Uptrip, the digital collectible card platform by Miles & More, is growing fast. In an exclusive interview, the team shares current user numbers, insights into planned activities for 2026, and much more.
The interview took place as an iterative written exchange. The original quotes were provided in German and thus are translated below.
Uptrip Shares User Numbers
Uptrip already reported strong growth last year. The team is also very satisfied with developments in 2025.
„Within this year alone, the number of users has nearly tripled. Almost 300,000 users are currently active on Uptrip.“.
With around 300,000 active users, Uptrip is still small compared to the more than 36 million Miles & More members. The growth rate is impressive though. This is especially true among younger users. Miles & More sees the closer linkage between both products as a
„continuous process that we will develop further step by step.“
Uptrip Outlook 2026: Growth and More Variety
Uptrip has ambitious plans for 2026 and made several promising announcements. The platform is set to grow further. At the same time, user interaction and satisfaction should remain high.
Uptrip has announced the following:
- Expansion of the partner network: More variety in rewards
- More, and more frequent collections: Regular new releases
- Improvements to the user experience: Technical and visual optimizations
- New features: Additional functions (e.g. for collectors)
- Special campaigns for specific occasions: Limited promotions
Uptrip gets specific when it comes to special campaigns:
- World Cup collectibles: Limited special cards for the football World Cup
- 100 years of Lufthansa: Special campaign possibly starting as early as January 6, 2026
- Easter campaign: New cards and activities
The Marketplace Will Be Redesigned
Uptrip also hinted at concrete changes of user experience and features in 2026. The most exciting news for users is likely this statement:
„A completely new marketplace design is planned for the end of Q2 2026. It aims to further improve card discoverability.“
The marketplace was already updated regularly last year. Despite these updates, trading does not always work smoothly. Display glitches can occur. Performance can be limited. Some special cards are currently not tradable at all. The new design aims to address these issues. This Uptrip outlook 2026 should significantly improve clarity and card discoverability.
Focus on Card Collectors
Not too suprising, another insight from the interview: Many Uptrip users are primarily collectors and not just reward hunters.
„These insights naturally flow into our product development. Collectors have been one of Uptrip’s core target groups from the very beginning.“
The recently released card mixer is one result of this collector focused approach. Campaigns like the release of rare cards at Christmas also follow this strategy. Further innovations are expected.
Uptrip also addressed criticism regarding the recent inflationary release of supposedly rare cards:
„In the future, there will continue to be special cards and limited collections requiring rare cards. These will remove cards from circulation again.“
From a collector perspective, we are not yet convinced that collections meant to remove rare cards will achieve the desired effect fully. The flood of formerly rare city cards remains hard to control. This is also due to the mixer, which can still create them without limits. More predictability would be desirable to avoid future disappointment.
Truly rare cards remain primarily special cards that are issued very rarely or not at all anymore. A second edition could bring fresh momentum here.
Uptrip “Card Edition 2” Announced
Anyone who takes a closer look at Uptrip cards will notice that almost all existing cards are marked with “1st Edition” in the lower right corner.
The community has repeatedly asked if and when a second edition will be released. We passed on the question and received new information. Internal concepts for such an edition already exist at Uptrip.
„We aim for very high standards for a possible Edition 2. It should be much more than a simple design update.“
This sounds promising. The team also made it clear that the new edition will still take some time.
In regards to design changes that have already been implemented, such as Brussels Airlines aircraft cards, one question remains open. How can these variants be collected in a targeted way. On the marketplace, the design type cannot be selected specifically. This might be adressed with the future marketplace update.
Conclusion – Uptrip Outlook 2026
First of all, we would like to sincerely thank the Uptrip team and Miles and More for the opportunity for this exclusive exchange. Even though some announcements (understandably) remained vague, we gained exciting insights into what awaits us in 2026.
If all announcements are delivered, it will be a varied year for the community. We are looking forward to it and will continue to follow developments with a critical eye. Beyond the topics above, we also discussed other relevant issues in the interview. These included the timeline for the ITA Airways integration and the positioning of the Web3 integration. More on this very soon.
