Anatomy of an Award posts highlight real awards I’ve booked to show you the techniques needed to book your dream trip.
Recently the MileValue Award Booking Service was contacted by a client who was wondering if he was able to add a "free" one way from Hawaii back to his home in New York City in connection with a dream trip for two to the Maldives using US Airways Dividend Miles.

Most often we are asked to add a "free" or "cheaper" one way to Hawaii or elsewhere in the US at the end of an award but this client

I looked at the upcoming reservations in my United account. There are three trips:

Honolulu to Sao Paulo
Frankfurt to Los Angeles
Honolulu to Chicago

One trip was booked with United miles, one with US Airways miles (before US Airways lost United as a partner), and one with Lufthansa miles.

The award booked with United miles flies Asiana, Lufthansa, and Air Canada. The awards booked with the other types of miles both fly United planes.

These three awards illustrate two simple and counter-intuitive truths about frequent flyer miles that I want everyone to understand.

1.

Reader Milezjunkie has generously donated a pair of United Club passes that expire June 30, 2014.

Here are the United Club locations to check whether you’ll be able to use a pass on your next trip.

If you can use the passes between June 12, 2014 (because they will take a few days to get to you) and June 30, 2014, there are two ways to enter to win them!

Comment on this post with something you're grateful for.

Today is the last day of the third week of five weeks of discounted travel packages sponsored by the US Travel Association and American Express called Daily Getaways. Every weekday at 1 PM ET, a discounted travel package or packages will go on sale and will usually sell out in a few minutes.

I just applied for three cards:

Citi Executive American Airlines card
Alaska Airlines Personal Card
Alaska Airlines Business Card

I'll earn 165,000 very valuable miles after spending $10,000 in three months on these cards. Miles that I value at around $3,000. Miles that can get me back into Cathay Pacific First Class or Emirates First Class.

It had been about three-and-a-half months since my last applications, and I always like to wait at least 91+ days between applications.

I know a lot of people with around 5,000 Hawaiian miles. Until recently, I was one of them. That's about what you'd have if you've flown one paid roundtrip on Hawaiian Airlines.

For a lot of people, those miles are headed to an unused expiration.

But if you have The Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite MasterCard®, you can receive miles from other Hawaiian Miles accounts for free through the online share miles promotion.

Today is the third day of the third week of five weeks of discounted travel packages sponsored by the US Travel Association and American Express called Daily Getaways. Every weekday at 1 PM ET, a discounted travel package or packages will go on sale and will usually sell out in a few minutes.

Update: As Virginia notes in the comments, clicking the referral link in this post says you will get $10 free credit. But I got an email that says my referral link is for $20, and I've gotten two $20 referral credits the last few days. Your mileage may vary. Use my link for a guaranteed $10 and a chance at $20.

Update 2: Commenter Brian signed up through the link and got $20 credit. I think everyone will. YMMV.

Uber is the world’s best taxi service because it has clean, courteous drivers and the easiest taxi-ordering app imaginable.

Flying Blue–the loyalty program of Air France/KLM, Air Europa, Kenya Airways, and TAROM–has released its newest Promo Awards that let you fly from select US cities to anywhere in Europe for as little as 12,500 miles each way with only modest fuel surcharges.

Flying Blue is a 1:1 transfer partner of Membership Rewards and Starpoints.

These Promo Awards must be booked in June 2014 for August and September 2014 travel.

On Friday, I wrote about a revolutionary idea:

You can use the Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard® to get 1.52 LifeMiles per dollar on all purchases.