We've used the Cranky Concierge for two separate international trips within the past 18 months, with complex planning elements, and we couldn't be happier! The fee is extremely reasonable and the folks work as team members covering your needs 24/7. It's the first company that I worked with involving multiple team members - and there was no drop in service or any miscommunication given how many team members could be involved (depending on the time of day that you are contacting them). The first trip (in 2024) involved flights to/from South Africa. I decided to use them when the international connections and requirements became more than I could manage while working a high stress job (who needs more stress planning a vacation?). The advantage of their services were immediately apparent but became a Godsend when - unfortunately - my father became gravely ill and I was contemplating sending my family ahead of me, and then connecting with them somewhere mid-trip (depending on how my father was doing). The team was immediately helpful, offering a variety of flight options depending on when exactly I planned to connect with my family. The second trip (in 2025) involved flight itineraries to the Isle of Man, connecting through Manchester. The flights needed to be at a certain time in order to catch a ferry to the Isle of Man. Furthermore, between booking the flight and the actual travel day, there were changes in requirements for those passing through Great Britain - something that we would not have really known about if someone in the travel industry did not bring it to our attention. Next year, we will likely do a multi-city trip to Europe and we will definitely use them again to book the flight to and within that continent! read more

Outstanding customer guidance, service and support. We use Cranky Concierge for all of our big trip flight bookings. The team is extremely knowledgeable and responsive, and their fee structure is very reasonable for the amount of service the team supplies from the search for flights right up to your actual departure and arrival information. On a recent flight to Italy, the Cranky Concierge team alerted us to a significant delay hours before the airline let us know the status. A wonderful travel resource start to finish! read more

Booked an itinerary I could not book anywhere else and saved me thousands of dollars. Great communication too. Wish I'd known about them years ago. read more

We have been using Cranky for 8 years and they buy our tickets with cash/miles, monitor our flights, etc. Tremendous customer service with knowing how to get great air and 24/7 flight monitoring. Amazing company that saved us recently on an African trip when AA connection was 3 hours late to the connection for Nairobi. Would never fly without them. read more

I purchased the starter concierge service for flights, seems a waste of $60/person. The green team gave me the same prices as Google flights and AAA. I was told I could purchase essential if I wanted to see private prices but there's no guarantee that there would be actual negotiated rates and cheaper flights would be found, that's $100/person. If I want the green team to monitor flights for the requested dates I could pay $200/person for premium. Paying $400 with a hope ticket prices drop to justify the price doesn't really make sense to me. The $75/person for flight monitoring someone mentioned in their other review would be great. I don't really understand the purpose of Starter other than someone can't enter a flight date into Kayak or Google themselves. Probably a good service if other aspects of the trip are included but just using the service for economy flight tickets I feel like I wasted $120. read more

I booked the flight monitoring service which apparently they don't have anymore. It was $75 for them to monitor four flights - going, return, and two connections - so it was worth the money. During a summer when all I kept hearing about was delays and cancellations it made me feel better knowing I had CC to help me if things went awry on my trip to Syros, Greece. Surprisingly I had no delays other than a couple of small ones. CC keeps in touch during the whole process and it really alleviated my anxiety knowing I'd have help booking another flight or a hotel if needed. In the past I had a 7-hour delay that made me miss a connection and my airline was ZERO help. It was a concierge service attached to my travel insurance that saved me so I wanted something similar and CC was the only one I could find. Would use again provided their pricing hasn't gone up too much. read more

worst booking of all time, inconsistent with their times with flights and did not do the 1 explicit thing we asked. no wonder they are a bunch of idiots in california read more

Cranky Concierge is everything you need if you're a regular traveler or you are undertaking a trip with several flights. They have never let me down. With frequent flight delays making connections can be difficult, but knowing they are tracking my travel and will have back up plans for me is a huge relief. Whether you are someone who travels a lot or not, I would highly recommend their services. read more

