It’s March “Mayhem” (hey I don’t want to get sued, ya know)!  Since this is one of my favorite times of the year, I thought I’d celebrate by running a bracket competition so we can determine the best miles and points tool out there.

You might remember a few months ago when I published my list of the Top 10 miles and points tools (and the honorable mentions!)

I used the tools from those articles, along with others that have come up over the last few months.  I did my best to “seed” them, and here they are – links go to the my review / description of the tool, when appropriate.

1. Award Wallet
2. Autoslash (SEE ALSO: my #2 miles and points tool comes through for me again)
3. Google Flights / ITA Matrix
4. Airline Route Mapper
5. Award Mapper
6. Rome2Rio
7. Hotel Hustle
8. FlyerMiler
9. SeatGuru
10. Flight Aware
11. Check My Trip
12. Expert Flyer
13. The Flight Deal
14. Cashback Monitor
15. OsmAnd
16. Boingo Wifi

How Travel Hacking March Mayhem will work

Here’s how this mini bracket contest will work – we’ll use my list of 16 different miles and points tools – the full bracket is provided below (pic generated by Challonge)

Over the next 4 days, we’ll have the 8 first round “games”.  Each day will have a post with 2 sets of tools – just vote for the tool that YOU feel is the most useful for miles and points collecting, redeeming or general travel.  There is no set criteria for your vote (stop over thinking this!)

• Thursday March 17th – #1 Award Wallet vs. #16 Boingo Wifi and #6 Rome2Rio vs. #11 Check My Trip
• Friday March 18th – #8 FlyerMiler vs. #9 Seatguru and #2 Autoslash vs. #15 Osmand
• Saturday March 19th – #3 Google Flights / ITA Matrix vs. #14 Cashback Monitor and #5 Award Mapper vs. #12 Expert Flyer
• Sunday March 20th – #7 Hotel Hustle vs. #10 Flight Aware and #4 Airline Route Mapper vs. #13 The Flight Deal

Each post will run at approximately noon EDT and voting for each of the first round matchups will stay open until next Monday morning (the 21st).  So if you miss a day, you can use the links above to catch up on voting.  Next week we’ll continue with the 8 first round winners and the rest of the bracket

So…. on to the voting!

#1 Award Wallet vs. #16 Boingo Wifi

Award Wallet is a tool designed to keep track of your different miles and points balances.  You can enter in your balances in hundreds of different programs and Award Wallet will track your balance as well as expiration dates (this is limited in the free version).  I’ve also used Award Wallet just to keep track of my different usernames / frequent flyer numbers, as well as I’ve used Award Wallet to keep track of my different travel plans.  Here is my review of Award Wallet

Boingo Wifi is an app that gives you access to over a million wi-fi hot spots around the globe.  It’s normally $9.95 / month, but there are a couple of credit cards that can give you free access (Amex Platinum, and the Amex SPG Business and Personal cards).  Here is my original review and a follow up on why it was super useful to me when traveling internationally

So which will it be?  #1 Award Wallet or #16 Boingo Wi-fi?  Vote below!

#6 Rome2Rio vs. #11 Check My Trip

I’ve described Rome2Rio as “Google Maps Transit on steroids!”  I’ve found it to be super useful in finding out different transit options especially overseas in cities where I’m not familiar with.  Rome2Rio will give you the approximate time and cost of getting between places by bus, train, taxi as well as walking and fuel cost for a car.  It will also give you links to where you can buy tickets in some cases.  It’s been a lifesaver for me as I try to plan out how I’m going to get around in different places.

Check my Trip is tied into the Amadeus system that many airlines use and allows you to review many airline bookings and in some cases manage your bookings or even check / pick your seats.  What I have used it for is to get my airline record locator in cases where I’ve booked an award with partner miles.  For instance, if you use British Airways Avios to book an award flying on American Airlines, BA will give you an airline record locator, but it’s a BRITISH AIRWAYS record locator, and won’t let you pick seats or do anything on aa.com.  Check My Trip is an easy way to get the AA locator so you can add your frequent flyer number, pick your seats, and manage your booking.

So which will it be?  #6 Rome2Rio or #11 Check My Trip?  Vote below!

A note on shenanigans – this contest is meant to be in fun and there are no prizes for winning.  While I don’t mind if you encourage friends, family members and others to vote for a particular tool, please don’t try to rig the system by voting multiple times.  I do reserve the right to disqualify entries and/or just arbitrarily pick a winner if I feel like it.

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