AwardWallet - death watch has started
Sep 16, 2012, 1:59 pm
#32
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 6
Since they are ultimately on the verge of death they should port their application to a stand alone mode which allows you to run it on your machine. It will automatically log into all of your accounts, store the information in a local database and keep track of all your accounts for you on your own computer. This will be "allowed" and it would be very nice. A "one click" program for the lazy 
Sep 16, 2012, 4:00 pm
#33
Company Representative - AwardWallet
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 56
The reason why I have not responded sooner is because I was not checking this thread. So, as far as desktop application goes, we did almost the same thing for AA - we released a browser extension (for 4 browsers: IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari) that did the checking and storing all the data locally. We still got shut down. So lesson learned for us - it doesn't matter how we help users to track their miles and it doesn't matter where the data is stored and it doesn't matter who is accessing the websites - they will still go after the distributor of the application.
Sep 16, 2012, 4:15 pm
#34
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 774
The reason why I have not responded sooner is because I was not checking this thread. So, as far as desktop application goes, we did almost the same thing for AA - we released a browser extension (for 4 browsers: IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari) that did the checking and storing all the data locally. We still got shut down. So lesson learned for us - it doesn't matter how we help users to track their miles and it doesn't matter where the data is stored and it doesn't matter who is accessing the websites - they will still go after the distributor of the application.
For programs/trips/etc that work fine on the website the app can also pull the data from your Award wallet account and compile all the data into one place
It might depend how its marketed/advertised. All the behind the scenes work is already done and now it just needs to be repackaged. Not that hard...
Sep 17, 2012, 7:10 am
#35
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: UK
Posts: 561
I've written my own mile checking program in the past and it's not too difficult (just a simple web scraper). It'd be easy enough to create a desktop app that could offer similar facilities to AwardWallet.
However, I use AwardWallet now purely because everything is done online and I can access the information from anywhere (including a smartphone). I guess the desktop app could store the actual balances 'in the cloud' to make it accessible from anywhere, as long as it didn't access the data from anywhere but the desktop.
Some kind of extensible mileage checking application might work. It'd come with a few FFPs built in, and the community could add the rest (the 'disallowed' ones) ... though I'm not sure how easy it'd be given the required knowledge of http requests.
However, I use AwardWallet now purely because everything is done online and I can access the information from anywhere (including a smartphone). I guess the desktop app could store the actual balances 'in the cloud' to make it accessible from anywhere, as long as it didn't access the data from anywhere but the desktop.
Some kind of extensible mileage checking application might work. It'd come with a few FFPs built in, and the community could add the rest (the 'disallowed' ones) ... though I'm not sure how easy it'd be given the required knowledge of http requests.
Sep 17, 2012, 8:29 am
#36
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: halfway between JFK and LGA
Posts: 976
but the credentials that are provided to award wallet are neither time-limited nor for read-only data, hence my aversion to providing them.
and 'customer service' means a lot of things to a lot of people, but it seems to mostly mean that the customer gets something and the company providing it does so whether there is any benefit to them for doing so. this seems to be what we're talking about here.
Sep 17, 2012, 2:29 pm
#38
Formerly known as vgandhi
Join Date: May 2011
Programs: Delta 1 MM and Platinum, United Premier Platinum, Starwood Gold, Club Carlson Gold, Choice Gold
Posts: 623
I use milewise and it does the same thing as award wallet and keeps track of all your miles and points and associates a dollar value to it pretty nice an easy to use
Sep 18, 2012, 8:08 pm
#39
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: NYC
Posts: 1,756
The reason why I have not responded sooner is because I was not checking this thread. So, as far as desktop application goes, we did almost the same thing for AA - we released a browser extension (for 4 browsers: IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari) that did the checking and storing all the data locally. We still got shut down. So lesson learned for us - it doesn't matter how we help users to track their miles and it doesn't matter where the data is stored and it doesn't matter who is accessing the websites - they will still go after the distributor of the application.
Sep 19, 2012, 2:10 am
#41
Join Date: Feb 1999
Location: San Jose, California, USA
Programs: AS 100K, UA MM, AA MM, IC Plat Amb, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold, Hyatt Explorist
Posts: 3,146
we released a browser extension (for 4 browsers: IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari) that did the checking and storing all the data locally. We still got shut down. So lesson learned for us - it doesn't matter how we help users to track their miles and it doesn't matter where the data is stored and it doesn't matter who is accessing the websites - they will still go after the distributor of the application.
It won't be long before someone else (probably a FTer) develops a screen-scraping plug-in for AA and releases it as open source. There will be nobody for AA to target after that cat is out of the bag.
Oct 8, 2012, 8:31 am
#44
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: world
Programs: all
Posts: 1,422
The same reason a lot of other consolidation sites were closed. "security" or rather control. Yodlee was one of the first companies to do this 12-14 years ago and they eventually had to stop
Nov 4, 2012, 9:52 pm
#45
Company Representative - AwardWallet
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 56
Cheers,
-Alexi