Credit card links have been removed from posts and added to the menu bar at the top of every page of MileValue under the heading Top Travel Credit Cards.

American Airlines miles are currently one of the most valuable airline miles for economy awards because of off peak awards. During some months of the year, your favorite destination can cost up to a 1/4 fewer miles to travel to.

British Airways Avios are fantastic for short, direct, economy flights on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines because the number of Avios needed for an award is determined only by the distance and cabin of each flight.

One sweet spot with Avios that I've noted over and over is that flights from the west coast to Hawaii are 12,500 Avios + $5.60 in taxes each way.

From where do American Airlines and Alaska Airlines fly to in Hawaii?
How can you book these flights with Avios?
How can you get Avios?

American and Alaska all fly to the four major

Fiji is a year-round tropical destination, known for its beaches, diving, and hiking.

Fiji Airways (formerly Air Pacific) flies from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Honolulu to Fiji.

Citi ThankYou Points have added Avianca LifeMiles as a 1:1 transfer partner.

This is amazing news because Avianca LifeMiles can be used to book Star Alliance award space--the world's most available--without fuel surcharges at fair award prices--often much better than the prices offered by United MileagePlus for the same awards.

To transfer ThankYou Points to LifeMiles, sign into your citi.com account, and choose ThankYou Rewards under Rewards & Benefits.

Then select Points Transfer under More Ways to Redeem.

ThankYou Points can be transferred in increments of 1,000 points.

In addition to United's recent devaluation, United recently made its award searching worse.

If you search on the home page for an award--like say New York to Paris next June--

you'll get one week of award prices in one cabin.

You used to get shown two months of award space in economy and premium cabins. You can still get shown that.

Updated November 8, 2017

In the last four years, I've spent about 18 months total in Argentina, so I wanted to give a quick update on the money situation down there.

From 2010 until December 2015, Argentina had an official exchange rate that was a complete fiction.

I've always been a terrible photographer, which you might have noticed from my reviews of First Class flights, but I've enjoyed others' photography more than any other visual art.

I finally decided to learn a bit about photography and bought myself a used full-frame DSLR and a good 50mm prime lens.

I'm a big fan of Alaska miles, because of the free stopovers on one way awards and great mix of partners from multiple alliances.
Alaska Mileage Plan Basics
Before we get into potential redemptions and stopover destinations, let's go over some basics about the program.

Partners

Alaska has a varied array of oneworld, SkyTeam, and non-allied airline partners:

Here are the award charts for flying Alaska and its partners.

LATAM and Cathay Pacific award space cannot be found on alaskaair.com. Search with British Airways award search engine instead.

As a reminder I'm bumping this post to the top of the blog since today is your last day to redeem United miles before the devaluation kicks in tomorrow!

Back in June I wrote about the changes United MileagePlus announced to go into effect November 1, 2017.

United, American, and Southwest are all offering bonuses for shopping through their portals. The bonuses are in addition to what you’d already be earning by shopping through the portal. Shopping portals allow you to earn miles by making your normal online purchases through your favorite online stores. Just by starting at the loyalty program’s portal and using its link to your favorite online retailer, you can get extra miles for your purchases.

With each holiday shopping promotion, the more you spend, the higher your return is.