they're interested in isn't the best value for points use and therefore not of a lot of interest to most people on here.
 
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