I’ve tried just about every mileage program “aggregator” known to man, and a few more than that. Most of them offered one or two things I liked and several things I would have done differently. However, I’ve finally found one I really love, Award Wallet. Award Wallet offers a clean and simple presentation of your points balances, and elite status levels for your program and alliance. Award Wallet is free for the basic level, but I gladly donate money to get the expanded service which includes tracking of your expiration dates. Award Wallet is capable of tracking your travel plans, but I use TripIt Pro for that and focus solely on points tracking for myself and MrsMJonTravel. I added her programs to the account after we mistakenly let 10,000 US Dividend Miles evaporate from her account. 🙁

Award Wallet now offers a handy little service called OneCard. OneCard is the size of a credit card, and lists each of your program account numbers (up to 30) and contact phone numbers. I think that’s a pretty nifty thing to have in your travel wallet and will be ordering mine soon. Historically, I’ve maintained my program account numbers in my Outlook notepad, and will continue to keep that list. But having a OneCard in my travel wallet makes sense to me.

With so many good things to say about Award Wallet, I have to admit I was a little bothered when I read in The Wall Street Journal recently that American Airlines and Southwest Airlines are making an effort to disallow Award Wallet and other aggregator sites from displaying their content. I speak from experience when I say airlines can be control freaks, so I’m not surprised that they are a little touchy on this subject. That said, I hope they peek through the trees and the forest on this and see the light. Frequent fliers value the services that the folks at Award Wallet provide, and airlines could be stepping on it if they overdo it with their control issues on this subject.