Free Award Wallet website helps travelers track frequent flyer miles

November 9, 8:26 AMSan Diego Airport ExaminerJoel Siegfried

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An innovative, secure, free web service lets travelers track their frequent flyer miles. It also does much more. Award Wallet has been operating a data tracking, retrieval, and management system following customer loyalty programs for over six years, with praise from the media, travel writers, and their own clients, many of whom are demanding "road warrior" business travelers.

With almost 277 million people worldwide accumulating frequent flyer miles from airlines, hotels, affinity credit cards, and other sources, the market is huge and growing rapidly. There is a need to track, count, report, and remind people of these assets, which are estimated by airlines to exceed $570 billion in value, and over 9.7 trillion frequent flyer miles. That's a lot of potential flights, and even more money than AIG, Chrysler, and General Motors received in Federal bailout funds.

CAPTION: (ABOVE LEFT) A cluttered desk (Photo credit - Google Images)

A slide show follows this article showing Award Wallet screen shots and related photos.

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CAPTION: (ABOVE RIGHT) Airline ticket and boarding pass (Photo credit - Google Images)

CAPTION: (BELOW LEFT) Credit cards earn frequent flyer miles (Photo credit - Google Images)

To make matters even more urgent, many airlines will wipe miles off their books if there is no account activity during specified time periods, usually twelve to eighteen months. Each carrier has different policies in fine print which are tedious to read, often difficult to understand, and frequently changing. Not only are the terms of use complex, but many mileage programs have a hidden ticking time bomb in them, a kind of escape clause so they won't have to honor these mounting obligations.

As one disappointed person put it, "I am so upset, as I had 263,000 miles expire on June 1, 2008 and just realized this fact. I was told back in December 2006 when redeeming miles that the balance was good for 36 months. Along the way that policy changed and I was not aware of it!" With a mileage minder program, such as Award Wallet, all that heavy lifting is done for you.

In fact, the Today Show travel editor, Peter Greenberg, last year wrote critically of the airline's frequent flyer programs, calling them a "bait and switch" scheme, and a highly profitable one at that. Greenberg claims that it cost the carriers only $26 to make good on their promise of a free ticket, when they absolutely can't weasel out of it. In fact, they only redeem 11% of the frequent flyer miles which travelers collect. To put it another way, as Greenburg states, "The airlines know at the very moment they sell those miles they have no intention of redeeming about 89 percent of them! This is a bigger return on investment than just about any legitimate business you can imagine. It is, from the airlines’ point of view, a brilliant scheme." If you use Award Wallet, or another mileage tracking program, you have a better chance of tipping those odds in your favor.

CAPTION: (ABOVE RIGHT) Today Show travel editor, Peter Greenberg (Photo credit - The Today Show)

The brains behind Award Wallet are two youthful and energetic IT specialists named Todd Mera, age 40 and Alexi Vereschaga, age 29. Both have a passion for details, reliability and customer service. It all started with just a handful of airline and hotel programs in which each belonged. As Mera explained, "We worked as consultants in the computer industry, and traveled often. We needed a better way to keep track of our own mileage and hotel points."

Their simple spreadsheet applications have evolved into a robust and stable web based program. As Mr. Vereschaga explained in a two hour video conference call with his partner and the San Diego Airport Examiner, "We pay attention to all user feedback so we can constantly make improvements. Six years of continuous operation have seen a lot of refinements." As one customer wrote, "Your site seems to be about the best I've seen so far." Others agree, including Scott Wilson of the Los Angeles Times.

CAPTION: (ABOVE LEFT) Award Wallet co-founder Todd Mera (Photo credit - Todd Mera)

Through word of mouth, media reports, and interactive marketing, Award Wallet has grown dramatically. They won't disclose exact membership figures. Most subscribers come from New York and Los Angeles. San Diego residents check in at number 13 among user's locations. All of them receive free tracking for unlimited mileage accounts. Only the first three account expirations are shown. If they want to display more, Award Wallet Plus is available for a voluntary contribution, a minimum of one dollar for six months worth of service. The average contribution is $10. This honor system allows clients to decide exactly how much the program is worth to them, as well as their ability to pay for it. Email notifications of expirations are sent for all of the accounts regardless of upgrade status.

An independent study by COLLOQUY has shown that membership in loyalty programs in 2008 has increased by almost 25% over 2007, in spite of flat economic growth, and has doubled in size since 2000. Shockingly, less than 45% of loyalty program members keep their accounts active, giving back to the airlines billions of dollars in valuable assets, as these frequent flyer miles eventually expire.

CAPTION: (ABOVE RIGHT)  Award Wallet co-founder Alexi Vereschaga (Photo credit - Alexi Vereschaga)

CAPTION: (BELOW LEFT) Award Wallet is optimized for mobile access (Image credit - Award Wallet)

Award Wallet strives to end that massive waste. It follows changing airline mileage policies, and warns subscribers when their miles will expire. It keeps track of balances and allows users to automatically login to multiple mileage accounts. It shows available options for using points and miles. A rating system allows users to critique their award programs. Subscriber itineraries are collected, and produce automatic maps from airport to hotel, reservation confirmation numbers for lodging and car rentals, and access to these secondary web sites. Travel plans may be added manually, or automatically collected and shared with colleagues and friends. All this information is available on the web, via personal computer or Smartphone, including BlackBerry and iPhone. In fact, Award Wallet is optimized for mobile access.

The Company has been mentioned in a recent Los Angeles Times article, which reviewed five other mileage tracking websites. The other tracking sites include MileageManager, MilePort, MileTracker, Placely, and Acruw. The last is still in beta testing. Other mileage counting sites, such as Points.com are also available.

It's up to you to decide which program is right for you. Please let us know if you've ever lost any frequent flyer miles. If you've used Award Wallet, or any other frequent flyer tracking program, we'd especially like to hear your opinions of them.

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