I am updating and re-posting this series on redeeming American Airlines miles in light of the fact that right now it’s super easy to earn 146,000 American Airlines miles.

For a limited time, the Citi /AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCard and the CitiBusiness / AAdvantage Platinum Select World MasterCard are both offering 50k bonus miles for spending $3,000 on each card within three months of opening it. The new Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard is offering 40k bonus American Airlines miles after just one purchase and paying the annual fee of $95.

Cathay Pacific will begin a new route between Vancouver and Hong Kong on March 28, 2017 flying an Airbus A350. The A350 will depart Vancouver and Hong Kong on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays mornings.

These are not Cathay Pacific's only flights between Vancouver and Hong Kong, but the first on the airline's new A350 (and the airline's first A350 flight to North America to boot). The A350 features 38 fully flat bed Business Class, 28 premium economy, and 214 economy seats.

Here is the layout of Business Class. As you can see, every seat has aisle access.

The brand new PointBreaks list allows us to book hotel rooms for stays today through April 30, 2017 for $30 per night.

Even if you’ve read other posts on the PointBreaks list, read this.

We've been seeing tons of affordable economy fares between the United States and Europe.

We've all been there.

With no prior warning, you're faced with a large expense that must be paid ASAP. Most cards cards take a week if not more to arrive in the mail. But to spend that much money and not reap tons of rewards from it seems like blasphemy... what's a girl to do??

Sometimes you can request a card number (and expiration date and security code, all you'd need for purchase) immediately after approval.

There's a large amount of United Business Class available from the United States to Europe for the coming summer months of July and August. We're talking up to eight seats available some days and up to four on many days. Award space flying United Business Class costs just 57,500 United miles versus the 70,000 it would cost you to fly another Star Alliance partner like Austrian or Turkish.

This post is part five of a series about how to maximize value when transferring your Chase Ultimate Rewards to loyalty program partners. 
Maximizing Your Ultimate Rewards Series Index

Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: United MileagePlus
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Singapore Krisflyer #1
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Singapore Krisflyer #2 
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean SkyPass #1
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean Skypass #2 (this post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean Skypass #3 (future post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: British Airways Avios (future post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Flying Blue (future post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

The United shopping portal is offering 15 miles per dollar today only (until 11:59 PM ET on 1/22/17) at a number of stores that normally offer only 2-5 miles per dollar.

I value United miles at 1.6 cents each, so getting 15 miles per dollar on your purchase is like getting 24% of your purchase rebated back in United miles (in addition to the 1x or more you're getting on your credit card purchase normally.)

Here are the 15x stores:
More information on portals from my Free First Class Next Month series:

The process for earning miles from portals

Taking no-frills, short distance flights on low cost carriers is a great way to fill in the hole on an open jaw award and to hop around Europe if you're traveling light.

You often cannot redeem traditional miles on these kinds of flights--or if you can it just wouldn't be worth it because the value you'd be getting per mile would be so low.