25 Euro Flight Sale
Air Baltic has a sale for flights booked by February 14, 2017 and flown March 9 to April 10 with fares starting at 25 euros. Example fares:

Most deals are to or from Riga, Vilnius, or Tallinn. I highly recommend the Baltics because they are small countries with interesting histories that are accessible and cheap.

Within the Baltics, though, I wouldn't fly. I'd use buses and ferries. Here's my guide to buses and ferries for Baltic travel.

I'm Going to Belarus
I love Eastern Europe.

The majority of us earn heaps of miles through sign up bonuses, maximizing category bonuses on credit cards, and flying. And at the end of the day, credit cards are the bread and butter that enable most of us to fly free in First Class.

But there are lots of other ways to earn miles, many of which are passive and all of which require little effort.

I tweeted this deal first from @MileValueAlerts. Follow @MileValueAlerts on Twitter and follow these directions to get a text message every time I tweet from that account. I tweet from @MileValueAlerts only a few times a month because it is designed to be used only for the best and most limited-time deals–like mistake fares–so that you aren’t bombarded by text messages.

Travel from New York to Singapore for $492 roundtrip throughout much of March and end of September through December. There is one stop in, Guangzhou, in both directions.

The Chase IHG Rewards Club Select comes with 60,000 IHG points after spending just $1,000 in the first three months in which you open it.

The bonus isn't what really makes this card valuable and worth keeping year after year, however.

Along with Platinum status at IHG Properties (think InterContinental, Crown Plaza, Holiday Inn, Hotel Indigo), you'll earn a free night at ANY IHG hotel each year after your card member anniversary. For an annual fee of only $49, that's stellar. And yea--the card is issued by Chase.

Update 2/7/2017: I received an email that I have earned the bonus on the Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard. The miles are also now in my account.

I am updating and re-posting this series on redeeming American Airlines miles in light of the fact that right now it’s super easy to earn 146,000 American Airlines miles.

For a limited time, the Citi /AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCard and the CitiBusiness / AAdvantage Platinum Select World MasterCard are both offering 50k bonus miles for spending $3,000 on each card within three months of opening it. The new Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard is offering 40k bonus American Airlines miles after just one purchase and paying the annual fee of $95.

Apparently if you already have a credit card issued by American Express, the bank will not initially hard pull your credit report upon subsequent applications. They only pull your credit report if you are conditionally approved from internal information Amex already has on record, to double check nothing major has changed since then.

Jet Airways is releasing 4+ economy and Business Class award seats per flight from Toronto to Amsterdam all year.
The flights can be booked with American Airlines and Delta miles.
Connections from the US to Toronto and Amsterdam to the rest of the Europe are easy and free.

Jet Airways, an Indian carrier, recently revamped its route network, so its only North American flight is Toronto to Amsterdam, with connections from there to India.

Jet Airways is a partner of American Airlines and Delta miles, and both types of miles can be used to book Jet Airways award space