Credit card sign up bonuses, spending on credit cards/through portals, and earning via flying are the major opportunities to earn big chunks of rewards. But being a true miles and points enthusiast means taking advantage of even the little opportunities when you can, that only take a minute or two to sign up for and over time add up to big savings. Every penny--or mile--counts.

Here are two ways you can easily boost your balances this weeks.

Not long ago you saw us report on the prevalence of Etihad First Class Apartment award space available between Abu Dhabi and New York City.

It's really easy right now to earn a lot of American Airlines miles fast.

American Airlines has released a batch of Business Class award space to London (some totally lie-flat seats, some angled lie-flat) from many cities, January 2018 through the end of the calendar (April). This is news because American Airlines doesn’t normally have so much premium cabin award space, and the majority of the other award space bookable with American Airlines miles to Europe is on British Airways which incurs ridiculously expensive fuel surcharges.

I would act quickly if you want to book this award space, as much of it has already been snatched up.

The Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCard is now offering 60,000 bonus American Airlines miles after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months.

The CitiBusiness / AAdvantage Platinum Select World MasterCard is also offering 60,000 bonus American Airlines miles after spending $3,000 on the card in the first three months.

The normal offer for each, is 30,000 AAdvantage miles for spending $1,000 on each and the standard "elevated offer" we see on each is 50k for $3k spend.

The Citi Hilton Honors Reserve Card comes with Two Free Weekend Nights worldwide at top tier Hiltons after spending $2,500 on the card in the first four months.

As a loyalty bonus, the Citi Hilton Honor Reserve Card offers an additional free weekend night certificate after spending $10,000 within a cardmember year.

Since any new cardholder will spend $2,500 on the card to get the first two free night certificates, that means that spending $7,500 more on the card during the first 12 months will entitle you to a third free night certificate, in addition to

In celebration of their 20th anniversary, the Star Alliance is giving 21 people one million miles (or the determined equivalent, depending on the frequent flyer program). One set will be given out from each loyalty program in the alliance.

This giveaway is a little different than sweepstakes past, as it's not technically a giveaway. You have to earn your prize.
Here's how to enter the Mileage Millionaire competition:

Upload a picture of yourself (preferably on a blank/white background), as well as a picture of a "unique cultural experience" on the official competition website.

There seemed to be enough interest in my original post on this topic, Who Has the Most First Class Award Space to Honolulu?, that I followed up with the next most popular destination in Hawaii: Maui (OGG airport).

Note from Sarah Page: Scott wrote this post back in 2014, but I am re-posting it now because it's an invaluable trick. Every economy flight I fly I check my armrest for the secret lever under the joint of the arm and four times out of five, it's there. 

I fly a lot of flights in economy class. While all my long-hauls are in business or first, when I fly domestically or hop around Southeast Asia, Europe, or Australia, it's almost always in coach.

It's just not worth using airline miles to book short flights in first class.