Track them miles...
 

One of the threads in another group devolved into who was using spreadsheets and other tools to track and plan their miles. I've been using this oddball collection of things to track mine, including a spreadsheet. The problem was the spreadsheet didn't do all of the stuff I wanted (distance calculation, for example). With spare time on my hands I've re-written it to do all kinds of handy mileage tracking and planning things and thought I should share it with my fellow FT'ers.

You can read more about it and download a copy here.

It's less than a day old so some bugs are to be expected. Written & tested using Office 2000. There are a few VB functions.

Enjoy!

hey LEB,

I too spent a lot of time building Excel spreadsheets to calculate miles, q miles, per segment, per q mile and per total mile costs. I've got an Excel sheet that works fine too (no macros either). It even gives you 500 miles for flights less than that. I'd be happy to share it if anyone's interested.

However, the best tool I know of for solving "I wanna do this..." challenges is a piece of software (I'm in no way affiliated, nor do I benefit from the plug) called Informed by Shana.

You build a "form" from scratch, with your own fields, calculations and embedded formulas, design it so it presents the way you want it to, and then save it as a template. Then you just create new "records" for each itinerary you want to check. I've even built in a formula to check the airline flown against the elite status my partner and I each hold to calculate elite bonuses. It's great. I have another one I've designed to track frequent flier accounts (YTD miles, lifetime miles, etc.). Your imagination is the limit with this one.

Don't know how much it sells for, but I think there is a demo available. Definitely worth checking out!

Oh yeah, I also have one that tracks my dining in the four iDine programs I belong to. That way I know what's outstanding and unfortunately, how much I spend a month in restaurants just to get miles (eek!).

Reality check time..

Taking a (hopefully) lady friend to lunch at the end of the week, so deciding where to go... and I settled on sushi because it was on idine's list.

I need help.

Lotus Notes will do that too. A simple Notes database could be designed to capture everything, but I've found a simple spreadsheet is the fastest. I don't do a lot of 'what-iffing' though.

rpmkwpw, thanks for the "plug" information I'll check into it. The nice thing about excel is it's something of a virus and most folks have it by now. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

My spreadsheet also does the 500 mile minimum, level of status bonus, and will take a itinerary like "bos-phl-sfo-bwi-pit-bos" apart and calculate all of the great circle distances, etc..

I'd be interested in looking your spreadsheet for new ideas and to learn. Taking apart strings and doing loops I didn't have any idea how to do in the spreadsheet.