Cranky Concierge

My wife and I have used Cranky on at least three occasions to book United Mileage Super Saver premium cabin Transatlantic and Transpacific flights. Booking premium award travel using a low number of miles is getting quite complicated and I have been delighted to turn this task over to an expert. Fortunately, all of our award travel went well so we have not had to test the service when things go wrong. I have also been impressed with how patient David Hotz has been recently as we have discussed many options with him.

My daughter and I are going on vacation together to Australia. I tried but couldn’t get us both on the same flight with me using my frequent flier miles and her paying for the flight. It was even harder coming back from Australia. David at Cranky Concierge saved the day and worked the whole trip out for us. We leave in another week and I love the peace of mind I have knowing they’ll take care of any problems we have with flights while we travel. I love this service and we use them for all my flights in the future!

I first used Cranky Concierge back in 2010 for their flight monitoring, when Hurricane Irene was about to strike New York the same weekend we came out for a friend’s wedding. When we landed in NYC, we turned on our phones and discovered that our flight out had been cancelled, as well as the wedding we were supposed to go to. So many people just got trapped in New York, but not us– CC got us on literally the LAST flight out of LGA the next day (and they did all of this finagling to get us on the flight while we were out at karaōke with friends, instead of sitting on hold). Leaving was like one of those zombie movies where a normally bustling place was just empty.
Anyway, I’m a repeat customer now. I use them to monitor any flights where my schedule is important and/​or the weather looks like it might be bad. You can wait until something has gone wrong to sign up for their emergency service, but a) it’s more expensive, and b) it’s so much nicer to just have the peace of mind when you take off that if anything goes wrong, someone will fix it for you.
Last summer I used their flight booking service for the first time, and it was awesome. I just used this service again to book our summer vacation to Australia– the itinerary they found us was $ 220 per person cheaper than a comparable one on any of the online booking sites, plus we’ll get the monitoring service to tend to all of our connections.
In a perfect world, airlines would price their tickets predictably, and you wouldn’t have to worry about them screwing you over. But that’s not the world that we live in, so Cranky Concierge does it for you.

They saved our trip! We were supposed to fly to MIA for a Disney cruise and AA canceled our flight due to weather. The AA agent REFUSED to book us on the only available flight in two days that would get us there in time. Kevin took over (at 2am!) and had us booked on that flight within minutes. Cranky Concierge took great care of us. I highly recommend this service and won’t travel without their number!

Cranky Concierge has helped me book once and a lifetime trips using miles in creative ways that I never would have imagined. Then, during the trip, they monitor all of the particulars to ensure that I get to/​from my destination. Brett is a hands on manager and I have had frequent communications with him and his team after hours. There is no doubt in my mind that I get more than what I pay for when I use CC. Thanks for everything you do!

Stranded in Dallas during a winter storm. I woke up at 6:45 to find my 8:00pm flight cancelled. Spent 90 minutes on hold with the airline — never got an actual person.
In the meantime, I found CC. I needed their emergency services which was 150.00. I was hesitant to pay that much, but it was worth it. Within 30 minutes I was rebooked on a 5:00 flight.
When my 5:00 was cancelled, I got rebooked for the next day at 7:30am. When that got cancelled I was put on the next flight. I’m still in Dallas as I write this, but look at all the help and peace of mind CC has given me! I no longer deal directly with the airline with this mess. I was able to relax and sleep knowing if my morning flight got cancelled– and it was– that CC would already have a plan for me when I woke up.
So don’t hesitate to use their most expensive service if you are in need. You will be assigned a person who will be with you. I have been able to communicate via email and phone. Fabulous service.

I was planning a honeymoon trip to Africa with a stop to Amsterdam for a couple of days. After a few annoying searches on my own for airline tix, I decided that I should probably contact a travel agent. I searched on Unilocal and found Cranky Concierge. I didn’t really have the time to meet with an agent in person, so CC was perfect for me.
I paid a fee (I believe there were 2 or 3 options to choose from with different fees) and CC did the rest! There were able to find me tickets to Africa and Amsterdam for a great price and on flights that I did not see while searching on my own. They were always quick to answer emails, which was great because I am totally impatient! I was hooked up with my own concierge who emailed me the day of my flight with status updates, etc.
I would def recommend using Cranky Concierge!

Here’s why I am so happy to have Brett spearheading Cranky Concierge: because even though I can navigate online reservations and shop deals, he can do me one better – and faster. And when I got an email informing me that my flights «no longer existed,» it was Brett who, within an hour, had me back on flights, with times that were better than the ones I had found myself. For another trip to Hawaii, I found a flight that was around $ 600 R/​T. Brett found me flights – on the same airline – for about $ 80 less. When you’re looking at a family of four, saving $ 80 per ticket, the $ 50 fee more than pays for itself!

