Does it go out on the web and semi-automatically download your mileage balances from the airline and hotel websites?

I'm afraid not. I know there are or were some web-based solutions that do/did that, but Money just has a specialized register for FF miles where you can enter them yourself. It's actually a fairly simple process, but it's not automatic. Maybe if Microsoft got enough letters from consumers asking for the feature, then they would add the capability, like they already have with bank accounts...

Yodlee seems to work well for me. I just hope I can trust them.

I too am sorry to see Mile Tracker go and would be happy to pay an annual fee to keep it alive. After reading all the negative posts, I won't bother downloading Deskport.

Ditto here.

So what's an appropriate fee to request. I'd certainly pay $20 or $20 annually.

People who have used something like MileTracker might pay that amount, but folks who haven't probably would not. They don't know what they are missing, and so would be unlikely to pay for it.

To put it bluntly:

MileTracker standalone was GREAT!! ^

DeskPort STINKS! :td:

And I did donate to Mike multiple times. Oh well.

MileageManager isn't the answer either
 

At least for me. It only updates every 7 days. I'm addicted to the instant gratification of pushing the "Check All" button and getting the balances for all my family's accounts.

Possible Solution
 

Well, I'm glad to see I'm not crazy and so many agree with my (first) post.
I loaded the new OnCenter (formerly Yodlee) - Just put in all my "rewards" programs - I track other information (offerred) separately - didn't want EVERYTHING in my life documented on one site - too scarey!!
Yodlee (OnCenter) Seems to work fine - just had to enter my husbands accounts with his name for the the "Nickname" so I could see both our accounts on one page... It was nicer the way MileTracker had different names separated but still on one page - but OnCenter will do for me if/when MileTracker stops working - I might even want to add a few other "things" for tracking - but will wait and see...Try Yodlee -( now updatd to OnCenter) - It might work for you too...it's free and updates continuously.

Has anyone had any positive experiences?

Same here. Will gladly pay a fee to use the old program.

Testing Yodlee
 

I just signed up for Yodlee and entered two of my FF accounts. You have to go to yodlee.com, not oncenter.com.

Continental Airlines works properly, but AlaskaAir does not (yet). With all the instances of web site databases being compromised, it's worrisome to enter so much sensitive data. :)

The site requires you to enter a valid email address, so I used a spamproof one from mailinator.com but so far (30 minutes) nothing has arrived and I can use the Yodlee site features. Here is pertinent text from Yodlee's privacy policy:

Yodlee not bad...
 

I don't like the way the output is formatted, some have commas and some don't depending (i guess) with how it is displayed on te screen it scrapes from.

But it is by far the best alternative I have seen so far.

Mike - ya out there somewhere? Any comments/thoughts?

My windoze 2000 system freaked out after installing deskport. It doesn't switch between windows properly. When I open a new window, the cursor doesn't move to the new window. When I click on an application in the taskbar, the computer moves to that task, but the window doesn't come to the front--now I have to click 3 times-first time makes it active, second time makes it inactive, and the third time brings it to the front. My computer also seems to have slowed down and is running like molasses. I uninstalled desport, and this doesn't seem to help.

Any suggestions about how to fix this would be most welcome.

I have a positive experience, for whatever reason, MileTracker is much faster in checking all of my balances under DeskPort than it ever was as a stand alone application ... if this is what Mike needs to do to support MileTracker, it doesn't really bother me that much ...

i was fairly neutral on the destport vs miletracker debate until it started corrupting my XP system today,reporting an out of memory problem again and again. i had to reboot the system and disable the deskport. ah well.

if it was a straight choice for buying miletracker on its own, i'd buy it. hope the developer reads this and goes that route. i'm not US based, so the majority of 'features' on the deskport are of absolutely no interest to me whatsoever. but mile tracker is an ace piece of code and worth having.

I sent Mike/MileTracker developer an e-mail asking him about the possibility of the stand alone application and how I didn't like DeskPort. No response just yet. Maybe everyone here who is not very fond of DeskPort should send an e-mail to Mike.

Old Miletracker Version!
 

I'm disappointed to see Miletracker disappear too. Unfortunately my version has 'expired' and won't download the last update. Is there another way to get the last version?

Mileage Manager isn't real-time enough. Waiting for it to do the download sucks totally. And MileageManager doesn't let you manage spouse and kid accounts without paying per person.

Yodlee works fine. It just isn't customized for miles. At least you can request downloads whenever you want.

MileTracker has NEVER been flaw free for my long list of accounts. BUT, I love it and use it to check balances at least daily. But the thing I use it for even MORE is to "navigate" to my mileage sites and get logged in. It is my only password manager, and it does a great job there as well. I contributed once. Also emailed Mike for support. Great guy. As I understand it, just not enough people contributed to keep making constant changes (that airline website changes drive). It is easy to SAY you'd donate. But if you never did, you are part of the problem. I just hope Mike gives all of us a second chance! MileTracker RULES!

