Learn How to Align Airline Rewards with Travel Plans

Roman Shteyn, Co-Founder and CEO at RewardExpert.com, is here to tell us the story about how he helps travellers align airline rewards with upcoming travel plans. Roman is part of our New York City chapter so if you spot him at an upcoming event, be sure to say hello!

Who is your startup for?

RewardExpert.com is for anyone who wants to travel for free using reward miles and points that they already earn. It’s designed to be as useful for the newbies to travel using airline miles and credit card reward points as for the committed “million-mile” experts who routinely crisscross the world in business class paying almost nothing for their tickets.   

How does it work? 

• You ‘load your wallet” by telling us what credit cards you have, how much you spend, and what airline reward programs you’re a member of (if any)
• Then pick a destination
• We show you the options how to earn free travel to your desired destination
• Our system recommends the fastest way to earn a free award ticket to your destination

How did you build your startup?

It took over 3 years to go from conception to live product. To make a product with mass appeal in an industry as complex as international travel is very complicated and resource-intensive.

We analyze every route in the world with each frequent flyer programs.

It was a very complex build, but we love how it came out.

What makes your startup different from other similar startups out there?

Typically, when consumers figure out how to use their points, they lose over 50% of their potential value because of the lack of know-how and complexity of the program rules.

RewardExpert shakes up the frequent flyer and travel rewards industry by making free award tickets more readily available to those that either don’t know about the hobby or those already have points and miles from different programs but cannot figure out how to use them effectively.

How did you get your startup off the ground and gaining traction?

It’s hard to resist free travel. We have been well received during private beta with high user friend referral. Travel is a social activity. Free travel is like a spring break on steroids.

We have recently been covered in LA Times which lead to tremendous user interest. We are attending Travel Events to show off our product to travel enthusiasts. We are in the process of launching a nationwide publicity campaign that includes a social media push. 

Do you have any tips for new entrepreneurs who want to create a successful startup?

Be ready for the unexpected.  Make sure you have a solid plan and have a good sense of what resources you will need in terms of staff, data sets and operating costs. Then double that. Usability is critical. Test with real users as you go – your grandma has to be able to figure it out on her iPhone or go back to the drawing board.   

As a startup, what benefits have you seen from being a part of Travel Massive meetups? 

Travel Massive meetups are great for networking. You get to meet people with a great diversity of  experience in the travel industry that you will not meet in a typical corporate meeting. The most interesting part is the many paths people take to find themselves in the travel industry.  

Travel Start-Up is a monthly series that profiles unique online travel start-ups in the Travel Massive community around the world. Connect with Roman on Travel Massive, Twitter and Facebook.