Cranky Concierge Rolls Out New One Way Pricing

I thought I’d take this normally post-less Wednesday to let you know that we’ve rolled out new pricing on Cranky Concierge. Now, instead of pricing per trip, we have pricing per direction. If you’re traveling one way, this will save you money. But for the rest of you it’s likely to mean at least a slight increase. Hopefully you understand why we’re doing this.

You can see the new pricing spelled out at CrankyConcierge.com. I also put together an FAQ here.

In short, Flight Monitoring (formerly called Assistance) is $15 each way within the US/Canada, within the European Union, and within any single country. Global coverage is $30 each way. For an extra flat $30 on top of that, you can get help with Flight Planning as well. Need Urgent Assistance? It’s now a flat $150.

If you’ve used us to find award availability in the past, you know we’ve had great success helping people use their miles. That, however, is a very time-consuming process for us. For that reason, we’re introducing a new Frequent Flier Award Redemption service that costs $90 on top of Flight Monitoring. This is a big increase, but hopefully you’ll see the value that we provide.

There are a couple other changes. For example, if you end up buying a ticket in a premium cabin through us, we’ll refund our fee. We’re also instituting a $30 change fee for bookings that you have us change. In short, we’re trying to better match the time and effort we put in with the price we charge.

Lastly, you can still purchase Cranky Credits for a discount. Each credit is worth $15 and you can now buy in packs up 10, 20, or 35 with up to a 15% discount.

As always, feedback is welcome. If you have any questions, email us at info@crankyconcierge.com or call (888) 747-1011 within the US or +1 707 797 7474 elsewhere.

Brett

11 responses to “Cranky Concierge Rolls Out New One Way Pricing”

Dan

Jun 1, 2011

Cranky,

Yeah, I don’t blame you for jacking up your frequent flyer awards assistance. I’m somewhat good at it, and it still takes me forever. I can only imagine doing that for someone else. So, although it appears expensive, it’s a fair price to pay if you can actually deliver for the client.

One thing — it’s not clear if Urgent Assistance is an added cost for people who already have Flight Monitoring, included if you do, or if it’s for those who don’t and want help *now*.

Reply
1. CF
  
  Jun 1, 2011
  
  Dan – First off, if you’ve signed up for Flight Monitoring, then there is no added cost if something goes wrong. Urgent Assistance is only for those people who call at the last minute to sign up. If you think there’s an issue with the way it’s worded on the website (as opposed to the post here), please email me at cf@crankyflier.com so I can try to find a better way to make that clear.
  
  On the award redemption, it isn’t easy. Though we did two of these today. First, had a client who we grabbed First Class availability this July to fly to the Philippines, over to Japan, and then back to the US. (American has a surprising amount of First Class availability this summer.) Then we found someone an open jaw and a stopover on a trip to Asia using Aeroplan miles (transferred from Membership Rewards) today. Whew. 100,000 miles each.
  
  It’s no surprise that this can get ugly, and we have generally been able to deliver as long as clients are flexible and willing to get creative. But as always, we have our money-back guarantee. If people don’t think we’ve done everything we could to help them, they can request a refund and they’ll get it.
  
  Reply
David SF eastbay

Jun 1, 2011

Airlines and Travel agents charge fees even to their corporate clients so you charging fees isn’t out of the norm. The benefit people get from you could be better (for the money) then they might get from another source.

The most wasted money is dealing with the airline directly. They charge you and you get the least amount of service and by people who know less about ‘their’ airline then the average person on the street.

Reply
1. CF
  
  Jun 1, 2011
  
  Charging fees is nothing new, but we’re just changing the way we charge. So far, there hasn’t been much negative reaction. Nobody likes a price increase, but people understand why we’re doing it in this case.
  
  Agreed about the airline. On the Aeroplan tickets we helped with today, the agent told us that there was a $30 fee for talking to an agent over the phone. I told him that we would be happy to book online but we were unable to do so because Aeroplan’s system couldn’t handle it. He went on to lecture me about how we would pay a travel agent so why wouldn’t be pay Aeroplan to do the work on the phone? It’s because they add no value and they receive compensation in other ways (like when miles are earned). But oh well.
  
  Reply
Roger

Jun 1, 2011

I love your 888 phone number

Reply
1. Russell
  
  Jun 1, 2011
  
  Hah, just noticed that. Neato indeed!
  
  Reply
  1. Oliver
    
    Jun 1, 2011
    
    The regular number is pretty neat, too.
    
    Reply
    1. Randy
      
      Jun 1, 2011
      
      Do love the 888 phone number, very memorable. Cranky credits also made me laugh. Despite working the industry, wish I had used you six months ago when DL’s MSP hub closed for snow. My rebooked flight was 4 hours late, and then the ATL connection cxld twice. Using your concierge service would have left me less cranky.
      
      Reply
2. CF
  
  Jun 1, 2011
  
  Well, thanks. I had a lot of fun looking for good phone numbers, but sadly, our non-airline dork clientele just don’t appreciate these things!
  
  Reply
XJT DX

Jun 1, 2011

What I woldn’t give for NONREV travel assistance and the many time’s I’ve neede to get back home ASAP. Any chance that could be your next venture?

Reply
1. CF
  
  Jun 1, 2011
  
  Well, we can help with non-rev assistance but it might be more frustrating than helpful because we don’t have direct access to passenger boarding totals and other things that non-revs really crave. But we can look at availability and flight status to see how things are running and what might work. Unless the airlines want to give us direct system access, however, then we probably can’t provide a truly excellent service for this.
  
  Reply