Do you ever wonder where the expression, “You don’t do business with a business, you do business with people,” originated? Ok, I’ve never thought about where it originated either, but after all my years in business, I can tell you it’s a total truism. When I find good business people to do business with, I love it! As a frequent traveler who likes to travel “well” and use miles and points for award tickets, I’m a long-standing client of Juicy Miles. But that’s just a business name, isn’t it? The man behind the business, and at the helm of this great group of people, is Adam.

A few weeks ago, it dawned on me that the image that many people must have of award booking businesses is that they aren’t “real” businesses. I think many people think it’s something people do in their spare time to help friends and family members figure out all the rules and regulations for using that stash of miles/points. But in the case of Juicy Miles, it’s the real deal. It’s very well run and they’re great at what they do. And they’ve just redesigned their Juicy Miles website which makes submitting your requests super easy! I want you to get to know Adam better, so I reached out to him with a few questions about what he does, why he does it, how he trains his team, and more. Hope you enjoy the interview!

• Shelli: Juicy Miles started in what year?
• Adam: Believe it or not, Juicy Miles went live all the way back in 2011 (I think we first communicated in 2014 or so).

• S: Originally, when family and friends came to you for help, was it because they had tried to book the awards and couldn’t do it themselves, or because they just didn’t want to spend the time doing it?
• A: Definitely both! My friends and family were skilled enough that they could search via the airline’s websites, but they didn’t fully understand the potential for partner redemptions, especially those that weren’t visible via the built-in award search capability. They also would read about the value of redeeming your points for round-the-world trips, multi-stop and tag-on itineraries, but they didn’t know how to go about booking those themselves or exactly what some of those words even meant.
• S: Educating oneself takes time. Which do you think is the most complicated and takes the most time to learn: alliances and non-alliance partners, allowable routings, stopover rules, how to construct an itinerary, or something else?
• A: Definitely allowable routings and stop-over rules! We deal with almost every airline loyalty program imaginable and getting those rules down is a challenge… especially when several carriers changes those rules almost bi-weekly. More importantly (and maybe the most fun for me) is educating myself on how to gently go beyond the set rules. Knowing which airlines will allow going beyond because there’s no system block is key. Then how and with whom to book these awards comes next.

Check out our Top Rewards cards to boost your points earning and travel more!

• S: According to what’s on the Juicy Miles site, the team is up to 14. Is this accurate today? That in and of itself speaks to the point that we all can’t be good at everything in terms of knowing all the alliances, routes etc. Would you agree?
• A: Our team is actually up to 55 team members including both our award booking consultants and mileage run experts. Our consultants join either the full-time team (taking on more than 5 client requests per day) or the overflow team (taking on fewer than 5 client requests per day). Absolutely, we can’t all be good at everything. We have requests coming from all over the world and most clients have similar questions and confusion regarding how to move their points, redeeming with partner carriers, and allowable routings.
• S: Can you tell me a bit about the training your team gets? After all, we’re trusting your team to put our hard earned miles/points to the best use :)
• A: Sure, for those who love the thrill of search, our interview and training program is actually a blast! All applicants are provided with mock client requests. Of course, each of those requests will have multiple award possibilities that would work for the client, but we’re looking to ensure that our team members are always thinking about how they can provide the most value to our clients (value in terms of points saved, but also in terms of best product, routing, minimizing fuel surcharges and other fees, and freebies – stopovers, tag-ons, lounge access, etc.). If the mock bookings are truly best-in-class, we then move the applicants on to the shadow program. They are involved in real-life bookings with our established team members for a period of two weeks. During that time, our trainees witness the entire process, from request form intake to ticketing and confirmation. They witness every action and communication with the client during this time, and more importantly, have our established team members walking them through why they’ve chosen one points currency over another, routing, or one carrier over another. During this time, the applicants are also presenting me with mock responses to the clients. I can see how they would have proceeded with the booking and if it doesn’t match with what we ultimately go with, we’ll discuss and educate as necessary. Our team is also all about sharing and communication, so as new rules, deals, or “work-arounds” emerge, the team is ensuring everyone is up to date and on the same page.
• S: Do you find when potential clients contact Juicy Miles that they tend to scatter their miles/points or are most people pretty focused these days?
• A: It’s actually changed over the years. Presently, we receive many more Ultimate Rewards and Membership Rewards focused requests, though each day also brings us customers (especially in hub cities) who have their balances tied to the hometown carrier or two.
• S: For first timers using award miles/points, is there anything they should do to sorta prep themselves before contacting you? The obvious would be chose a place/time of year/class of service etc., but maybe other things too?
• A: Yes, the art of flexibility! We can almost always guarantee that we’ll get you where you want to go at the very best price if there’s some flexibility (ie leaving +/- 2 days, being open to connecting in all cities, allowing us to recommend a positioning flight). However, we love our newbies because besides being super excited, they are more likely to come with a region rather than a specific destination. From there, we can make recommendations based on our own travel experiences as well as which destinations work best with their current point balances and dates of travel.

Check out our Top Rewards cards to boost your points earning and travel more!

• S: Hmm, do you ever get anyone who has never booked an award trip themselves or is this mostly who you do get as clients?
• A: We actually do and they normally fall into two groups. We are contacted by recently engaged or married couples each and every day. In fact, we currently book over 250 honeymoons a week. The majority of these couples have no points or miles at all, they simply want to fly first class and stay in luxurious accommodations… for free ;-) Our consultants will work with them on a mileage / points earning plan based on their ideal honeymoon locale (our top honeymoon bookings right now are Maldives, Thailand, Australia, Seychelles, Bora Bora, and Italy, Greece, Croatia and Spain in spring / summer). The other requests we get that fall into this category are classified as executive assistant requests. These are typically coordinators who are booking trips on behalf of their managers who have collected the miles/points, but don’t have time to redeem them. We actually book trips for many CEOs / executives as well as on-air talent (yes, they redeem points/miles too)!
• S: Are there any requests that make you and your team cringe? Europe during Christmas requested 2 weeks before Christmas, perhaps?
• A: Not cringe, just sadness that we likely won’t be able to assist. For Christmas and New Year’s, we receive countless requests for Australia, Hawaii, and Caribbean destinations. Besides the fact that travel will be during the holidays and that these are popular year-round destinations, these clients usually have firm dates and cannot be flexible due to family gatherings, vacation time, etc. We do our best and our team is fantastic at suggesting workable alternatives when these cannot be secured.
• S: When you create an itinerary and someone doesn’t book the award with Juicy Miles, do you think it’s usually that their dates weren’t satisfied, their class of service, routing, airlines used, or other things? I know you provide multiple choices and a lot of possibilities, so I’m wondering why a person would not say BOOK IT, Dano!
• A: Most often it’s because of a change in preference. A client might tell us they would love the non-stop flight to a given European destination over the summer and are okay to connect in order to get there on the dates they want to travel. We’ll often find that connection, ensure it’s the proper class of service and an amazing product, and then the client will later notify us that their significant other or family member really needs to fly non-stop and that they’d prefer to simply buy the flight. That’s our most common non-ticketing response.

Thank you Adam, for giving us such an in-depth look behind the scenes of Juicy Miles. I really enjoyed reading Adam’s answers and getting to know how a business I’ve been using for so many years already operates. Certainly I can attest to the quality of the services his team offers, especially because what he and his team do I find mind boggling! I have many great skills, but when I know I’m not skilled enough to do something, at least I’m smart enough to ask for help! That’s also a great skill of mine :)

If you want to read other posts I’ve written about my Juicy Miles experiences and my thoughts on using an award booking service, please take a look. Any questions? Let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading!