Complex Airline Loyalty Programs Breed a New Crop of Travel Consultants

It used to be that saving up 25,000 award miles almost guaranteed a passenger a free domestic plane ticket. In an era of stingier loyalty programs and fewer cheap award seats though, it's getting extremely difficult to put those 25,000 miles to good use. As a result, some passengers have turned to external help to find their ideal award tickets. Award booking services have been around for years, but a more active points economy and an increasingly complex airline industry have slowly put them back in the spotlight. The points economy has been driven on the supply side primarily by points-based credit cards and the big