If you're a member of several frequent flyer programs (or even just one), you'll find your frequent flyer miles (from here on, I'll refer to them as "FF miles") very hard to track. If you're like me, you probably aren't very meticulous in keeping tabs of your miles, and when you receive your mileage report, you probably scratch your head and wonder if all your miles have been properly credited to your account. Well, AirMiles from Hands High Software is here to help! It can help you keep track of your FF miles, award travel, bonus miles obtained and more.

AirMiles allows you to have all your FF info at your fingertips. AirMiles comes with predefined categories ("Types") in which you can store FF miles information. These 'types' include Award, Flight, Credit Card and Phone, just to name a few. These 'types' can also be edited to suit your needs. The pre-defined Types come in handy when noting down the number of miles you have accumulated under a certain 'type'. For example, if you have earned 5,000 miles by using your credit card, you would list those 5,000 miles under 'Credit Card'.

You start using AirMiles by setting up the programs that you are a member of. To edit the program list, you should choose "Edit Programs" from the program drop-down list in the List or Edit View. In the Edit Program screen, you can edit the information on certain pre-defined (which can be deleted if you choose not to use them) programs, or create your own program. For example, if you are a member of United's Mileage Plus program, you could create a new entry called "UA Mileage Plus". You can then specify your membership/account number, the length of time till miles expire, and the percentage of bonus miles you can earn from the program (say, if you are a Gold or Premier member, and you are entitled to receive a 100% bonus when you accrue miles).

Once you have set up a program (or programs), you can start setting up an opening balance for your program. This was where I found things getting a little trickier. Before this, everything was a breeze. The AirMiles manual recommends that you have an opening balance for each year of membership in a program. The problem is, I hardly keep my mileage statements, and the online statements don't give enough info. This made it somewhat difficult for me to enter the appropriate information. In the end I just took a shortcut (by ignoring the nitty gritty details of previous years but taking them into account for this year) and everything worked out just fine after that. Once you've entered the relevant information, you will want to check it off against your mileage statements. If everything's a-OK, you can reconcile your opening balances by going to the "Options" menu and choosing "Reconcile".

After you've entered the opening balances for your programs, you're all set to go. You can now enter all the miles you've earned, be it from renting cars, using your credit card or filling out surveys. The possibilities are endless. You can also enter the awards you've redeemed from your program. AirMiles is smart enough to deduct the miles that will expire first for redemption of awards.

AirMiles can also produce reports on your mileage status for you. Two types of reports are available: the Mileage Report, and the Flight Report. These reports can be generated by choosing the "Menu - Reports" option. The Mileage Report shows you all activity that resulted in mileage accrual, while the Flight Report shows the number of miles and segments you've flown in each year.

One thing I found extremely troublesome with AirMiles was the fact that you had to know the exact number of miles on each flight you take to ensure that you had an accurate set of data. There isn't a database which you can tap into, but then again, such a database would have made this an extremely bloated application. However, I personally wouldn't know the number of air miles between San Francisco and Chicago, and if I wanted to search for an exact value, I would refer to my own mileage statement, thus making AirMiles somewhat redundant. Of course, AirMiles is not just for air mileage information, but also for mileage that you accrue from other sources.