Last second award availability is routinely fantastic on United flights and on certain Star Alliance partner flights. Use your United miles (or any other Star Alliance miles) to book a last minute trip right now to anywhere in the world for Christmas or New Year's!
Australia
You could be in Sydney Harbour for the fireworks. United flies daily from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Both routes have Saver award space this week in economy, business, and first classes for two passengers.

In Part 1, I shared my experiences at the 2012 Euro Cup and how they informed my plan for the World Cup. I also discussed the flight and hotel awards I booked for myself.

I just booked myself a roundtrip First Class award from Honolulu to Sao Paulo, Brazil during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. I also booked myself five nights at a hotel in Sao Paulo.

Rooting for the Home Team (Poland) at the 2012 UEFA Euro Cup!

The cost?

125,000 US Airways miles
100,000 IHG Rewards points
$109

If you want to go see the biggest sporting event in the world in the world's best footballing (soccer) country, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The offers for the cards listed in this post have expired, so their links have been removed. Click here for the top current credit card sign up bonuses.

The 50k mile bonus offer is back on the Lufthansa card mentioned in this post until 6/30/14.

Update at 5:49 PM ET on 12/20/13: Many commenters are saying they've had problems with aa.com showing "phantom award space" on airberlin flights. I have never had that experience, so I was surprised by the reports, but I'm sure they're accurate. My advice changes in light of this info.

This review is a continuation of my huge US Airways redemption that I wrote about back in this post. I reviewed Swiss Business Class: Boston to Zurich, Thai First Class: Paris to Bangkok on an A380, and the Thai Royal Orchid Spa in Bangkok already.

After a relaxing night at the Park Hyatt Seoul (a great value at 15,000 Hyatt points/night), I took the coach bus from the Gangnam bus terminal to Incheon airport at 10:00 a.m.

United announced a massive devaluation of its miles on Halloween to take effect for awards booked February 1, 2014 or later. Until January 31, 2014, I’ll be running posts about the best ways to burn United miles.

Maybe I should have written this last week because I'm cutting it very close, and I might already be too late! But here goes...

It's your last chance to earn and burn United miles before the United miles devaluation kicks in February 1, 2014.

Currently, the following United award (Newark to London, returning Paris to Newark) would cost 60k miles in economy.

Add in a stopover in Newark on the return, and a later one way trip to Jamaica and the price drops 2,500 miles to only 57,500 miles in economy!

 

Unfortunately, this deal I first wrote about last year dies in six weeks!

Three weeks ago, I wrote How to See if You’re Targeted for the 50k Bonus Point Sign Up on the Premier Rewards Gold Card through CARDMATCH.

The targeted sign up bonus is an extremely exciting offer because it adds a headline figure of a 50,000 point sign up bonus to the Premier Rewards Gold Card, which always has one of the best earning structures of any card:

3X points for flights booked with airlines
2X points at US gas stations and US supermarkets
1X points on other purchases
15,000 bonus Membership Rewards in any calendar year in which

Did you miss 20k Miles (or Less) to All of South America All Year yesterday? That post is a competing trick with this one, and it might be an even better deal for you.

Chicago to Santiago "should" cost 30,000 American Airlines miles each way in economy.