Company Profiles: Spotlight on Travel and Tech

In 2010, U.S. Marines William McNulty and Jake Wood put together a small team of military veterans and first responders to head into Haiti after the earthquake. They were in Port-au-Prince three days after the quake, providing much needed medical services and supplies while many relief organizations were still waiting to enter the city.

Team Rubicon was born, and it has since grown its ranks to 40,000 volunteers who have participated in over 120 operations around the world. You can support their disaster relief efforts by donating your Southwest Airlines points.

A mobile phone is a traveler’s most trusted resource. Before settling into your seat and setting your phone to “airplane mode,” there are many logistic hurdles to overcome.

GateGuru has created a mobile app that guides you through major airports. While other apps focus on booking a fight, this app is all about the airport experience.

Hero Miles provides free flights to wounded, injured and ill service members and their families. You can give American, Delta, United, Alaska and Frontier miles to help support this worthy cause.

Paying rent electronically is a relatively new idea that may become the wave of the future. Over $550 billion in rent was paid in the U.S. last year. Of that $300 billion was paid by check.

RentMoola aspires to make paying rent as easy and convenient as it is to pay other bills. RewardExpert spoke with Philipp Postrehovsky, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer to learn how the idea came about and how it all works.

In 2002 GlobalGiving introduced a new model of charitable giving that connects individual donors with grassroots nonprofits around the world.

Through this crowdfunding website, you can choose the projects you want to support, knowing that your donations will have a direct impact on those communities. And thanks to Hilton’s partnership with GlobalGiving, you can give HHonors points to help support these causes.

Renting cars by the hour—car sharing—is no longer just a city phenomenon where gas and parking cost make owning a vehicle burdensome. Now that Zipcar has vehicles available in 50 airports worldwide, air travelers can take a spin during a layover or delay.

Zach Ellard, head of Zipcar’s airports division, spoke with RewardExpert.com about the benefits of short-term car rentals and rewards for air travelers.