AwardWallet Giveaway: Win a Personalized Loyalty Program Membership Card

by Gary Leff

As regular readers know, I used Award Wallet to track my miles and points. They have a free service with most of their functionality, you input your frequent flyer accounts and passwords and can update them all with a single click or can log into an account with a single click as well, no more spreadsheets or writing down account numbers and passwords on scraps of paper.

I’ve used various services like Award Wallet for years, and there are several. The first one, which I loved, was Miletracker (the downloadable application, not the online service). The problem was that it wasn’t kept up to date. Whenever a loyalty program would change up its website, the service needs to be updated, and Miletracker just didn’t get updated all that often. Which meant that lots of programs wouldn’t update.

What I like about Award Wallet is that they’re really quick on the draw, if something isn’t working it isn’t working for a very short period of time.

The site also has community and TripIt-like features to track your reservations, though I don’t especially use those since I have my own customized ways I prefer to manage my trips.

There’s also a “Plus” membership, which requires you to pay some amount, it can be as low as $5 for 6 months. The biggest difference is that basic free membership will only show expiration dates for points in three accounts, whereas Plus members get expiration dates shown for all accounts that the website supports it.

To encourage you do pay more for premium service, some sites would consider crippling their free product. Fortunately Award Wallet hasn’t done that, and instead is now offering more premium benefits for higher payment amounts.

The new benefit they’ve come up with is the OneCard: a single card which will show your frequent flyer numbers for up to 30 programs on it, the phone numbers for those programs, and includes a magnetic stripe so that you can use the card to check in at airport kiosks in lieu of a credit card. It’s available one card for folks paying $10 and 3 cards for folks paying $25.

Award Wallet’s PR folks reached out to me last week to offer me a coupon code to get a card for free. I didn’t use that card. The guys I know at Award Wallet had discussed the card with me in the past and they knew my initial reaction was that I wasn’t a fan — I know my loyalty program numbers, I carry my elite cards when I travel, I have them all on my laptop. So why do I need another card? But I also realize that not every frequent traveler has 30 account numbers memorized and it occurred to me that for some folks this is rather brilliant.

Back in 2008, Starwood and Priority Club started offering personalized membership cards. Priority Club let you put other program account numbers on the card, in their quest to be the card you actually kept in your wallet. Starwood offered to let you select the photo of one of their properties for your membership card, in order to build affinity between you and that card and get it to be a card you actually kept in your wallet. Both programs were on to something, and it seems like Award Wallet may have the best implementation so far.

I didn’t accept a free card, I paid for one instead, as regular readers know while I’ll happily accept a referral when someone signs up for a credit card rather than telling the banks just to keep it, when someone comes and offers something to me I prefer to offer it to my blog readers instead. You’ll know my feelings about a product are as a paying customer, and it lets me share it with y’all. I’m more than happy to cover my own costs, thank you very much 🙂

So instead of my getting a couple of free cards, we’re giving away two free cards on the blog. If you aren’t an Award Wallet user, you will need to be of course, since the programs you’ve entered in your account are the ones you’ll select to go on your card.

What we’re going to do is this, as per my usual practice:

  • Leave a comment on this blog post to enter, one comment per person only please! (When I draw the winner, I will check..)
  • In that comment, please tell us how you track your miles and points.
  • The contest will run until Friday 12 p.m. Eastern.
  • I will draw the winner at random using random.org. This is a giveaway, done with generous spirit, not a lot of terms and conditions here but let’s just say that in all matters related to the giveaway I am the final arbiter of any interpretations, disputes, disagreements and will use my sole discretion in handling such matters.

So leave your comment here to enter to win an Award Wallet OneCard. And if you have any questions, drop them to me by email. Thanks!

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  2. I use Awardwallet! I click UPDATE ALL frequently everyday and manage almost 80 accounts for 10 family and friends!

  4. I used to keep everything in a spreadsheet until Awardwallet came along. Now I’m a Awardwallet free version user! Would love to try out the OneCard!

  5. Gary, I absolutely enjoyed your presentation at the Chicago DO!
    I love and use AWARD WALLET! I totally recommend it; as I am an award wallet junkie and probably check it a few times day. I manage a family of 4 and all our points, so for me it is a lifesaver! for the grand slam, it has been priceless! The day I found it, it changed my point junkie life!

  10. I use AwardWallet (Premium). It was nice to put a face with a blog at the Chicago DO this weekend. Thanks for all that you do!

  13. I have an AwardWallet account, but I tend to use a mixture of memory and information on my contact list on my computer when traveling.

  15. I use awardwallet to track my balances. I’m fairly new to this game and I’m still learning, but I do have a few points(highest so far is 200) spread out on different programs.

  18. I have a dog-eared sticky note that I refer to when my memory is failing me regarding my account numbers. I “track” my points by occasionally logging in to the programs’ sites to check my balances. Yes, I am a Luddite.

  22. I’m all set for tracking my own points; I use award wallet too! But I’ve lost control over my Mister’s points, now that he’s avidly collecting too, and I’d love an easier way to help him manage his accounts!

  23. I use AwardWallet, but to be honest I find myself just managing each program individually. Need to use it more!

  24. I use Award Wallet to track my current balances and a Google Docs spreadsheet to track as-yet-unposted miles.

  26. I use Award Wallet to track all of my balances and just recently starting using it to track accounts for my sister, brother-in-law, AND their 4 kids! It’s great!

  31. Love using AwardWallet- fast and easy to keep track and email reminders about expiring points are great too!

  32. I use award wallet and used a code from Frugal Traveler for 6 months premium. I liked it so much I pay for it myself.

  36. At the end of AwardWallet’s email on OneCard it says, – To unsubscribe, please login to your profile and uncheck the checkbox: “Occasional, important product updates”

    A category called “Occasional, important product updates” did not exist previously. In order to uncheck and save my options, I have to give them my state info. Otherwise I am subscribed to “Occasional, important product updates”.

    Unethical way of asking for additional information to unsubscribe to a category that never existed previously. They have lost my trust.

  49. I use points.com and an Excel spreadsheet, it ain’t pretty but it works. Would be interested in trying AwardWallet-thanks!

  50. I track all my programs manually. Have been thinking about signing up for Award Wallet ever since Oct. 2010 Iggy conference in Chicago. This contest could be the trigger for me to make the switch.

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