One of the challenges of enrolling in a number of loyalty and rewards programs is keeping track of all of your miles and points and then actually knowing when to use them. TechStars incubated UsingMiles solves this problem and more. You can sign up here.
The site makes it easy for frequent flyers to aggregate and manage all of their loyalty programs in one place, including airlines, hotels, car rental companies, credit cards and retailers. And UsingMiles actually lets you search and book airline tickets, hotel rooms and rental cars within the platform.
So within your dashboard on UsingMiles, you can search for flights, cars and hotel rooms, see how many points you need to book certain itineraries. You can then book using cash, miles or a combination of the two. Currently, the site integrates with 90 percent of rewards programs for consumers. The site also includes a proprietary recommendation engine that will automatically calculate the most economical use of a traveler’s miles and inform the user when it is better to redeem miles versus saving them for another time and paying with cash.
While the online travel industry is crowded, there’s no doubt that in a miles and rewards focused world, there is a need for a platform like UsingMiles. The site blends miles management platforms like Mileage Manager and MaxMiles with reward travel search sites like Yapta. And UsingMiles has another factor in its favor—a proprietary recommendation technology. The company is also making a business of white-labeling its technology and platform for companies and will be announcing a deal with a well-known company next week. Of course, the tedious part of using the platform is inputing all of your mileage programs. But once you provide your account number and password for each program, UsingMiles will auto-update your miles as they are earned.