Let Me Be Your Miles Personal Assistant For Free

MileValue is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

Note: Some of the offers mentioned below may have changed or are no longer be available. You can view current offers here.

Update on 10/23/13: I have dozens and dozens of entries to sort through, so entry is now closed.

I’ve long marveled at how hard it is to convince people to use miles and points to travel more, travel better, and pay next to nothing doing it.

My only explanation is that there is a steep learning curve that turns many people off. People need to know:

• “How many miles do I need?”
• “Which rewards cards should I get?”
• “How will getting them affect my credit?”
• “How do I book an award?”
• And a million other questions that I’ve gotten and answered from newbies.

One thicket of unanswered questions or one set back when an airline says that there are no award seats or the award will have $750 in “taxes,” and people are done with miles forever before they’ve really started.

I started this blog to help people travel more, better, and cheaper. The blog is ideal for that because one post can be read and used by thousands of people. But some people need individual help.

That’s why I am offering to be the miles-and-points personal assistant to three lucky beginners and their travel companions completely for free. What will this entail? How can you be one of the three groups for whom I plan entire award trip?

What exactly will I do?

• I will contact you by phone and email and answer all your questions personally.
• I will take your goal trip and figure out the best points strategy to accomplish it as cheaply and luxuriously as possible.
• I will walk you through which credit cards to get, how to get them, meeting the minimum spending requirements, and transferring points as necessary. Some of the tips I give you will be way off the record stuff that you can’t find online.
• I will use your miles to book you the best award possible in line with your preferences.
• Then I’m done. I do the work. You do the travel.

So who’s eligible?

I want to take on cases where I think I can be the most helpful the quickest. Here’s what you need to know before deciding whether to fill out the form to have me be your miles-and-points personal assistant.

• You can only fill out the form if you are requesting the service for yourself and your party. You cannot fill out the form on behalf of someone else. Effort will be required of the people I select, and the first effort is filling out the form yourself. If you know someone who would benefit, refer them to this post. I do think this offer is ideal for friends of longtime readers who have expressed an interest in what you do but never followed through.
• You must be able to apply for American credit cards, meaning that you must have an American Social Security Number.
• You must be want to take a trip three to seven months from now (January to May, 2014). I want to see the fruits of my labor quickly.
• Only entries through the form will be considered. Emails will not be considered, even from the 3k+ people who read MileValue via email. If the form is no longer at the bottom of the post, I have closed submissions.
• I pick the winners. My decisions are final. If you’re not picked, the good news is that I give away almost all the information I’ll be giving the winners for free on this site daily.
• You can’t be in the witness protection program. If you win, I will write about our conversations and include photos of you, your first name(s), location, where you go, and why.
• You must be willing to snap some photos on your eventual flight and vacation for the blog.
• Other than the form, the only place you should lobby me to try to pick you is Twitter (@milevalue) and Facebook.

The Form

The more specific and interesting you are, the more likely I will pick you.

Entry is now closed.

I’ve never done anything like this. If it’s fun for me, and I learn a lot about the most helpful ways to assist newbies, I might offer this again in the future.