My Award Booking Service has been too successful. People have responded to the low prices, excellent service, and searching skill with enthusiasm.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been getting so many requests, I’ve struggled to keep up with all of them on top of maintaining this blog. I didn’t want to cut back on the blog or raise my price to lower the number of requests I got. And luckily I won’t have to.
A few months ago I met Tahsir, the Bengali Miles Guru. Tahsir rose to prominence by offering free award booking services on FlyerTalk. As word of mouth spread about a new skilled booker offering free bookings, he was given his own subforum on milepoint. Major blogs like Mommy Points started to link to his incredible posts, and he was eventually profiled by Million Mile Secrets.
As Tahsir’s star rose, he reached out to me when he found out we both lived in the Los Angeles area. We got together for some Thai food and talked for an hour about obscure routing rules and war stories with incompetent phone agents. I can tell you that few people would have understood or cared to understand the conversation, but it was clear to me that Tahsir knew what he was doing.
After meeting in person, we occasionally corresponded about awards we were booking (with no personal details shared–just airports and dates) to help each other in tough spots. As our friendship developed, we realized there was a perfect symbiotic relationship to be formed.
Tahsir loves award booking and does not like the pressure of updating a blog daily. I love this blog, and I am committed to improving and growing it. I also love award booking, but not at the 4-8 hours a day, seven days a week clip that I have been working on it.
After figuring out exactly how we could merge our booking services in the best way possible for us and our clients, we think we’ve figured it out. These discussions cemented my conviction that Tahsir is the perfect person with whom to partner. Not once did money come up except when he said, “I don’t care about the money.”
The reason he originally offered his service for free, and the reason that he keeps booking today is to help people achieve a dream trip. He and I want people to have the best airlines, most convenient schedule, lowest surcharges, and cheapest trips that miles can buy.
Tahsir is expert at all types of award bookings, but he brings a special expertise regarding Membership Rewards and its transfer partners Aeroplan and Singapore KrisFlyer that will take our award booking service to the next level. Future clients will have two creative minds working on their itineraries.
Out goal is to have the #1 award booking service in customer service, expertise, and price. What will people get?
- Better service at half the cost or less of our competitors. We will continue to charge $99 for the first person, and $50 for each subsequent person’s award on the same itinerary. Compare that to $150 per person charged by our competitors! So your family of four costs $249 with us and $600 with the competition. And, of course, if we can’t help you book something, you don’t pay.
- The leading experts on frequent flyer mile redemption. MileValue was the first blog to post the secrets to getting free oneways on United, American, Delta, and US Airways.
- The best, most customer-friendly service possible from start to finish. Tahsir and I had different procedures for everything from the form the customer filled out to how we accepted payment. We’ve gone through our procedures meticulously and taken the best from both services to give you the best possible experience.
- Much more, read the Award Booking Service page for full details.
In another great coup for the site, Tahsir will occasionally write posts when he has something great to share. Those posts will be easy to spot because they’ll be published under the name BengaliMilesGuru.
Welcome aboard, Tahsir. You’re going to help take the Award Booking Service and blog to the next level.
I have earned millions of points, primarily though credit cards, to travel the world in first class for pennies. This blog will show you how to earn and redeem points to do the same!
Awesome, guys! Read this blog religiously and am hoping to work with you in the coming months for a trip planned for next year.
2 geniuses are better than 1
Good luck you two! Excited for you both.
I hope your merger turns out better than UA’s and CO’s.
Haha. We’ve invested in fewer Dreamliners than they have so far.
I’m still not sure how you find the time to write up such good content all the time.
Congrats guys! Unfortunately (!), I learned so much from MV that I was able to book our upcoming award travel myself, but look forward to using you guys soon.
Weird business model, isn’t it? Tell people how to avoid paying us. I’m glad you were able to make your trip work.
Nicely done. Let me know when you’re hiring
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Nice! All the best!
Congrats guys. Building a SoCal mileage empire!
Bring Thasir to the next MV dinner
He’s one of only three people who knows the date…Announcement coming soon. More mole coming up.
Glad to see you’re expanding. This is certainly the most informative and easy to understand blog for non-experts and experts alike, in my opinion, so I’m glad to see it progressing. I’ve only been at this stuff for 2 months and I already have co-workers and friends asking for my advice. It’s a credit to this site. Kudos and hope to catch you both at the TPA/MCO meetup.
Just used the Bengali Miles Guru last week to find a way to get our former Brazilian exchange student home for Christmas. When I thought there weren’t any flights on any airline, he came through with an awkward booking that makes my ‘explorer’ happy to visit two new countries on his trip ‘home’. Tahsir is great and worth every penny he charges. I’ll use him on our trips in the future. Good luck working together!
Thank You for leaving such a nice compliment. It was a pleasure to book your flight. I’m so glad I was able to make your exchange student’s winter get a whole lot better!
Congratulations! Look forward to meeting you guys at the Chicago seminar
I’ll be there, but Tahsir has school or some nonsense like that
If you are branding out to the Orange County area, I would like to help
Congratulations, Scott and Tahsir. Scott, you have been so helpful with my flights for summer 2013, even “sticking with me” through the issues with United. I will definitely use your fabulous booking service again and give you a whole-hearted recommendation to anyone looking for GREAT customer service and a low fee. THANKS!
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