Recently, my aunt sent me an article she saw online about mistakes people make when booking flights. The article was geared towards people who use cash for flights, though it did mention award tickets as well. Even though I prefer and mostly use miles and points for flights, I took a look at the article to see what it had to offer. And I also was curious to see if any valuable advice in that article was already offered here at TWG! It was, but they also left out one important piece of advice, geared to us miles/points folks.

The article talked about using the ITA Matrix Tool, which is a search engine tool for checking ticket prices. Grant did an extensive write-up and it’s a great tool to familiarize yourself with, whether or not you pay cash or use miles/points for tickets. The article warned people to always search multiple area airports when booking a ticket to see if fares change. That’s good to remember, whether using miles/points or paying cash. After all, New York has six airports! Positioning for a flight when you do use out of area airports is a topic I’ve talked about too.

The article encourages people to be flexible when booking both award and paid tickets. It says to use the calendar search function on the different airline websites and to try and catch some spontaneous travel deals as well. The last mistake the article talks about is making silly errors. We’ve all heard about people who mistakenly booked a flight to Portland, Maine, (PWM), when they meant to book a flight to Portland, Oregon, (PDX). Another mistake that’s easy to make is to not pay attention when a flight departs. We want to see 1pm when we make the flight choice, but it actually says 1am :(

I told my aunt that the mistakes and cautionary tone of the article was all true, but that it presented booking tickets, whether award or paid tickets, as a lot of work. And indeed it can be. I also thought it created a sense of fear of doing something wrong and making people afraid of missing something, like paying extra fees on “low cost” airlines and watching out for high airport taxes, such as when flying out of the U.K. My aunt said it’s a lot for someone to think about when all they want to do is get somewhere and have some fun. I agree!

And I think it finally dawned on her the reason I’m glad to pay an award booking team like Juicy Miles  to handle my travels. I simply don’t want to fuss with all the details I’d have to consider for getting the best use of my miles and points and getting myself to where I want to travel. When there are airport taxes, Juicy Miles tells me and then we talk about possible alternatives, and sometimes I have to take a deep breath and pay those taxes. Even though that stinks, I am 100% certain that it was the best choice given the parameters of my travels. If I have to be more flexible with dates or with airport departures or arrivals to make my trip happen, Juicy Miles will tell me. They see the big picture, know the ebb and flow of award seat availability, and are my trusted experts in this game.

If you’re in need of help with booking your award tickets, give Juicy Miles a try. They are up for the challenge, I promise you that!