Questions and Answers

Hi Tiffany,

Sorry to re-create the topic, but you have deleted it even before I had a chance to reply to you. Here is your answer to my questions:

“In general, consolidator fares (which is what you seem to be referencing) don’t earn miles. So we wouldn’t recommend that as a strategy.

I’m also not entirely thrilled about the insinuation that companies that use miles for premium cabin tickets are shady. There are certainly some companies out there that do this nefariously, but as we run one that helps people use [I]their own[/I] miles for tickets, that could be confusing.

Amex travel packages tend to not be a good value either, with the exception of Amex FHR, or booking directly through Amex Travel to receive the points rebate on the business platinum card.

I appreciate you sharing, and your enthusiasm, but I am not sure this article is a good fit for our readership. 🙁 ”

I just wanted to clarify a few things as I still believe that your readers can benefit from some of the strategies I propose.

1) I believe it is a common misconception in the travel industry that you cannot earn miles when buying air through a consolidator. In fact, most of the time you CAN earn miles, but they may be capped and if you are using a credit card that gives you extra points for booking air, they may not work with this strategy. However, most of the airlines will still allow you to earn miles. In fact, I just flew on Emirates Air from JFK/DXB in September that I bought with contract rates from our agency and I was able to get 3,000 miles in coach class. Last year I booked Aeroflot with a consolidator and was still able to earn miles (don’t remember how much was that).

What I can offer, is maybe if you can give me some of your favorite airlines and routings, and I will check the prices as well as try to find out the mileage that can be earned and then we can do some math? I mean if you make less miles, but you can save 100s if not 1,000s on business class air, wouldn’t it worth it in certain cases?

2) I was not trying to accuse anyone, as personally I have never worked with any companies that deal with miles, but I saw quite a lot of posts where people complained that their tickets were canceled as they broke airlines’ T&C. I am sure there are some legit companies that play by the rules, but apparently there are quite a few shady ones. I just want to point out to readers, that there are other way that you can get cheaper Business/First Class air tickets without going through companies that deal with miles.

3) As an AMEX representative, we can book any packages that are bookable on AMEX. We can also help redeem miles towards the booking, apply all the amenities for hotels and cruises (based on the AMEX credit card), and identify if travelers can make additional points with certain companies based on their trip.

But, we are not only selling AMEX related products. We can help travelers book through variety of popular Tour Operators, and I can even use my personal knowledge to assist with miles and points calculation if that is what some clients need (I don’t want to take over your side of business, just saying that I can be of help to your readers as well in this way).

If this type(s) of articles would be of interest to you and your readers, please let me know so we can discuss the content and I will be happy to work with you.

Thank you for your time.

Why not just post your own airlines and routing on here with a price youre able to get (and what fare class that books into) and a photos of pricing on the airlines website and an OTA travel agencie’s website pricing?

I’d figure the most popular routes are US-Europe, US-Asia and US-Australia

Hey David,

Well there are few things why I cannot do what you suggest.

1. I cannot bluntly advertise on the site that is not mine
2. I do not work for any specific airline, so I don’t have contracts to see prices. I have to work with my clients and get prices based on the needs. I am offering here that owners of the site choose some routings that they think would be beneficial for their clients and we can write an article about that
3. I work with several consolidators, and for some you have to request a quote, which has to be specific and takes time.

The only time I can simply put some prices is when I see a promotion, but again I am not going to bluntly advertise on here as it is not professional.

All the other things I can gladly put in an article if Ben agrees to feature it on his site.

Viktor–I believe the email Tiffany has published in the past is tiffany at onemileatatime dot com. Suggest you follow up there.

Thank you Gaurav, I will reach out to her.