Have worked with this group for flight monitoring. They are great. Super helpful and timely in their updates. Are also good about communicating in ways that are preferred (ie- text over email). Would recommend them in a heartbeat. read more

I've been using Cranky Concierge for about 3 years now and I continue to see the value in this company. They are very fairly priced and although I sometimes book online for a very simple trip, especially if I am doing multiple legs on a trip, Cranky makes things so much easier. I love how on the day before travel, Cranky has begun monitoring my flights and if there are multiple legs on my travel, give communiques before I land on possible delays and what to expect. Just recently, I was up in Northern British Columbia and we'd already been warned of possible delays due to severe fog and sure enough we were in fact delayed and Cranky kept me informed of possible changes to be made of which there were several. I made it to Vancouver that day knowing that I was going to miss my connection and Cranky had already begun mapping out my flights for the next morning which went very smoothly. In the end, I got an email from Cranky thanking for my business but also to inform me that Air Canada was giving me a refund for my troubles and I can't imagine how I could have ever negotiated flight credit not to mention a cash refund with that airline. Cranky Concierge definitely makes my travel experiences easier and I will continue to use their services! Joe read more

Since my travel agent didn't provide flight tracking/booking services, they recommended Cranky Concierge for our wedding/honeymoon flight tracking needs. We had a pretty lengthy trip from Milwaukee to NYC to Vegas to Maui, then back to Vegas and lastly home to Milwaukee. Crazy right?? Although I booked the flights myself because I'm a bit of a micro planner, it wasn't difficult to fill out a request on their site with all the flight details and frequent flyer numbers. I have to say they were reasonably priced for this ask! And I had these flights planned nearly 2 years in advance since we ended up being a COVID delayed wedding and they were great to accommodate the change while maintain the same price. They are very responsive and never had an issue when my flights would randomly change flight numbers and/or times in which I would simply email them the update for their record keeping. They were always so kind in their responses and came off as they loved their job! When it came time to begin monitoring our flight, they would email us the morning of to inform us that they are tracking our flight along with weather updates and predictions to give us peace of mind that we weren't forgotten about. These folks are very detail oriented and on top of their organization! I can simply say that Cranky was able to fulfill our flight monitoring needs in case we had any hiccups such as cancellations and delays, in which crazy enough especially during the heat of flight cancellations in June/July 2022 that we did not have a single cancellation nor delay! So truthfully we made their jobs very easy but still appreciate all the email communications leading up to our trip to provide us every ounce of confidence a customer deserves. We will certainly be customers again in the future!!! We highly recommend! read more

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. read more

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)! read more

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 Yelp 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! read more

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. read more

We had a great experience with Cranky Concierge, both with booking a dream trip to Australia and New Zealand, and then unfortunately with cancelling said trip due to the pandemic. Not all flights allowed free refunds and they monitored the flights and were able to cancel when there was a flight change, getting the miles and booking fees back. Sure, I could have done that myself, but it was great to not have to worry about it. Will be using them again when it's possible to take such nice trips. read more

Appeared overly hung up about getting my credit card while asking me to increase initial budget. My attempts to clarify charges resulted in them telling me to go away because it was "quite the challenge." How does it work? I give you a card and forget about it? I'm not supposed to ask you: Where are you putting my people? And my initial questions are not supposed to generate more questions? Don't waste your time if you have a small company trying to cover employee travel. A 4-week job transporting and housing 4 employees was deemed a challenge. read more

This is a great service under any circumstance. They book complicated itineraries, or simple ones for that matter, and keep track of flight delays and whatever might affect your air travel. The real value increases exponentially if they must rebook you due to flight cancellation or other change in travel plans. In a recent trip to South America we had an change that impacted several flights and they efficiently re-routed and rebooked us. They do it all with a virtual smile and are as far from cranky as one can get, so you don't have to be cranky or inconvenienced. read more

I expected a company where you could speak with someone and clarify the details. For me is wasn't user friendly.

