MileIntel
The MileIntel Blog

Points of Departure

Airline miles intelligence, loyalty program strategy, and the sharpest thinking in travel rewards.

Recent
11 articles
06.27From the CockpitThe Feature I Almost Didn't Build (And Why I'm Glad I Did)06.13From the CockpitShe Had 180,000 Aeroplan Points. Then June 1st Happened.05.30From the CockpitI Built a Devaluation Alert System. It Wasn't Ready for Aeroplan.
11 articles
a view of the wing of an airplane in the sky
02From the Cockpit

She Had 180,000 Aeroplan Points. Then June 1st Happened.

A real user story about the Aeroplan devaluation, what MileIntel caught, and what we're still not fast enough to prevent.

5 min · Jun 13, 2026
airplane over clouds during golden hour
03From the Cockpit

I Built a Devaluation Alert System. It Wasn't Ready for Aeroplan.

I thought our alert pipeline was solid. Then Aeroplan restructured its entire award chart in under 2 weeks and exposed every gap I'd ignored.

5 min · May 30, 2026
black and gray car dashboard
04From the Cockpit

How MileIntel's Transfer Graph Actually Works

Wells Fargo just added Cathay Pacific as a transfer partner. Here's why that's a hard engineering problem — and how we built the system to handle it.

6 min · May 3, 2026
a large airplane flying in the sky
05From the Cockpit

Mergers Break Loyalty Programs. Here's How MileIntel Catches It.

The Allegiant-Sun Country merger follows a familiar pattern that costs loyalty members thousands. Here's how MileIntel's upgrade monitor and status tracker catch it.

7 min · Apr 23, 2026
Tropical resort with pools and palm trees by the ocean
06From the Cockpit

The Alert I Wish Existed Last Week (Building It Now)

Hyatt just hiked peak-night costs by up to 67%. Members found out too late. Here's the fork in the road I faced building MileIntel's alert system.

6 min · Apr 18, 2026
a couple of tall buildings sitting next to each other
07From the Cockpit

Citi ThankYou Devaluation: The $300 Warning We Almost Missed

Citi ThankYou cuts Choice Privileges transfers 25% and Preferred Hotels 50% on April 19. Here's the math, what to do now, and why we almost missed it.

7 min · Apr 9, 2026
Developer workspace with code editor and laptop
08From the Cockpit

Why I'm Building MileIntel (And Why I Can't Stop)

My wife is a surgical resident. I run a startup. We have almost no overlapping free time. This game, the miles game, is how we make the little time we have together count.

7 min · Mar 9, 2026
Airplane cockpit view at sunset with clouds below
09From the Cockpit

We Built an AI Travel Concierge. Here's What Happened.

I was standing in the United Club at O'Hare, 90 minutes before a flight to Tokyo, staring at two browser tabs. One showed my Chase UR balance, the other showed United award pricing. I needed a simple answer and couldn't get it.

4 min · Mar 6, 2026
Data dashboard with analytics charts on dark screen
10From the Cockpit

How We Track 47 Airline Programs Without Losing Our Minds

Last Tuesday, Delta quietly raised the floor price on SkyMiles business class awards to Europe by 15%. We caught it in 4 hours. The Points Guy wrote about it 3 days later.

3 min · Mar 3, 2026
Close-up of premium credit cards on a dark surface
11From the Cockpit

Your Wallet Is Lying to You (And We Built a Fix)

Last week, Chase launched a 25% transfer bonus to Hyatt that expired in 48 hours. Most people missed it. That's the problem we're obsessing over right now.

5 min · Feb 28, 2026
The Mileage Run

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