I’ve reviewed the various mileage management tools in the past, mentioned my favorites here on this blog and in various media, and the one that I use is Award Wallet.
Now, there are certainly others on the scene, the folks at Mileage Manager have a tool that helps you find award seats for redemption and will keep checking the websites of your programs to let you know when seats open up. And Using Miles is a new service that I’ve heard good things about and may have promise, but I really haven’t fully vetted yet.
But as I say, I’ve been happiest to date with Award Wallet. They have a free service that tracks the balances on all of your accounts, and their coverage across programs is really extensive even including the rental car and online shopping programs not just airline, hotel, and credit card. It gives you one place to go to store your frequent flyer accounts, track your mileage and account postings, and have one-click login to all of your accounts.
It also automatically grabs your travel itineraries out of your accounts and collates and stores them, which may be a helpful TripIt-style feature for some though I don’t really use it myself. I’m pretty antiquated, I just create an Outlook folder for each trip and when a trip is over I move the inactive ones to a “past trips” folder (never know when you might need to pull up past correspondence or ideas). I don’t even print everything out anymore, I’ve got it all in my email box on my laptop and my email backs up to my work server which I have web access to.
One thing that is really nice about Award Wallet — beyond just the fact that it works, and when a mileage program changes its website so that account balances aren’t as easy to grab, they update their functionality quickly — is that they track the expiration dates of your accounts for you so you know when to take action to keep miles active. They’ll even send you warning emails about pending expiration as well.
They have some enhanced features in a pay service, such as historical account balance changes, exporting balances to Excel, and I think that the pay service has much more extensive tracking of mileage expiration than the free service — I don’t know this for sure because I’m a pay member and I guess I would have to create a new account to see what expiration tracking isn’t included, if any.
They once offered to give me free premium service but I’ve actually paid for it every six months. The pricing is odd, “name your own price,” I think you can do a first-time signup at just a buck for six months and a minimum of $5 after that but presumably people are willing to give them more than the minimum because they do find the site useful as I do.
The Award Wallet folks sent along a coupon code WingView6MO newWingViewUsers which is good for six months of free premium service. (If you let your premium service lapse you still get basic service, nothing happens to your mileage accounts.) It’s valid for the first 200 uses and expires March 6 — so better get on it if you want to try out their premium service for free.
Code is only valid for new registrants so it doesn’t help me, I’ll still have to pay….
Update: Code has been depleted..
Update 2: 11:30am March 3 they’ve sent along a new coupon code, newWingViewUsers.
Just in case anyone else is trying to figure out where to enter the code: You have to sign up, then go to My Account, Upgrade, enter any amount (for example 1$), choose a payment method, and then finally there’s a field where you can enter the coupon code. The coupon then simply negates whatever amount you entered so the total is 0$.
Thanks Gary and thanks Andreas – I couldn’t figure it out…entering 0 didn’t work!!
It costs $1 for 1st time users for 1st six months & this code allows one to now sign up for free saving the $1. I’m missing the value of the code other than saving time entering CC info.
okay, you got me to bite. As much as I am pretty much against at putting my private username, mileage account numbers and PASSWORDS online with a third party, I’ll give it a try with a few.
I am an old member, so I guess I don’t qualify and will have to pony up $1 if want premium. I have been happy enough with basic though and never felt the need for any upgrade. Maybe I just don’t know what I am missing. 🙂
I actually was able to upgrade my account using the same coupon code. I recently started my account so maybe that’s why, but it’s definitely worth a try.
Andreas is correct with the way to enter the code information.
Seems like a security risk, unless you don’t have many miles to potentially lose.
Thanks! I’ve been using Yodlee for this but it doesn’t have the alerts.
The best part is that I haven’t even entered everything and it already found a business itinerary I never completed due to sudden changes in my schedule that has a flight booked in July 2011. I didn’t realize this was still there.
@AKTCHI I think you can still do it. Did you try?
@Nun You can have it store the passwords on your local machine rather than on their server.
Just an FYI, as of 1pm EST, the code’s still working.
@nun, not to mention that fact that many people have a CC stored in their airline mileage account for purchases.
@Rktoledo, I’m not saying this is the most value thing ever, they offered me a free coupon code to pass along, I get nothing for doing so, just thought it was something that some folks would value.
Thanks! The code still works at 4PM Eastern Time.
Wonderful! Worked for me @ 450pm est.
Great – many thanks to you, and Award Wallet for the code. Looks like it is a useful tool as by default I look after FF accounts for several family members.
Only signed up to the site last week and it let me use the code. 9am Thu Sydney time.
Mark
Thanks for the code! I missed a diff code the other day.
Code still works, 6:50 EST. Was already a Plus member. Using the code extended the Plus an additional 6 months. I used the Renew Membership link on the left-hand side, put in $5 as the amount (it wouldn’t let me do $1), selected credit card, and then put the coupon in on the next page. It dropped the cost to $0 and that was that! Thanks! Now I’m good through the end of September.
its telling me the coupon has been usewd too many times
The code is dead. I’m getting the same error as ros.
It is dead now…:(
Gary, can you cut a deal with Award Wallet to integrate their functionality into MilePoint? What makes more sense, if we’re honest, than to log-in to MiPo and see all your balances on the home page? (For your private benefit, not for sharing with the community.) I’m sure a premium version could also be set up so that Award Wallet could get some revenue out of the deal.
The new code works, thanks!
the new code didn’t work for me
Registered just a few minutes ago with new code – ‘You’ve exceeded the number of times this coupon could be used’ – is the message I got back. Still allowed me to register, but don’t think I have the premium version.
Thanks for the new code!
Use link http://AwardWallet.com/?refCode=apqwsosbsg
or
Code: free-sazsxl
Free Service, but offers Premium for $5 per 6 months. With Premium, you get additional detailed features and more alerts. It’s pretty cool. New users get first 6 months free with link/code.
I’ve always had a problem tracking my membership programs, cards in a lock box, #s on paper or in email, finally a good FREE solution. Even when premium runs out, you’ll still love your AwardWallet!