Hey everyone, how's it going? It's Ernest from Trip Astute. In today's video, we're
going to explore a tool called AwardWallet and how it can help you stay
organized and even save you money by tracking all your points and miles. Plus,
I'm going to share how you can win a free upgrade to AwardWallet's premium Plus service.
(light chiming music)
Those of you that collect points of miles know that they can be a
real pain keeping track of them, especially if you have points in several
different programs. This can be an issue too if you have points or even benefits
that expire. In fact, I accidentally had Hilton points expire in the past. Even
though I did get a warning about it from Hilton, by the time I got around to
address it, they had already expired. One of the questions that I've received from
a few folks is "how do I keep track of all my points?" So today, I want to talk
about a tool that I use to track all my points and miles. It's called AwardWallet,
and it's got a lot of great features that you can use, especially if you're a
point to miles collector. But first, if you're new here, welcome to our channel.
Trip Astute is a travel channel that is focused on sharing ways to make travel
easier, affordable, and more enjoyable. Traveling can be stressful and expensive,
so we're looking for ways to help you maximize your experience through travel
tips, points and miles, and innovative gear. If that sounds interesting to you,
please consider subscribing. AwardWallet has been around for many years. In
fact, I've used their service since around 2012 and I've found it to be a useful
way to keep track of all my points. They have over 500,000 members managing about
120 billion miles and points. AwardWallet even mentions on their About page
about how there are approximately 10 trillion unused frequent flyer points in
circulation worth about 165 billion dollars, and about 20% of those points
never get redeemed. To me, that's not hard to believe given that I've lost track of
points in the past and found out after the fact that they expired. If you look
at the AwardWallet dashboard, you'll see that I have my American Express
Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards tracked under credit cards. I
noticed that if I expand my credit cards, like my American Express Gold card, I can
see additional details like my recent transactions and the bonus points that I
earned. AwardWallet even tracks my monthly dining credit and airfare fee
credit for my Gold card, showing me when they expire.
You can see that it does the same for my Chase Sapphire Reserve's annual travel
credit. I even see a warning for the annual
night certificate that I get from my Chase IHG Rewards Club Select card and
World of Hyatt card. Award wallet is able to track practically every single points
program out there. As of last count, they're able to track 670 programs
through their system. They've got all the normal travel programs covered, as well
as shopping, dining, and even surveys. If you have elite status with a specific
program, AwardWallet will show you how you're progressing to earn or maintain
your loyalty status. Pretty cool, right? Well, that's not all. AwardWallet can do
so much more! You can use AwardWallet to directly log into your tracked accounts.
For example, if I want to log into my Hilton rewards account, I can just click
on my Hilton account in AwardWallet and it automatically opens a new tab and
actually logs me into the account. While I keep all my usernames and passwords
organized in a password manager, this makes the process of logging into those
accounts even easier. Another cool feature that I like is the ability to
display your travel itinerary. You can either send AwardWallet confirmations
from your trips or link your email. Linking your email address allows the system
to scan your emails for potential confirmations. If anything changes in
your itinerary, AwardWallet will notify you. Travel itineraries can also be
shared with others through a direct link as well. AwardWallet also has a mobile
app for both iOS and Android. Like the regular website version, it lets you log
into your travel accounts with only a single tap. The app has integrations with
Google Maps and the ability to show your flight status. It even lets you see
alternative flights in the event that you need to rebook. While you may never
imagine needing these tools, they can come in very handy if you're stuck in
the situation where your flight is canceled, especially at the last minute.
We actually had to rebook our flights this past summer when our Norwegian Air
flight from Los Angeles to Milan was canceled, forcing us to rebook only a few
weeks ahead of our trip. AwardWallet is a free service but they also have a
premium option called AwardWallet Plus. It cost $30 for an entire year and it
does add some useful features. You'll get more details on your rewards accounts,
reporting features, historical transaction data, and many other
data-driven features. It also allows you to update your accounts an unlimited amount of
times, while free users can only update twice in a 24 hour period. I know, it's
okay. I'm not judging you if you're the type
of person to update your account multiple times a day.
