Earn gifts for miles with luggage brand's new travel app

(Samsonite)

A new app from luggage maker Samsonite allows travelers to earn points for the miles they cover and exchange them for gifts.

The Samsonite TravelMiles Europe app, which was released for Apple iOS devices and Android this week, keeps track of the miles covered by its users using the handset's GPS, allocating points for each trip made.

With a certain number of points, users in some European countries can exchange their balance for travel accessories or gifts when purchasing on the Samsonite site, such as travel adapters, pillows and eye masks.

In a similar manner to Foursquare, users can also collect "badges" for the travel feats they accomplish - travel on a boat three times and unlock a "Pirate" badge, go to the tropics to be awarded a "Palm Tree" and travel 40,000 km to unlock a "Round the World" badge.

Once earned, these badges give point bonuses which can be further supplemented by sharing on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Although the TravelMiles promotion is undoubtedly a savvy piece of marketing from Samsonite, one of the world's best known luggage brands, the app can be recommended for several other features too.

Among the most useful is likely to be the cabin luggage size guide, which specifies the maximum allowable hand luggage size by airline.

A full directory of airline telephone numbers, including individual hotlines for each country, is also included, as is a list of Samsonite repair centers.

The new app is available in English and French and collection and redemption of points is currently limited to 14 countries in Europe, although a spokesperson told Relaxnews that other regions were working on the same app project (although no Asia or America launch dates are available).

Download the app from http://www.samsonite.com/mobileapplication