There has been an emerging market of travel management tools lately, as people realize just how valuable it can be to not only keep track of your various mileage balances, but also maximize them. While many companies offer very similar services, here are some of my favorites:
Award Wallet is a free service that allows you to monitor your points and mileage balances. While there are plenty of similar services out there, I find Award Wallet to be the easiest to use, to have the simplest layout, and ultimately refresh accounts most quickly and accurately. Basically, you can enter all your loyalty program numbers and passwords in one place for as many people as you would like, and by the click of a button it will refresh all of your points and mileage balances (though it can take a few minutes to do so). Sadly it can be a bit addictive, as I probably check my balances about a dozen times a day lately.
If you refer five people to Award Wallet or make a donation, you get upgraded to Award Wallet Plus. This will monitor the expiration dates of all your accounts and send you notices, unlike the free version, which will only do so for up to three accounts.
ExpertFlyer
ExpertFlyer is a subscription service which costs $99 a year for unlimited usage, and serves a few purposes. While most of the information you can attain through Expert Flyer can be found elsewhere as well, Expert Flyer can save you a lot of time. First of all, Expert Flyer allows you to see the availability and seatmaps for most airlines. So when it comes to looking at availability for a particular flight, Expert Flyer always has the most up to date and accurate information.
Furthermore, they let you search upgrade and award space on over a dozen airlines, some of which are hard to access online otherwise. For example, Expert Flyer is the only place to find American Airlines upgrade award availability online. Another huge benefit of Expert Flyer is their automated monitoring service, which can serve a few purposes. First of all, if you need to get onto a flight that’s sold out entirely or sold out in your preferred fare class, it will monitor for space to open up. If it does, they will send you an email alert. The same applies to upgrade space and award space on select airlines, including Alaska, American, United, and more. That alone can more than justify the membership fee.
As someone that spends hours a day working on airline tickets, it’s an absolute bargain. Expert Flyer also has a very easy to use mobile website which I use all the time on my iPhone when flights are canceled, I need to be rebooked, I get bumped, etc. It’s invaluable, since I’ll often find space that the gate agents can’t.
The KVS Tool is the biggest competitor to Expert Flyer. While Expert Flyer is a web-based tool, KVS is a program that has to be downloaded (so isn’t quite as easy to use if you use lots of different computers). ExpertFlyer gives you access to award inventory, fare rules, seatmaps, etc. In general, it covers more airlines than Expert Flyer, though all of the information available on KVS is also available elsewhere, unlike Expert Flyer, which has some unique content they actually pay the airlines or reservations systems for. That being said, while all the information available on KVS is available publicly as well, it can save you a lot of time if you frequently search for award availability. The cost is $75 per year right now for the premium version.
Points.com
I make this suggestion with great caution. Points.com will let you swap miles, points, etc., and it’s the only site of its kind out there (at least that I know of). Don’t use it unless you absolutely have to, as the transfer values are typically pretty horrible. So only consider Points.com if you have points with a loyalty program and absolutely can’t find another use for them. If you’re one of the people that falls into that category, though, you’ll probably find it useful.
While I don’t use it, I’ve heard nothing but great things about TripIt.com. TripIt has a free version, and then a pro version for $49 year. Basically, TripIt will consolidate your travel itineraries into one easy-to-use, consolidated document. All you do is email them your hotel reservations, flight reservations, car reservations, etc., and you get back a consolidated itinerary. The Pro version provides a bit more “personalized” service, like alerts about flight delays, flight alternatives, points tracking, etc. The reason I don’t use TripIt is that I have a lot of very, very complicated itineraries with multiple nested tickets and several hotel reservations, where keeping track of things myself seems easier. But for those road warriors or vacationers that take more straightforward trips, it’s a great tool.
TripTracker (iPhone app)
TripTracker is a free iPhone app (or for $1 you can get the ad free version), and is great for keep tracking of itineraries, miles, and points. You can register your frequent flyer accounts, and as soon as you have a new itinerary, an upgrade clears, a seat changes, or miles post, you’ll be alerted immediately. This can be pretty useful for those that are obsessed with seeing when their miles post, since, instead of checking to see if your balance has updated every few minutes, you’ll just get an automatic alert. Basically, if you're a frequent flier and always book using your frequent flyer accounts, it makes sense to go with TripTracker. If you're a more occasional traveler or don't always book flights or hotels where you belong to the loyalty program, TripIt is probably your best bet.
The ANA and British Airways award tools
When it comes to searching award availability on your own for free, there are a few airlines that offer pretty useful tools. All Nippon Airways, a Japanese airline, belongs to the Star Alliance. If you sign up for their frequent flyer program, Mileage Club, you can search award availability on almost all Star Alliance airlines. Now, it’s not all that straightforward – you have to know what you’re doing. You can’t simply enter an origin and destination, but instead, you have to search segment by segment. In other words, if I want to fly from Tampa to London, I have to know the possible connecting points, like Houston, Newark, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, Toronto, etc., and search them all individually. It can be time consuming when you’re just starting, but once you get the hang of it, it’s fairly quick.
British Airways, an airline belonging to the OneWorld alliance, also offers an award availability tool. It’s slightly more roundabout than the All Nippon Airways tool is for Star Alliance, but it’s definitely the most complete. It does search connetions, unlike the All Nippon Airways tool, though isn’t always complete, so I often find myself searching segment by segment as well, just to be on the safe side. Both of these tools require you to search day by day, but they’re free and have the most accurate information available, so for the not-so-frequent award passenger, might be better than paying for a service.
And those are some of my favorite tools when it comes to managing and redeeming miles. I hope to dedicate a future post to the best websites for finding deals, saving money, etc.
Do you have any favorites that I missed? Let me know in the comments!
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