Picking a hostel is a crucial part of my trips. Before I talk about how I pick one, let me give a quick advertisement for hostels.

Hostels are not just for young people.

Hostels are great for:

solo travelers of any age
budget travelers of any age
outgoing travelers of any age

My hostel in Queenstown had families with young children, a few solo travelers in their sixties, and everyone in between.

One common misconception is that hostels equal dorms. Most hostels house most guests in dorms, but there are usually private rooms too, often with private bathrooms.

Today I was featured in a MarketWatch article. Here's the relevant section. See two posts below for a good day trip on Oahu. See right below for information on how I found those dirt cheap fares.

Hawaii

“I’m seeing incredible deals to Hawaii for the spring,” says travel writer Scott Grimmer of MileValue.com. The deals he’s talking about include round-trip airfare to Hawaii for about $400 from Los Angeles and $415 from New York (though these usually require flying on select weekdays).

On my recent trip to Oahu, my friends and I explored a number of areas and tried a variety of activities. I'll be summarizing them as possible day trips around Oahu.

On a Friday morning, my friends and I rose early in Kailua in search of a hike. My sister recommended Maunawili Falls, which I had never hiked.

Award travel reservations can usually be made up to eleven months in advance. Often, but not always, eleven months out has the best availability. Eleven Months Out is my new series looking at what you can book today for travel in eleven months.

Thanksgiving is in less than 11 months. Turkey, pie, potatoes, family, and giving thanks may be your highlights, but travel doesn't have to be a lowlight.

According to this thread on FlyerTalk, the Priority Club hotel group will be changing their award chart to mirror other hotel loyalty programs. Read on to see why this change isn't good news for frequent guests.

What does the new chart look like?

I have attached a screen shot of the new award chart below.

Priority Club has decided to split their hotels into nine categories. In comparison, Hyatt has six hotel categories. Starwood and Hilton have seven.

Singapore has recently entered a codesharing partnership with Virgin America to allow more passengers to connect to Singapore flights leaving Los Angeles and San Francisco.

To celebrate the partnership, you can earn both Singapore miles and Virgin America points for the codeshared flights from now until February 28, 2013.

To earn the double dip, you must register your flights in advance here.

There's a very good JetBlue sale going on today and tomorrow: The Fly-Somewhere-New Sale.

American Airlines Buy Miles Promotion

American Airlines is offering bonus miles on all AAdvantage miles purchases through January 31. As with past promotions, the bonus miles awarded are scaled. Buying 40,000 (or more) miles will yield a 15k bonus. Buying lesser quantities will result in fewer bonus miles being awarded.

The full promotion chart can be found below.

American seems to be running these deals fairly regularly.

I've been in New Zealand for two days now. The first two days in Auckland were pretty uneventful. I was just getting my bearings and planning the rest of the trip. Except for that one thing...

While in Auckland, I booked Jetstar flights from Auckland to Wellington and Wellington to Queenstown. Jetstar is a low-cost subsidiary of Qantas, a member of oneworld.

Jetstar flights that are also marketed by Qantas with a Qantas flight number can be purchased with American miles and Avios.

The continuation of Tahsir's round-the-world first class trip report that started here.

During my trip around the world, I stumbled upon some cash + points availability at the brand new W Bangkok. This hotel opened a few weeks ago (December 7th) and it is absolutely beautiful. For 4,800 Points & $60, this hotel should be one of the better options in the heavily Starwood-saturated Bangkok.

We were picked up from the airport and taken to the W, which is kind of far from the main area of Bangkok.