In fact, I totally get it. Though I think the most compelling feature of AwardWallet
Plus is the ability to display the expiration date for the points in
all your accounts. With the free version, you can only pick to track the
expiration on three accounts. So this feature alone is worth the cost of
the Plus upgrade for me. In terms of things I'm not crazy about, the only
thing that I don't like is that the system will let you know how you can
earn additional points, especially when it comes to credit cards. While I'm not
opposed to this advice, I don't think that it fully accounts for both the
earning and redemption rate. For example, for my Chase Freedom Unlimited, it says
that I could be earning 2X instead of 1.5X using a different card. While
that's true, I'm actually earning closer to 2.25X since I can redeem Chase
Ultimate Rewards points at 1.5 cents since I have the Chase Sapphire
Reserve card. So the calculation is complicated and I'd hate for people to be
confused or led astray because the system only accounts for earning value
and not the redemption value. This is a confusing concept, so I'm planning to do
another video on it soon. Other than that, I love the service. I know some of you
might have concerns about having so much of your login data connected and stored
at AwardWallet. I can definitely understand your concern, especially after
so many of our accounts, including one of the major credit bureaus, had information
stolen. AwardWallet does outline how they're protecting your data. They not
only use industry standard encryption but also participate in a bounty bug
hunt where they pay hackers to try and break into the site in order to improve
their security. I mention this because I know a lot of companies are not
proactive about their security measures. AwardWallet, on the other hand, seems to
be taking data security seriously. I also appreciate that they offer two-factor
authentication on all their accounts, not just their Plus accounts. As you can tell,
I'm a big fan of AwardWallet. Though as always, I want to share some additional
tips to keep in mind if you decide to use the service. Number 1: Some travel
accounts cannot be automatically linked. When you use the service, you may notice
that a few travel accounts cannot be accessed or updated by AwardWallet.
This has been an issue for as long as I can remember, but it's not AwardWallet's
fault. In fact, travel companies like Southwest
and United do not allow AwardWallet to pull data from their website. AwardWallet
does have a few solutions though. You can simply link your email to
AwardWallet, which allows the system to periodically scan for travel
confirmations and updates. You can also forward any newsletter or updates to
your AwardWallet email to update your account. Or you can even add your
AwardWallet email as your profile email on these sites, like Southwest or United, so
that AwardWallet automatically receives your balance update whenever the airline
or hotel sends out a statement or newsletter. Number 2: Set-up
notifications. One of the first things you should do when you use AwardWallet
is to set up your notifications. This applies to email, desktop, and mobile app
notifications. You can select which ones you want, though I recommend turning on
all notifications on changes to your points or even potential expirations. Not
only do these notifications help you with staying organized, but they also
alert you to any theft of points. It might sound crazy, but points theft is a real
thing on many hotel and airline websites. Many of these hotel and airline websites
don't have very good security and people have reported their accounts being
hacked and their points being stolen. AwardWallet constantly monitors your
account for any changes so you can stay on top of your accounts and protect your
valuable points. Number 3: Set-up two-factor authentication. I know we
talked about this earlier. AwardWallet does offer it for both their free and
Plus accounts, and you should definitely use it. This is a best practice and
definitely worth doing to keep your account safe. Number 4: Add connected
users. You can add other family members to your account or even add their
accounts to your dashboard. AwardWallet allows you to share your individual
account balances with these users once your profiles are linked. Sharing an
account makes it so much easier when trying to book trips with others in your
household. For example, when Fiona and I try to book trips, we often need to see
both of our point totals so we can determine who should book the trip or
whether we need to move points around. This streamlines that entire process.
Number 5: Request additional services. With over a half a million members, you
can imagine that there are a lot of reward programs that people would like
to have integrated into their system. I was impressed that AwardWallet gives
users the ability to suggest and vote on points programs to integrate into their
system. I love that they're driving development based on the feedback
and needs of their user community. Number 6: Get an AwardWallet OneCard.
AwardWallet offers a product called OneCard where they print all your reward account
numbers on a plastic card for only $10. I personally haven't ordered one,
but I could see how it could be very useful and handy. If you're a bit old
school and you're worried about relying on having all your rewards account
numbers on a device or online, especially while traveling, this could be extremely
useful. Lastly, AwardWallet has generously
offered to give away 30 Plus upgrade codes to our audience. Yeah, I said 30! The
codes are good for six months of Plus service and can be used for new users as
well as users who already have an AwardWallet account. All you have to do is
head over to our website to enter. The giveaway runs from today to Friday,
February 15th, 2019. We'll randomly pick 30 winners and announce them the following
weekend, and then send over the codes to the winners. The giveaway is open to
everyone, not just folks in the US. You don't have to purchase anything, but
there are multiple ways to enter and gain entries. By signing up for some of
our social media channels, you'll not only earn an extra entry into the
contest, but you'll also get content that we share outside of our videos. All you
have to do is click on any or all of the options to enter. The more options you
complete, the more entries you'll earn. And of course, there's no pressure to
enter. I'll include a link in the video description. Have you used AwardWallet?
If so, what do you think of it? Do you have any tips for using the service?
Please share in the comments section below. If you're interested in applying
for a new credit card, we would love it if you used our link in the video
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Until next time, travel safe and travel smart.