Update at 12:45 PM ET: The Points Guys says he has an official statement from the American Airlines PR department:

"Last night, in a routine effort to better align American to industry standards with other global carriers, American began collecting carrier-imposed surcharges on tickets for travel on other carrier’s metal.  This change was intended for revenue tickets only, but the surcharge was erroneously added to AAdvantage award redemptions on other airlines as well.  Except in the cases of British Airways and Iberia (where American currently collects these surcharges), no carrier-imposed surcharges will be applied when redeeming AAdvantage miles for

The 25,000 Starpoint bonus for opening the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express and spending $5k on the card in the first six months is one of my absolute favorite bonus offers.

IHG Rewards announced its new promotion that will run from September 1 to December 31 called "The Big Win." You can register for The Big Win today to see your offers, which vary by person.

There are several posts on yesterday’s new PointBreaks list. Even if you’ve read those, read this. I’ve honed my strategy for getting $35 per night rooms quite a bit, and I want to share it, so everyone can have access to the best practices.

At our Award Booking Service, clients most often ask us to construct specific itineraries with their miles. Maybe they want to go to both France and Italy for their honeymoon and have United miles. We take it from there. Sometimes, however, we receive requests that are more like pleas:

"I have 250,000 Delta Skymiles, how can I put them to any use??"

I've often argued that Skymiles are strategically useful.

This is the twenty-second post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.

Miles and points aren't all about traveling in first class for pennies, although that's the most aspirational aspect of the game, and the most fun to write about. In the last few weeks, I've used hotel points for massive savings on adequate rooms in convenient locations in expensive cities.

Through just a little bit of planning, I've spent about $255 total for my last six nights of hotels or $42 per night.

Update: British Airways 787 Business Class Full Trip Report

Last month I saw this thread about British Airways taking delivery of its new A380 and 787 and training the crews on intra-European routes.

This is the twenty-first post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.

Six months in Argentina came to a close, and I started to fly my favorite award I've ever booked.

The first flight was from Buenos Aires to Johannesburg on South African Airways' direct flight in business class.