A very generous reader who came to the MileValue Happy Hour in New York City this week is donating five (5) American Airlines Systemwide Upgrades that expire Friday February 28, 2014 to MileValue readers.

Follow generous Tom on twitter to show your appreciation.

An American Airlines Systemwide Upgrade entitles you to an upgrade of one class of service on all flights on a one way itinerary that are operated by American Airlines or American Eagle if upgrade space is available.

This giveaway has tremendous value to you if you have a trip booked that meets the following conditions:

paid itinerary

United's first flight on the brand new 787-9 Dreamliner is set for October 26, 2014 between Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia.

Currently United serves Melbourne as a tag flight from Sydney after a brief layover.

Official word of the route is expected later today, but we don't need the announcement because we can see the flights loaded onto the calendar at united.com and up for sale right now.

What's the award space picture? What are the flight times? What is the difference between the 787-8 and 787-9?

Australia is one of the hardest awards with frequent flyer miles.

Update 2/21/14: This post was about a rumor that the spending requirement on the Arrival card would go to $3,000. It has gone to $3,000. The minimum spending requirement is now $3,000 in the first 90 days to unlock the 40,000 bonus miles. Full offer details:

Earn 40,000 bonus miles if you make $3,000 or more in purchases in the first 90 days from account opening.

Part I Europe
Part II Asia
Part III Africa/Middle East
Part IV Australia/New Zealand
Part V Central/South America

Europe is an absolute award chart bargain compared to Aeroplan's mileage requirement for Asian travel. After Aeroplan's summer 2013 devaluation, its award chart for travel to Asia became very expensive relative to other carriers.

Sadly, United’s recent devaluation and Delta’s unprecedented double devaluation brought Air Canada Aeroplan miles in line with the likes of United and Delta.

Come to Happy Hour with me today (2/17/14) in New York City!

US Airways has legally combined with American Airlines, but the airlines are still being run as two brands with two frequent flyer programs until some time in 2015.

Next month there are two key dates in the integration of the two airlines and specifically their AAdvantage and Dividend Miles programs.

On March 30, 2014, US Airways will leave the Star Alliance. This is the last day to use US Airways miles to book award space on Star Alliance partners. (Actually see this update.

There will be a MileValue meet up tomorrow (2/17/14) at The Australian at 20 W 38th St in Manhattan from 5 PM to 8 PM.

I've wanted to hold a meet up in New York City for quite a long time. Unfortunately I will only be there from Monday through Thursday, so I can't hold a customary MileValue dinner. And I really apologize for not having my other plans set soon enough to give more than 24 hours notice.

But I hope everyone will be able to join me for Happy Hour at the Australian.

I surprised my family of four by booking them roundtrip business class tickets to Italy for Christmas using US Airways miles. It is very difficult to find four flatbed business class award seats to Europe during peak Christmas travel time. With a bit of flexibility, I was lucky to snag a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt on the outbound and the United flight below on the inbound. I previously reviewed Lufthansa's 747-8 business class, so I will skip ahead to the flight home.

United has recently increased their award chart prices to most regions.

Brussels Airlines award space now displays on United.com!

United.com prices a certain one way award from the Europe to the US entirely on partner metal at the United business class price of 57,500 miles though there is a big catch:

The intra-Europe 1hr20min flight is in business class (Hamburg to Zurich)
The region-connecting 9hr5min flight is in economy (Zurich to New York)

Still 57,500 miles--the United chart price--is intriguing instead of the partner business class price of 70k miles or the partner economy price of 30k miles.

I am well aware that this is a minor curiosity and not a major breakthrough that will help you