The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express Open now comes with 50,000 bonus Membership Rewards after spending $5,000 on your card in the first three months the account is open.

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.

The normal offer for the Business Gold Rewards Card is 25,000 points after spending $5,000. This improved offer is twice is good as it was before, and the best we've seen in years.

Through September 30th, 2016, sign up to receive emails from Virgin Hotels and Virgin Sport and earn 500 Virgin America points for each.

Sign up for Virgin Hotels promotional emails here
Sign up for Virgin Sport promotional emails here

These aren’t huge miles, but they are easy to get, since signing up will take no time and is free.

Considering I value Virgin America Elevate miles more than any other mile at 2.3 cents each, signing up for both of these emails is a no brainer.

Award space is wide open in Business Class on Austrian flights from Los Angeles to Vienna for Spring and Summer 2017 for 2-6 people per flight. Flat bed award space from the West Coast to Europe is rare, so hop on this now!
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Austrian Business Class features a staggered layout so that your bed's foot area is under the arm rest of the row in front.

The Chicago Seminars is the oldest and best conference of frequent flyer miles enthusiasts.

For a limited time, the Barclaycard Arrival Plus comes with 50,000 bonus Arrival miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 90 days. The old bonus was 40,000 points.

The card earns 2 miles per dollar on all purchases. You can redeem the miles to offset any travel expense greater than $100 inside your Barclaycard account within 120 days of the purchase.

Award space is wide open in Business Class on United flights to Brussels and Amsterdam for Summer 2017 for 2+ people. That means you can book your family flat beds to Europe for as little as 40,000 miles plus taxes with no fuel surcharges.
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United Business Class features a comfortable flat bed, but it isn't up to the standards of the absolute best products in the world because there are as many as eight narrow beds per row.

Only true aficionados will complain.

The Virgin Atlantic World Elite MasterCard® is offering up to 90,000 bonus miles but there are quite a few strings attached.

The bottom line is that you earn 127,5

In May, I visited the Sala VIP Pau Casals at Barcelona Airport. In August, I visited the very similar Sala VIP Miro. Here's what you can expect from these Priority Pass lounges that you can enter for free with a Chase Sapphire Reserve®, Citi Prestige, or American Express Platinum Card.

The Sala VIP Pau Casals is available to passengers flying within the Schengen Area, and the Sala VIP Miro is after passport control for passengers leaving the Schengen Area.

Both offer a comfortable place to sit, free wifi, enough food for a meal, and free alcohol.

In July, I jumped around the Balkans, seeing:

Kotor, Montenegro
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Mostar & Sarajevo, Bosnia

The Route
I've spent all summer in ex-Yugoslavia other than a quick trip to Spain. The plan has been to learn the Serbo-Croatian language. I wanted to switch bases from Belgrade to Zagreb via an efficient route that would let me see more of ex-Yugoslavia.

Eventually I settled on flying from Belgrade to Tivat, Montenegro and bussing the rest of the way to Zagreb with stops every few hours along the route.

For the next 11 months, you can fly from the Eastern United States to London for 13,000 Membership Rewards, Ultimate Rewards, or ThankYou Points plus $135. Or you can fly in Premium Economy that looks a lot like domestic First Class for 20,000 points and $265. From other parts of the country, you’ll pay only a few more miles.

On some routes, award space is WIDE OPEN year round, including the heart of summer. Here is the award space for July 2017 from New York to London.