I’ve never posted on Unilocal before, but felt it important to sing the praises of Cranky. My wife and I recently visited 6 different countries in Southeast Asia in 3 weeks as we relied on 5 different airlines and many trips to the airport. We hardly ever use a travel agent, but figured we’d take the plunge with Cranky given the complexity of this trip.
During the planning, Cranky helped with the original flight planning and provided valuable insight and savings with his knowledge of the many low cost carriers in SE Asia. During the vacation, Cranky provided us with individualized (and often amusing and personalized) updates and reminders each step of the way as to our outgoing flight timing, the incoming flight’s estimated arrival, weather on arrival and other relevant information that helped put as at ease.
Also, included in our itinerary was travel to Thailand while civil unrest was reaching its peak. Thankfully everything worked out, but we felt very confident that had things taken a turn for the worst, Cranky would have helped us find alternative travel in a manner that would have minimized our stress and allowed us to continue to enjoy our vacation.
I would highly recommend Cranky and will definitely use him again in the future. We definitely received our money’s worth and then some in terms of his personalized assistance, airline cost savings, prompt responses and the added comfort of the service he provides.

A new company with a simple goal… to help passengers with airline travel. Why do we need help? I’ve been flying commercially for over 25 years and never had any assistance… so why now? Well, once you have assistance like that provided by Cranky Concierge, you won’t want to ever travel without it.
My wife and I were traveling to Europe for a wedding, and had tickets on British Airways. With the strike, we were concerned and wanted to have an advocate on our team to make sure we were not left stranded either here in the states, or in Europe.
From the beginning, the CC team provided advice and insider knowledge that I would never have known. And again, I’ve flown quite a bit over the years and consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to dealing with the airlines. Boy do I have a lot to learn, and that’s why the team at CC is so invaluable.
We were switched to Lufthansa (from BA) but didn’t have any seat assignments. I tried calling several times and ran into brick wall after brick wall… NO seats together available at this time and they must be assigned at the airport. Needless to say, this wasn’t the news we wanted to hear (especially my wife — the idea of us sitting apart for 10 hours didn’t thrill her) so I posed the challenge to CC. The next day, I awoke to an email from CC telling me they were able to get us two seats together. WOW! That in itself was worth the small fee they charge for their service. My wife was thrilled… and so was I.
In Germany, my luggage was lost for a day. CC provided guidance on how to deal with the team there, which was very helpful. Fortunately my bag arrived the next day, but not before I had a small shopping spree which Lufthansa paid for.
And of course, CC provided us with excellent information on all of our flights, which is great to have. Overall, I couldn’t be happier with the service provided by Cranky Concierge. I wish my company utilized their services! I’ll happily use them again and absolutely recommend them to my friends and coworkers.

Cranky Concierge was unbelievably helpful. I came in very skeptical and despite some suggestions to use a «real travel agent» for $ 30 or myself for free. Well, I struck gold with Brett & Cranky. Here are the details:
COST: Paid $ 50 for assistance with booking my trip from San Francisco to South Africa for the World Cup. (Note: it’s now $ 75 for int’l but well worth it still!)
EXPECTATIONS: Not much, given I rarely use an agent, it’s a relatively new and small service, it’s a popular trip with the World Cup, and it’s international, but I needed some assistance during a busy work period.
RESULTS: Saved more than $ 1,000 on my flights and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. You read that correctly.
Brett & Cranky helped find a steal on the intracountry flight that I didn’t see and saved at least $ 100, which was a nice start and already paid me back and then some so I felt more at ease.
But then he encouraged me to be patient with booking and wait a little because he saw a trend in pricing. Meanwhile, he kept in touch and checked in periodically with updates. Sure enough, the «airline dork» was right and the price dropped dramatically and with the same amount of stops and travel time!
CONCLUSION: Cranky Concierge is the real deal. I’ll be using them again. You’d be pretty dumb not to (at the very least test them out)!

I recently used Cranky Concierge at the recommendation of a friend; this was for a trip from Dallas to Vietnam and Singapore. We all know how to shop for flights, but if you’re as compulsive as I am, you can spend hours doing it and still not feel confident that you’ve made the best choice.
Cranky Concierge eliminated all of that for me and made my travel experience worry free since I knew they were monitoring everything and would contact me regarding even the slightest change. It was just really good value for the money which is why I’m recommending it here.
Happy travels!

I used Cranky to help with an awards flight. I wanted two tickets from Newark to Prince Edward Island, Canada. The only direct flights are on commuters, and Continental (where I have my miles) wanted 50,000 each.
Cranky found a connection via Toronto on a Star Alliance partner on a full sized jet for 25,000 each in FIrst class.
Communications were great with very fast responses to emails and clear details on how to book the award tickets on the other airline (he’ll book paid tix, but doesn’t want to deal with account passwords and such for award flights).
Even though I have gotten more than I had expected, Cranky isn’t done. He’ll monitor the flights, let me know of any changes and on the flight days alert me to delays and alternatives.
Don’t tell Cranky, but his services are way too cheap.