Rudi ~ Don't be expecting too much of Milage Miner just yet. I signed up for it last Wednesday, and I didn't get my first statement until yesterday, and even as of now they're only showing milage for three programs (Delta, Marriot, Sheraton) out of eight (United, Continental, American, Hyatt, and Northwest are still missing) that I have milage in.

It looks like they're still busy working the bugs out of their system.

As for the bonus reports, I really think they need to do some work here, because the don't appear to be filtered in anyway, they just throw a bunch at you.

The most innovative feature is the way it tells you what flights you may be missing based on the trips you took. It is able to spot holes in your flight pattern and point them out.

Beckles - I was surprised to read your comments about MileageMiner so I looked into it (I do customer service for MaxMiles). Here's what I found:

1. You entered no password for Hilton.
2. You entered no password for Hyatt.
3. The United website does not recognize the password you gave us. Make sure you've registered on their website to access/see your statements online.
4. You entered no password for Westin.
5. You haven't flown Continental since 1997. MileageMiner got your account balance but there is no activity to report.

As you can see, it is important that you enter usable information for the MileageMiner service to generate meaningful information for you. For example, the mileage deal report is automatically tailored to your programs, status level, and travel patterns. Once we have access to that information, you'll get a nicely tailored list.

The MileageMiner is a very cool service with some very intelligent logic built into it, so I'd encourage you to enter your missing information and give it another shot.

Marianne, I think you should not disclose private dates of MaxMiles-costumers. I wouldn't accept, if ouy or an airline would disclose dates about my travel-pattern (not having flown XY since ...; etc ...).

I understand, that you want to rectify things. Just say in general: We track miles only back till ...., make shure your passwords are ok, etc. etc. PLEASE.

Marianne ~ I updated most of the errors you mentioned several days ago when customer service first pointed them out, for some reason you're system does not seem to be *using* the updates I entered.

for Marianne

1.MaxMiles will NOT sell, exchange, or release your personal information such as your name, e-mail address or other customer data to a third party without your express permission.
2.Your individual transactions and member profile information will NOT be provided to any third party.
However, MaxMiles may share or publicly announce compiled, aggregate data containing no personally identifying information. For example, MaxMiles may publicly state that its members, in total, "hold "X" million miles." However, MaxMiles would not release anything about you individually, such as your name.
3.The frequency data gathered by MaxMiles on your behalf is for your benefit only. It will be provided to you only under the terms of the MileageMiner acceptance agreement.
4.MaxMiles ensures the privacy of your data sent across the Internet. No one other than you will be able to access, tamper with, or intercept your data.
5.MaxMiles reserves the right to contact its users regarding account status and other matters relevant to the underlying service and/or the information collected.
6.You can cancel your MileageMiner enrollment at any time and have your information deleted from our records by contacting MaxMiles Customer Service or by calling (312) 494-0394.
This MaxMiles, Inc. (MaxMiles) privacy statement is applicable to the MaxMiles website (www.maxmiles.com) and the Mileage Miner reporting service. This statement and the policies outlined herein do not imply
contractual or other legal rights in or on behalf of any party.

In my case MileageTracker worked so-far ok (United is ok).

It is, for the first time, not that easy to figure out what passwords:

for Hilton you have to enter (at the Hilton Website there are two ways to get the mileage info: 1) HH# & PIN 2) email-address and password. My first try was the wrong one.

for Hyatt I still have to find out, if (being non US) my "password" is the country or my last-name, that's what Hyatt's homepage asks. (I try first with my lastname).

I appreciate how MileageTracker-people deal (via private email) with my questions.

Dear Beckles,

I am looking into why our system did not capture your changes, I apologize for that error and we will try and rectify that situation by the end of today. I will try and send you an email as soon as we get things together for you.

We have also been working on putting hints as to where to get PINs and for what programs they are needed.

I apologize also if it seemed we compromised your privacy. Perhaps I spoke too soon when mentioning recent or not so recent activity on Continental...I did not realize that might be a sensitive area for some. Please accept my apology. I must admit since you were talking about it on a chat line, I felt you probably didn't mind if people knew you used MaxMiles. I still hold to the fact that we do not sell e-mail or home addresses or phone numbers and your numbers and PINs are safe.

I will let you know when we have things worked...and you can either use your Hilton 4 digit PIN or the mailing zip code if you live in the US!

Thanks,
Marianne

Rudi ~ I was told by MaxMiles customer support to give my Zip Code as the password, and I guess they get your last name out of your account information. Since we in the US use zip code, I think that means you would use your country as the password.

Actually, I bet yours is going to be tricky. You're going to probably want to enter the country code that Hyatt uses, which you can see behind their HTML code if you do a view source. The country code for Germany is DE for instance. Even then, I hope MilageMiner is set up for this ...

Dear Beckles and Rudi,

Yes, we are set up to do Hyatt Gold Passport individuals who live overseas by using their country code. You don't need to put your zip code in for that one. For Hilton, however, you would need your 4 digit PIN that you can find on your statement.

thank you Marianne - I'll try.

I'm giving the Mileage Miner a try. Waiting
to upgrade my MaxMiles software to get the
web/internet access so if I like what I see
I can deal with the 3 dollars a month. (charging it to my Hilton Optima so it's
three points a month.)

THe MaxMiles software is terrific... anything
that keeps my miles and points under control
(when used in conjunction with Inside Flyer)
makes at least one part of my life easier.

my 5-days-experience with MileageMiner:
- friendly people, fast responding to emails
- some log-in-difficulties (PIN for Hilton)
- some-updates still missing (LH, Hilton)
- UA behind (UA has 07/20, Miner 13/20)
- Bonus Info not specific to my programs
- the 3$/month (./. Hyatt rebate) no problem

Personally, with my own Mileage-Tracking-System (on MS Excel) I enter my future travel-reservations (just after reservations) and can also track my claims, reclaims, etc.

BizMiles informs:

"We regret to inform you that United Airlines has elected not to participate in bizMiles in the future. If you would like to contact United to voice your opinion on this matter, please go to http://www.ual.com/airline and then go to the Mileage Plus area, click on the Contact Us, and click again on the word "comments" in red at the bottom half of the screen and fill in the form."