I'm Bored of Spreadsheets: Building a Flight Redemption iOS Tracker

As someone deeply immersed in the points and miles game, I've spent countless hours maintaining spreadsheets to track my award flight redemptions. Like many of you, I've created increasingly complex formulas to calculate value per point, track taxes paid, and monitor my redemption patterns. But recently, I reached a breaking point with this manual approach and decided to do something about it.

I've started developing a simple iOS app that does what my spreadsheets did, but with a much better user experience. The app allows you to:

• Track all your award flight redemptions

• Calculate value per point automatically

• View your redemptions on a map

• Keep a record of taxes and fees paid

• Store booking references

• Analyse your redemption patterns

For example, you can see from my recent Japan Airlines redemption that I spent 123,900 points + £404.10 in taxes for a flight that would have cost £11,000, giving me a value of about 10.2 pence per point - not bad at all! While tools like Smart Redemptions can help you find these sweet spots, having a personal record of your actual redemptions adds another layer of insight to your award travel strategy.

The question is: would this be useful to you? I've invested less than a day in development so far, but before diving deeper, I'd love to hear from fellow points enthusiasts. While we have excellent apps like Flighty for flight tracking, there seems to be a gap in the market for something focused specifically on award travel analysis.

I'm envisioning features like:

• Multiple loyalty programme support

• Redemption history analysis

• Best value redemption highlights

• Integration with existing flight tools

• Expenditure tracking across different currencies

Think of it as your personal award travel diary, but with powerful analytics built in. No more juggling spreadsheets or trying to remember what that amazing redemption from last year cost you in points and fees.

Would you use something like this? What features would make it essential for your award travel toolkit? Drop a comment below or reach out on Instagram - I'd love to hear your thoughts!