I could definitely have used something like this when booking my miles travel to Korea last year. We

It started with a passion for frugalness and travel. The intersection of these two areas had me scouring forums and sites daily to learn about earning and redeeming miles/points to subsidize my travel costs. hard rock hotel and casino hollywood By being an airline miles collector, my friends turned to me for questions related to miles and if I didn't have the answers, I'd search for them allowing me to learn more about the miles and points system.
Additionally, one of the forums announced a meet up in Chicago, which I attended in its inaugural year. It was at that seminar where I learned of people offering an award booking service One of the notable ones was Gary Leff s service, which I thought was a neat idea. I wanted to offer a similar service, but I didn't want to crowd the space. Essentially I wanted to differentiate myself in this niche.
Gary has an unsurpassed knowledge for redeeming frequent flyer miles for first class itineraries. So needless to say, he caters towards clientele that want to redeem miles for premium class itineraries. These types of itineraries cost thousands of dollars if one were paying out of pocket, thus one could justify paying several hundred dollars hard rock hotel and casino hollywood for a service that Gary offers.
Now, there are some travelers that don't care for the in-flight experience of flying up front as much as their final destination. Simply because they don't have the required miles to fly up front, or they re perfectly happy flying economy to make use of their miles for another trip.  These folks can either: do the research themselves or pay for a service.
That's where I want to differentiate myself.  I help people save time by finding all the flights with availability, but doesn't warrant the specific knowledge of redeeming miles for first and business class seats like Gary offers.
I currently charge $80 to make an itinerary up to two people in economy class, or $150 for two people in business class.  I've been fortunate enough to network with people to allow some guest posting , thus getting some business.
Each frequent flyer mile program has different redemption and routing rules. Needless to say, the learning curve is fairly steep. The good thing is that there's an overwhelming amount of information on the internet for anyone to start.
Studying the rules and terminology is not necessarily the best way to start, though. Instead, start by helping friends/family members make award redemptions so that one can become familiar with how the process works and the airline hubs/etc. The more and more you do it, the more familiar hard rock hotel and casino hollywood you'll become with the terminology and booking codes.
The best analogy I can make is: if you're trying to learn Photoshop, you're hard rock hotel and casino hollywood certainly not going to start by reading an instruction manual from page one. Instead, you're going to use the book as a reference guide and refer to it when you're trying to figure something out.
A recent redemption was from a woman who was redeeming miles for an 8-week long trip to Bangkok from North America with her daughter and husband. The plan was for her and her daughter to fly to Bangkok together, and then have her husband meet up at a later date. All three of them would then fly back together to North America. The problem hard rock hotel and casino hollywood they were having was that the airline agent couldn t book them on the same flight back because she couldn t find the three seats available. It was important for them to be flying together, so that's when she contacted me and relayed over her situation.
I noticed that the agent didn't take advantage of routing rules that this airline permitted , which allowed a stopover en route or returning from her destination. I explained the possibilities of what she could do with a stopover. She consulted her family and expressed a desire hard rock hotel and casino hollywood to stop in Istanbul on the return flight home if it was possible.
Mike Choi is an avid traveler and blogs about his travels at thefitworldtraveler.com . With his knowledge hard rock hotel and casino hollywood of traveling and frequent flyer miles, he runs a frequent mile redemption shop at iflywithmiles.com helping travelers redeem their miles.
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Cruising is a crazy idea too. What if something happens and the boat is too far away from shore for you to swim? I can only swim a few laps in a pool so I won t cruise either. hard rock hotel and casino hollywood Plus, I am in Canada so you have to fly everywhere to get on these boats. I bet gangs of sharks just follow the boats around waiting hard rock hotel and casino hollywood for their next meal to fall off the Lido deck.
Haha . I d LOVE to get on a cruise myself haven t ever been and it just looks like so much dang fun! Especially with all your friends or family? hard rock hotel and casino hollywood In all that warmth? Man . I can t wait for it to be Spring.
Random hard rock hotel and casino hollywood question with AAdvantage miles booking hard rock hotel and casino hollywood internationally, is there a way to tell what the taxes and fees will be before you book? Right now the range I m looking at says $2-$700 in taxes and fees (on top of 30K miles), and that s a pretty big range!
The best way to determine the out of pocket expenses, is the put the itinerary on hold. AA allows a generous 5 day hold period hard rock hotel and casino hollywood giving you time to think about an itinerary before committing hard rock hotel and casino hollywood to it. If you are indeed going to Europe, avoid flying hard rock hotel and casino hollywood on British Airways when you re redeeming miles because BA levies a fuel surcharge hard rock hotel and casino hollywood on mileage hard rock hotel and casino hollywood redemptions while other carriers do not. These fuel surcharges can be quite hefty, hence the reason why you see that range of $2-$700 as a fore warning. To avoid the hefty fuel surcharges, fly AA, Iberia, or Air Berlin to Europe.
This is a great niche I think! The rewards programs and miles redemption hard rock hotel and casino hollywood rules can be very very complicated so it makes sense for someone to help people out. I imagine if it saves some people a couple hours of time and frustration while making their vacation happen could be well worth it to some people.
Frequent Flyer points are something i ve never really prioritized when choosing which card to use. You re right it does seem all very complicated, but judging by some of the returns i#ve seen off my credit cards its the best way to go.
I agree that travel rewards do beat out a 1% cash back credit card. Not everyone has a need or desire for hotels/flights. Some are just better with a cash back card. The most important thing about credit cards is to pay off your balances in full and on time.
Never knew there were people out there to help negotiate this. It makes a lot of sense because a lot of the frequent flyer programs and points/miles programs are pretty frustrating to navigate. Esp for a complicated flight, it makes sense to pay someone to get exactly what you want.
I could definitely have used something like this when booking my miles travel to Korea last year. We got two seats, but now I wonder hard rock hotel and casino hollywood if we could have gotten more from our miles. N regrets, though, we had a great time. :)
I can see where your side hustle comes in handy. There are so many rules when it comes to which cards to use, how much to spend, when you can use frequent flyer miles, that I know I would be lost. I can see other people feel the same way too. This is interesting and I will have to check out your sites. I hope you get quite a few customers from this post :)
Nice work. Cool idea to help those who don t want to deal with the hassle of finding all the best deals, how to put together and use miles and how to book travel on the cheap. I ve been following Flyertalk for about 6 months now, and Rick s blog over at frugaltravelguy.com. About to start my second CC churn, and the miles are piling up! Excited for inexpensive and luxurious on rewards points and miles :)
I don t do a lot of flying, so I don t worry about frequent flyer miles. I don t even have any miles credit cards. I think this would be an interesting niche because people are always willing to pay for less headache.
Disclaimer I, J. Money, only claim the thoughts from my head. I am NOT a banker, CPA, money manager or anything else of that sort. Please seek out a professional for any "real" advice. For more info, please check out my privacy & disclosure page .
Budgets Are Sexy has been lovingly prepared by me, J$, and motivated by YOU - the community! While this blog seems random at times, our main goal here is simple: To keep personal finance fun. And the earlier you start rockin' that money, the better! This stuff isn't just for old people - it's for ALL people. So whether you came to learn about credit cards, 401k, budget planning, retirement, or anything else relating hard rock hotel and casino hollywood to money, I give you a hearty pat on the back for seeking it out. The more we research, the more we learn baby!