Last month I shared details on Milepoint, a friendly, welcoming new frequent flyer community built on the latest technology, when it opened up its private beta.
Today it officially launches. The private beta period was great, lots of opportunities to see what the software could do and plenty of people signing up even though the main Milepoint.com page just had a countdown clock to how many days until the site launched — no ability to come in any further. Still, over 4000 members managed to find their way into the site and make more than 175,000 posts. So there’s plenty going on there already! (Though with additional planned features coming online, Randy Petersen says the current site is about 15% of where it’ll eventually be.)
To promote the launch, Randy is giving away an iPad a day every day throughout the month of March. All you have to do is register to be eligible to win. And of course the earlier you register, the more chances you’ll have to win since you’ll be entered for each day of the drawing. And in the earliest days of the month, with fewer registered members, the odds of winning are even higher.
iPads given away so far are listed in this Milepoint thread.
When I mentioned this promotion to someone yesterday they asked, “But won’t people just register for the site to win the iPad and never come back?” And I pointed out the irony is that people who would do that happen to also be the kind of people who will really find the site interesting and valuable! A place to learn about and discuss the best deals in travel, to learn how to upgrade their travel experiences and earn and redeem miles, people who want those things are just the kind of folks who would register for a promotion. So the bet is they’ll have a look around and many will want to stay and become part of the community.
But folks who just want to registerfor up to 31 chances to win an iPad? That’s ok too.
I joined the second week of Feb., and it is a great community!
The website is very user friendly.
Thanks for efforts to launch such a great website.
Apple is going to unveil iPad2 tomorrow. It would be great that the winners could get the iPad2s with faster processor and cameras.
Hi Gary: I must have missed something. Why another forum that seems to almost completely duplicate FlyerTalk? Milepoint looks nice, but why would I either switch or want to monitor 2 separate forums? I don’t intend to criticize, but I’m really looking for the value proposition here. Thanks!
@Tom I think we’re trying to create a friendly welcoming community that meets a real need for the vast number of frequent flyers who don’t participate in forums already. And using today’s technology that should be beneficial both to folks who are members of communities already and who are not, which matches the way people interact online today.
There are already several online communities. There are blogs. There are newsletters. Lots of information to monitor, but as Milepoint grows up I believe it’ll aggregate enough of these effectively to become a one-stop source for those who wish for it to become that.
And as Randy explains only about 15% of the way there now, there’s lots of new functionality that’ll be coming online. Already I like several features like effective search and chat. And Milepoint will be adding regular industry chats and a formal program for encouraging industry participation as well.
None of this is a criticism of Flyertalk by any means!
Gary- just curious- is the Milepoint.com homepage plane impage the same as the View from the Wing logo plane? Couldn’t help but notice the similarity.
@The Points Guy they’re stock images, the Milepoint one does appear to be the inverse of the logo on this blog. Interestingly the one I use on my blog is EXACTLY the one used by the Libyan state airline…
And I am absolutely tickled to be one of the winners. A big thank you to everyone involved. And to everyone who hasn’t registered yet…what are you waiting for?
Thanks, Gary. I like the idea Milepoint. I checked it out. As long as there is good info on the programs I use, I’m all for it.
So far, I find the interface of milepoint harder to use than Flyertalk. I’ll still keep checking it out, and I’m glad to hear Randy Peterson say that it’s only about 15% complete, because I still fail to see how milepoint is different from FT
Happened to come across milepoint a week ago and find it quite user friendly compared to some of the other forums/blogs etc out there. Really pleased to read about the promotion re ipad, I was visiting the site in any case, now I have signed up! 🙂