Introduction to Free One Ways (this post)
Master Thread: Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards (dead as of April 2014)
Master Thread: Free One Ways on United Awards
Master Thread: Free One Ways on Delta Awards (dead as on January 2015)
Master Thread: Free One Ways on US Airways Awards (dead as of April 2015)
Master Thread: Free One Ways on Alaska Awards
Three Vacations on Two Awards

Six months ago, I was the first person to write about Free Oneways on United Awards.

I generally love united.com's award calendar, the calendar that shows up at the top of your award search results that lets you know what other days have award availability.

But there are two things I hate about united.com's award calendar. The first is that it is color coded to show economy space, business/first space, or both.

I book a lot of awards to South Africa through my Award Booking Service. Most people want to hop around the country, seeing Johannesburg and Cape Town at a minimum.

Today only, there are some great deals on the non-legacy carriers.

Southwest

Southwest is offering oneway flights on Christmas Eve for $100 or less oneway. This could considerably cut down on your holiday fares, if you can combine the fare with a cheap oneway home. The full list of cities and T&C are here.

Here's LAX's list of sub-$100 destinations.

Atlanta, Nashville, and Chicago stand out as steals. Here's Chicago's (MDW) list:

The discounted fares can also be purchased with fewer points.

According to this blog post and this thread on FlyerTalk, Hilton has just announced their "Any Weekend, Anywhere Sale" where you receive between 15-40% off the best available room rate for weekend stays booked between now and January 31, 2013. Hotels in the Asia-Pacific region have an extended booking deadline of February 14, 2013.

Stays must be completed by December 31, 2013. Eligible weekend stays will also earn double stay credit towards Hilton elite status. With this promotion, you will be able to earn Hilton Silver status with only two weekend stays (a total of four weekend nights).

This is another post in my Anatomy of an Award series, in which I take a real award I’ve booked and break it down step-by-step to elucidate the award booking process. If you have a real award you’d like to write up in a similar post, please contact me, and you can write a guest post.

A few months ago I used 62,500 American Airlines miles and $5 to book a oneway award from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires in American Airlines Flagship First Class. This is one of the simplest awards I've ever booked.

Today I'll be going to restaurants to buy gift certificates with my American Express cards. I have five including those issued by American Express and those just processed by American Express--and issued by Citi and Bank of America.

I registered for Small Business Saturday last week RIGHT HERE. Registration is still open today. Try to register all your AMEXes, except your prepaid cards because those won't work. Then go to one or more small businesses with your card and make $25+ purchases.

Maximizing Your Holiday Shopping Spend on Amazon.com

As the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals descend upon us, many will be eager to log onto Amazon and knock out all of their holiday shopping at once. Before you buy anything on Amazon, make sure you are maximizing your mileage earning potential.

Hawaiian Airlines' shopping portal is the only one that earns frequent flyer miles on Amazon purchases.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you're spending it like I am with family and friends about to munch on turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, pie, and as few veggies as possible. This is absolutely my favorite holiday of the year.

Several years ago when traveling became such a part of my identity, I started saying I was "thankful I live at a time when I can get almost anywhere in the world within a day" at the what-are-you-thankful-for pre-dinner grace.

Four months ago I broke the news that you could redeem Hawaiian Miles for Virgin Atlantic Upper Class without fuel surcharges, thus saving thousands of dollars. See Redeem for Virgin Atlantic Upper Class without Surcharges.

You still can, but the party may be over. The old chart was a solid value and simple to figure out.

The new chart, hat tip to Gary, is much worse.

I don't have any information on what North America East and West are.