MileTracker still works for me. I hope it won't soon expire; that would make me very sad. Software shouldn't expire. But that IS Mike's option; he wrote it. If it goes away, I'll sadly go back to Yodlee. I would contribute again to "free" version 2.0. But I'd have to be assured that my old copy wouldn't expire someday and leave me out in the cold. I don't mind support going away. Just can't stomach the tool being jerked out from underneath me.

Any solution for me has to be driven real-time where I decide when to get the updates. It has to manage a whole boat-load of accounts, and has to allow me to keep track of my spouse and kids and grandkids for no additional charge (or maybe double the base, but with no limit for people).

Mike, I wish you well, and hope you find a solution that works for you and the community. You've got a great application filling a niche need. I hope you can find a way to be compensated for your time, and then to be rewarded on top of it!

Too bad we ca't reward Mike in Miles. I am CERTAIN he could get a lot more miles than money out of this community!

Yes, it's fast. But I guess it's because of Mike's new MileTracker release.

I have ZoneAlarm installed ... and DeskPort is asking once in a while or at start to access the Internet (for updates etc.). I am not a big friend of such actions, and without ZoneAlarm I wouldn't be even aware ...

The developers of DeskPort should look here:

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html

MileTracker 1.95 Just Expired
 

I ran it this morning, and it worked fine. I ran it 20 minutes ago, and it now reads that balance updates can no longer be performed using this version.

Those buttons are now grayed out.

It also reads that a 2.0 is available at miletracker.com, but that is not the case as of this writing.

Only 1.95 is on the site.

This really sucks.

Same here :(

This was a great program.

Send me a bill and I'll pay it!

Tried Calendar Reset?
 

Does MileTracker work if you set your computer's clock/calendar back?

That worked, but it is likely of limited value. What happenes if it tries to write a new value to the history file which is older than the last datapoint?

Would probably mess things up pretty good.

What about changing the date, opening MileTracker so that the "Check Now" button is not grayed out, then changing the date back to today's? That seems to work. Would it avoid the potential problems which you're worried about?

You are right. Should work in theory. Next flights should post for me by tomorrow. Will try that out.

Mine has "died" too. It's ashame -- it was really a great program, particularly because it was so simple.

I emailed Mike, but never got a response... Anyone else?

I had some eRewards and MyPoints credit today; using this technique updated the totals just fine. The details and view and navigate are gone, though.

Oh Boy!
 

So - Miletracker said to go to the web site to download 2.0 --it's NOT there-I downloaded 1.95 - Now my program is dead in the water. I e-mailed Mike about 2.0 download...no answer so far...too bad ---I'm on to Yodlee

It looks like the version of miletracker I have is looking for a URL to check and see if it is expired. I found this in the log file that is in the Miletracker folder. Going to that URL shows the result "expire-no|". I bet it's checking the user agent when you hit the URL and comparing it with the latest version.

Couldn't one just modify their host file to point to another server and create a simple php script to output "expire-no|" to get the program to not expire?

I'm going to test it when I get home.

Frankly, I don't understand all this sturm und drang about Deskport. I don't particularly like it but I've had no problems with it. When I need to use MileTracker, I fire up Deskport, check my miles (much faster now, as someone else pointed out), and then close Deskport. It's really not a huge deal.

That's great. And if all the reports were likewise, I'd go ahead and get it. But there are enough serious computer problem reports upstream to make me not want to do so.



Do keep us posted!

In my posting of problems on May 29 (message #16) I reported startup problems after installing DeskPort.

I successfully un-installed it, but I still need the Windows Installer disk to get my computer going whenever I boot up. (For the techies, it's a "NTLDR not found" problem and I've tried just about every remedy I could find with a google search...including installing NTLDR and two other files from another Win 2K machine I own.)

So, it's good if DeskPort works, but rather unpleasant if it doesn't. I hope, and assume, that DeskPort works for most folks and that my computer's difficulty is an abberation.

See the note from Mike Hoeffner, Developer of MileTracker, dated June 16, 2004, on the top window that appears when you fireup MileTracker.

From Mike:

Late July!?!? I don't know if I can make it ;) Seriously, though, I am glad that the possibility (probability) of a standalone version is still alive.

Well worth waiting for in my opinion.

duplicate message

Amen to that. MileTracker was awesome. I miss it terribly. :(

Would any enterprising web developers want to try developing something similar? My web coding skills are pretty rudimentary, but I have been able to grab balance updates from vbscript for several FF programs so far, and displaying them as a html table is pretty straightforward. Sourceforge project anyone? :)