Its name is AwardMagic.com, and it's potentially the most useful travel service of which you've never heard. It is not alone in what it does--ThePointsGuy.com, FlyerTalk.com, and numerous others claim to accomplish the same substantial increase in the value of the travel you enjoy by earning frequent flyer mileage or credit card points. But AwardMagic.com was the company that first brought to my attention their uncanny ability to send you on far-ranging trips for a number of miles that you never dreamed could bring about such a thing.
Essentially, AwardMagic.com and the others take over the work of exchanging your mileage or points for travel. You advise them of the number of miles or points you possess, the travel you'd like to undertake, and they then choose the airline--usually one that you had never considered using--to actually obtain the trip that you'll undertake. And often that trip is in a business class or first class seat on the airline in question. Their ability to do this, they say, is based on their superior knowledge of which airlines are willing to provide a wholly unexpected and remarkable trip for points or miles that you regarded as fairly low.
For their services, they charge a flat $139 per person on a normal round-trip flight, or $249 per person for far more complicated airline itineraries--much less than the worth of their services. Their most surprising victories, of course, are on trips to the exotic destinations--like Hyderabad or Krakow—but they also handle straight domestic flights.
How are they able to do this? It's because they are aware of lesser-known and usually international airlines that are happy to confer a benefit on you, and are delighted to assign seats that otherwise would have gone unused.
They go on to explain: the big, well-known banks and the like that issue credit cards rewarded with mileage, assign to that mileage a much smaller benefit than some of their partner airlines are actually willing to provide if contacted direct. The big, giant airlines that offer airline-branded credit cards assign to their points much lesser awards of travel than a great many other airlines are actually willing to quietly provide. By paying the $139 or $249 fee to which I've referred, you end up with elaborate trips in luxurious seats of a value that you never thought you could receive.
The people at AwardMagic.com have cited, to me, the case of a couple who wanted to fly to fly round-trip to Australia, on an itinerary that also envisioned a flight to another south Pacific destination. They phoned AwardMagic.com and pointed out that they possessed only 175,000 points on the credit card program they had used for most expenditures. No problem, replied the personnel of AwardMagic.com, And shortly thereafter, they advised the astonished couple that they were the recipients not only of the trip they desired, but in business class. Other airlines had been happy to help, using seats that would otherwise fly empty.
In effect, for just 150,000 points and not a penny in cash, that couple received close to $10,000 in airfares.
The lesson: don't despair if you think you have fewer accumulated points than you might need. As long as you possess a substantial number--surely more than 150,000--you stand a chance of obtaining your dream trip, by phoning an expert to represent you.
Once again: as I've been careful to point out, numerous other firms in the field claim to be able to do the same thing as the company I've cited. I met the AwardMagic people at a newspaper travel show, where they had been chosen by a distinguished publication to alert an audience to the wonders they could—supposedly—bring about.
Photo credit: Robert S. Donovan/flickr