Cranky Concierge is my trusted travel partner! This is a great group of knowledgeable, resourceful travel agents. When I had a family emergency, the team arranged flights that took me from the South of France back to the U.S. within 24 hours. I highly recommend them. read more

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 karaoke 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. read more

I'll keep this short and sweet. I'm in the midst of my first experience with Cranky Concierge and its a bit of a mixed bag. I'm getting what I thought I would: informed service, good advice, new ideas. Yet the timeliness of communication leaves much to be desired. I get the strong feeling that this business is not the top priority of those involved, its more of a fun, side business. Worth the money, but wish I knew up front it was going to take days to get information back. read more

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. read more

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! read more

We recently used Cranky Concierge to help twenty wedding guests attend our wedding on Martha's Vineyard. David and the team were amazing - as usual - essentially helping us move a majority of our guests using reward points. The feat was no easy task given more than half of the folks originated in Ireland. During a busy weekend of travel and fun, using Cranky Concierge helped us focus on the fun. Thank you, Cranky team!!! read more

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! read more

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! read more

Brett went above and beyond my expectations. He was able to get great flights with a business upgrade using miles saving me over $1000. After a major life event necessitated canceling that flight he got to work and redid all of the arrangements and had to make a number of phone calls on my behalf. He never stopped working on the project. I offered to pay him another fee because he had to do three times the work to get it done but he would not hear of it. It is a nice feeling to have an advocate in your corner trying to navigate the air fare system. Take the worry out of travel and put Brett to work for you, you won't regret it. read more

I was working with a travel agent for our honeymoon plans and she just disappeared off the face of the earth. In a panic, I started planning things myself. I gave up, google searched and found Cranky Concierge. Kevin answered the phone and was personable, receptive and obviously knew what he was doing. Our travel was a bit complicated but Kevin got back to me right away with an email to make certain we were on the same page and, after that, he had our plans done lickity split. He gave good advice without being imposing. There was a small fee but it was totally worth it. I'd call Kevin for any travel plans. These guys are great. read more

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. read more

Cranky Concierge is extraordinarily skilled at planning complex open-jaw trips, where you need to fly in and out of different countries. We usually do our own research first, but then are pleasantly surprised by the flight configurations and deals they manage to find. Often their flight suggestions were right in front of us the entire time, but totally off of our radar. Their customer service is TOP, with clear and efficient exchanges. They know the ins & outs of using mileage points for upgrades, which made our travel experiences more pleasant during some of the more lengthy segments of our trips. read more

I saw in article about travel in WSJ when Cranky Concierge was mentioned as a new company with a niche service for travelers. I was planning a big vacation to China and was not confident I was getting a deal on the wide varying flight costs and routes. Brett and Cranky was helpful in giving feedback to my selections. I know I could have had him do it but I am a control freak and like to make my own decisions with some help. Brett was perceptive on that and worked well with me. Anyway, he was right there the whole way. The trip is a long one and if one thing goes wrong, the trip would have been too long! I use text messaging as we move to each flight and airport. One fortunate thing happened on our way back. Delta offered to put us on an earlier flight home (the one we had scheduled gave us a few hours layover in Tokyo so we would not miss the connection). Of course we jumped at the opportunity but we needed to call our car service at 2AM USA time. I contacted Brett and he did it for us during the car service business hours. The car service was waiting when we got to JFK! So awesome! I also used Brett during my annual trip to WPB Florida in February. Winter travel in New England can be complicated by bad weather. I kept in contact with Brett during the 48 hours prior to the trip to review options because a storm had hit. He had tons of options and also gave me a reality check to make me prepared for all the good or bad possibilities. Fortunately all worked out well. Another thing I like about this service is that my life is really busy leading up to trips, I am jamming as much as I can into my days and nights before going. Brett confirms my flight for me and texts me that all is ready. This is one more thing I don't need to worry about. I recommend this service to all levels of travelers, business, savvy, and not so savvy. I think it is worth the price. Michele read more

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! read more

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! read more