Found Cheap Business Class - Legit?

[HWilliams]

Hi all,

I've been reading this forum for a long time now but never been a participant. Glad to finally join the community.

I am looking for some business class tickets for a close friend and have managed to find a site called asaptickets.com. They have some excellent prices for business class. Once you enter in where you'd like to travel, they give you an estimate and then you're advised to call them.

I called the Australian number and spoke to an American (?) sounding lady and gave her all the details of the travels. She called back a couple of hours later and e-mailed me some quotes, one of which is very appealing.

The e-mails came from another company called luxflights.com.

Naturally, I am skeptical. After looking into this company further I note (on their website – FAQ):
Once we collect information from you about your miles, when and where you need to fly, and how many tickets you need, our travel consultants do extensive research on the availability of awards tickets for the desired flights. If we are able to confirm availability, we determine the cost of the tickets and will send you a price quote and the proposed itinerary. If you agree with the price and the itinerary, we will match you with a seller of miles who will, upon your payment to us, transfer the mileage into your existing or new mileage account. Subsequently, we will issue the ticket(s) on your behalf directly with the airline. You will receive your ticket confirmation by e-mail.

My understanding is you create a frequent flyer account with the airline (in this case Singapore Airlines) and they find someone willing to sell their points, to which you transfer the funds and they transfer the points needed to purchase the flight.

Anyone heard of this system before? My end figure for business class to the destination is $4500, normal price being in excess of $7000.

Thanks.

 

[markis10]

Thats not cheap for an award flight, have a look at the Avianca and US Air Dividend Miles threads, a bit of work and you should be able to almost halve it or even better, these organisations thrive on those not keen to do the work and make good profits in a lot of cases.

 

[DeKa]

What do Singapore Airlines say about transfer of points?
Programme Terms and Conditions

• 21. Transfer of miles from a member’s KrisFlyer account to another account in a different frequent flyer programme, and vice versa, is not allowed. Transfer of KrisFlyer miles from one member’s account to another member’s account is also not permitted.
  
  
  
  

I think you have your answer.

 

[Travel Guru]

Its not new there's a stack of companies doing this and ive had all of them contact me at one time or another trying to get me to push some client business through them but I wont touch them with a barge pole, not worth the risk.

TG

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I'm sure all they do is buy miles in your name and sell you an award ticket for about 4 times the price than if you bought the miles and did an award redemption yourself.

They would probably make approx $2,000.00 - $3,000 dollars commission from you should you book through them - wouldn't that money be better off in your pocket???

Their claim of "If you agree with the price and the itinerary, we will match you with a seller of miles who will, upon your payment to us, transfer the mileage into your existing or new mileage account" IMHO is total BS and merely a red herring in their attempt to justify to you how they make the airfare cheaper when this practice contravenes the T&C of all airline frequent flyer programs.