Through November 16, 2016, you can buy IHG Rewards Club points with a 100% bonus.

The MileValue Award Booking Service is seeking talented award bookers to have fun, get paid, and help people book their dream trips.

The MileValue Award Booking Service is the premier service for booking people their dream trips with frequent flyer miles.

Edited 12/19/16 because of this change.

United Free One Ways are now more powerful than ever. A few weeks ago, United tried to cripple free one ways, but has unintentionally made the new rule that you can add a free one way almost anywhere in the world onto your international awards.

First, a short history lesson.

On October 6, 2016, United drastically changed its stopover rules. Before you could basically book any three one way awards as a "roundtrip award," using your stopover to tack on a free one way or to make a Three One Ways award.

Hilton has increased the category of 21 hotels and decreased the category of 33 hotels for bookings effective October 12, 2016. There are also a number of new Hiltons, mostly in the United States, that were built between last June and this October-- check out the list here.

These are the hotels getting cheaper. They're almost all in Turkey except for a few in Miami Beach.

Until Sunday (October 30, 2016,) you can buy Club Carlson points and get a 75% bonus on the points purchased. (I've been getting an error after signing in through that link. On the error page, add an "o" to the end of the URL, and it should take you to the correct page.)

Club Carlson points normally cost 0.7 cent each.

There are data points rolling in from Reddit of people claiming the $450 annual fee on their American Express Business Platinum card is (unexpectedly) waived the first year.

This is not true of every single report, but many have noticed in their card agreements with American Express a line about the $450 annual fee being waived for the first year of card membership.

In case you missed the news: through January 25, 2017, the American Express Business Platinum Card is offering 100,000 total bonus Membership Rewards after spending $15,000 in the first three months.

This is the second post in a series about how I used Singapore miles to book United BusinessFirst between San Francisco and Buenos Aires, as well as a review of the product and travel experience. 

Trip Report Part I: United Clubs in San Francisco and Houston
Trip Report Part II: United BusinessFirst Houston to Buenos Aires (this post)
Anatomy of an Award: Booking United BusinessFirst with Singapore Miles (future post)
Changing a Singapore Award (future post)

United Airlines Flight 819
Houston (IAH) – Buenos Aires (EZE)
Depart: 9:40 PM on Wednesday October 5, 2016
Arrive: 9:45 AM next

Through November 31, 2016, United MileagePlus is offering a transfer bonus when you move points over from a hotel loyalty program.

Transfer from most chain hotels earn a 25% bonus
Transfers from Club Carlson earn a 40% bonus
Transfers from Choice Privileges earn a 50% bonus

Since Marriott bought Starwood, one of the benefits the company has announced to members of both loyalty programs is the ability to transfer reward points between accounts.

Earlier this year I published a series about how to maximize each type of transferrable point when redeeming on domestic awards. By doing so, all the major types of miles were covered.
Series Index

How to Maximize Domestic Award Redemptions: Ultimate Rewards
How to Maximize Domestic Award Redemptions: Membership Rewards
How to Maximize Domestic Award Redemptions: ThankYou Points
How to Maximize Domestic Award Redemptions: Starpoints (SPG)

Let's talk about the highlights of what we've learned. Below I'll include basic details of valuable ways to redeem your miles on an award within the United States.

This is the first post in a series about how I used Singapore miles to book United BusinessFirst between San Francisco and Buenos Aires, as well as a review of the product and travel experience. 

Trip Report Part I: United Clubs in San Francisco and Houston (this post)
Trip Report Part II: United BusinessFirst Houston to Buenos Aires
Anatomy of an Award: Booking United BusinessFirst with Singapore Miles
Changing a Singapore Award Last Minute

About two weeks ago I flew from San Francisco to Buenos Aires.