30K – Technology to help you with your miles
If you’re a frequent flyer; the chances are you are someone who looks to earn as many miles as possible, but without paying through the nose for it. Earning miles is a great way to boost your frequent flyer account balance in order to move up to the next tier and receive extra benefits, or to simply redeem them for a flight or partner reward.
In order to find out how many miles you would earn from a particular flight; you’d usually have to book directly through the airline’s website; which sometimes isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I’ve actually stumbled across a pretty unique plugin, which will actually calculate and show you just how many miles you’ll earn for that flight – even if you’re booking through sites like Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz to name a few; named 30K.
For many, this is a huge deal – there is finally a way to accurately calculate how many air miles you’ll earn when booking through a third-party operator.
The team behind 30K have worked closely with many frequent flyers and the airlines themselves to ensure that it works with around 65 frequent flyer programs; ranging from the popular AAdvantage from American to the ones from airlines including Aerolineas Argentinas. That’s not the only feature, you can actually connect your frequent flyer accounts, so the plugin will let you know how many miles you need to reach the next level in the airlines’ membership program – very handy if you ask me.
The Test
I’ve been using 30K for a few weeks now and have got used to seeing how many miles I’ll earn when searching for flights through websites like Expedia. You can view a little recording I made on using the feature here; and below is a screenshot from another search I ran. Note you can see how many miles I should earn, and my potential balances after completing the trip.
Things to know
It’s worth noting that 30K is currently limited to working on Google Chrome (not incognito); but the good news is that it should be available on other browsers in the near future, in addition to more frequent flyer programs being added. As it’s quite new, you can actually sign up for a 30-day free trial of the plugin by just clicking here. After the trial, it costs £12.99/$20 a year for the plugin, but you can add as many frequent flyer accounts as you wish; and switch between memberships so you can identify which one will get you to the next tier faster.
Upgrading your travel class using miles
At the request of many frequent flyers (including me), the plugin now indicates which fares are eligible to be upgraded with miles; and displays the amount required – taking into consideration any special promotions. This certainly saves you and me the hassle of endlessly searching around the airlines website, or calling through to speak to a customer service agent who will try to sell a credit card or something to you.
On the horizon
Like anything in the digital world, the 30K plugin is continuously evolving – but there are a number of cool features in the pipeline. This includes viewing what status benefits you may be entitled to (priority check-in, lounge access etc.); and how many more miles you’ll need to earn in order to redeem for a free flight reward.
My View
30K really is a great piece of software, it’s actually made it so much easier for me to check how many miles I should earn from a flight; and the future functionality will be warmly welcomed by many in the frequent flyer community. Admittedly at first I did think it was bizarre to charge an annual fee; but when I discovered how helpful it is, the cost is worth it.
As of today, I’d give it a solid 8 out of 10. Fast forward to when the new features roll-out, then it will be a 9.
If you want to see an in-depth video on how the plug-in works, you can view one that was created by 30K by clicking here.
FYI, you can do the same on TripStreak.com for free
But on Tripstreak.com you cannot automatically connect and retrieve your miles information, you cannot view your progress, see required miles for upgrades, and different fares. And $20/year is not that bad, I’m even willing to pay more for its features.
Very wise points, Jacob! 😉
Hi Jacob – I’m one of the founders at 30K, great being in touch. Tripstreak is one of our customers (we also service travel companies with our API) and as Marky mentions they do provide the mileage accrual information as a free service to their users. But as you well point out, there’s a few things that (in my opinion) still make our plugin a more complete tool – besides working on more websites (Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz,…), some of the features like upgradable fares are not available on Tripstreak. Since the plugin is a tool we develop and deploy ourselves (without the need for any API integration by the customer, which normally requires some time), the plugin will always be 6-12 months ahead in terms of new features. Really up to you to decide if that’s worth the $20 🙂
Beautiful! I have been waiting for something like this for a long time – no more calling airlines and updating spreadsheets. One click and that’s it 🙂 Would love seeing this on Google Flights and Kayak
Great to hear! I agree that seeing the plugin working on Google Flights + Kayak would be awesome!
Hi Melanie – great to be in touch and thanks a bunch for the positive review. My name is Rui and I’m one of the founders at 30K. Google Flights and Kayak are indeed the top websites requested by our users and we should be having some good news soon 🙂 Any other comments or suggestions, feel free to reach me at rui@30k.com.
Great piece of software and much more userfriendly than all other options available. The 20$ is a steal for all the consolidation of loyalty programms the user interface gives you. Plug-in is so easy no need for new websites or apps etc….
Hi Michael, Rui here – I’m one of the founders at 30K. Thanks a lot for the (positive) review. Any other comments or suggestions you might have, feel free to drop me an email to rui@30k.com.
This is, by far, the best tool out there. It calculates miles based on your loyalty program, status and the flight fare bucket! Great work!
Hi RR, Rui here – I’m one of the founders at 30K. Thanks a lot for the (positive) review. We’ve put a lot of work behind this so it’s good to know you’re finding it useful. Any comments or suggestions on how to further improve it, feel free to drop me an email to rui@30k.com.
Old news. been using it for more than 5 months now.
Sorry to think you feel this is old news. I only recently discovered the plugin, which is why I was sharing my thoughts on it. 🙂
Hi Botelho,
Great being in touch and thanks for the comment. I’m one of the founders at 30K. Good to know you were one of our beta testers 🙂 the plugin has indeed been available for 3-4 months now but in a slightly different shape – at the time the only available feature was the mileage calculation part (no progress towards next status level shown, no upgradable fares, and a few others). Hope you’re enjoying the latest version! Any comments on how to further improve the tool feel free to shoot me an email at rui@30k.com. Thanks!
Fantastic plugin! An absolute game changer for frequent travelers. I am using it every week.
That’s great to hear, Richard! 🙂
Hi Richard – thanks a lot for your kind comment 🙂 I’m one of the founders at 30K and it’s definitely great to read you’re finding our plugin useful. Would love to hear comments or suggestions on how to make it better – feel free to reach me at rui@30k.com
Hi Richard, Rui here – I’m one of the founders at 30K. Thanks a lot for the review. Any other comments or suggestions you might have, feel free to drop me an email to rui@30k.com.