I've got a thriving Award Booking Service. I hold myself out as an expert on the nuances of award-booking rules, and yet I don't know United's award booking rules. Let me explain.

On February 10, 2011, someone believed to be a United employee posted on FlyerTalk that the new routing rule for United awards would be that the actual routing you choose can exceed MPM by no more than 15%.

For those who don't know: MPM (Maximum Permitted Mileage) is the maximum length that a routing on a paid ticket between an origin/destination city pair can be.

United is offering its direct flight from Newark to Honolulu for $420.40 roundtrip on several dates in November and December! I hear Hawaii has better weather than New York that time of year.

For all my Oahu-based readers, the same deal is available in reverse December 3 -11.

How do you get in on the deal?

The easiest way is to start at matrix.itasoftware.com. Type in EWR-HNL or HNL-EWR. Tell the software your desired vacation length and give it a date to start searching.

After hitting search, you'll get a thirty-day calendar.

The legacy carriers--United, US Airways, Delta, American--all charge a fee if you ticket your award by phone instead of online. Here's your guide to avoiding those phone fees:

United

United charges $25 per passenger if you book by phone. They will not waive this phone fee just because a booking could not be completed online. That's frustrating because many multi-city and free-oneway awards can't be booked online. They generate error messages despite being within the routing rules.

Here's how you avoid the phone fee with United:

First, search for and reserve any United flight.

Greetings from Chicago. For those of you in town for the Seminars, I updated my schedule to reflect the fact I will be volunteering to help with check in today from 4 PM - 5 PM.

Wednesday's winner of the gogo pass was David S.

Whenever Priority Club announces its new list of PointBreaks hotels, the miles’ world pays attention. The hotels on the list that may ordinarily cost hundreds of dollars a night go for 5,000 Priority Club points for a limited time. The new list is valid for stays from October 16 - December 10.

As loyal readers know, I’m not big on hotel rewards programs; I usually get a better deal pricelining as I explained here.

Southwest Holding Huge Winter Fare Sale

The Southwest forum on FlyerTalk is buzzing about Southwest's recently announced "Big Winter Sale." Fares to most cities are a whopping 40% off which creates some incredible values in the Southwest route network. To take advantage of the sale, you must book by midnight on Thursday, October 11 and fly 11/28 - 12/12 or 1/7 - 2/14 excluding Sundays.

To book, simply go to the main Southwest home page and enter your city pairs.

The Chicago Seminars are in two days, and I'm flying out to the Second City tomorrow! Several readers have asked about the possibility of a meetup, which sounds great because it's always fun to share stories and tips face-to-face.

Here's my schedule:

Friday 4 PM - 5 PM, helping with Registration

If you're one of the early birds to check in, I should be at the table.

Friday at 8:30 PM - ?? at the Pizza Restaurant/Bar attached to the Hotel

Parag from Frequent Flyer University and I will be having drinks at the bar.

US Airways miles stink because their routing rules and fees are frustrating.

But US Airways miles are incredible because the award chart is so generous. I've talked about sweet spots here and here.

Overall, the sweet spots on the award chart and US Airways off peak awards more than make up for the routing restrictions, so I value US Airways miles more highly than any other airline mile at 1.95 cents each.

If you use US Airways miles correctly, you can reap incredible value.

Last Friday's winner of the gogo pass was David C. Lucky him: he can read MileValue for free from 35k feet.

A generous reader, James, offered me two more passes to give away, so I'm giving another one away in this post.

This post was mostly written before today's story that Qatar is joining oneworld, but it has been edited to reflect the good news.

Would they or wouldn't they? The rumors have been swirling for several weeks about Qatar Airways joining the oneworld alliance. Today Qatar announced that it was joining oneworld, becoming the first major Middle Eastern carrier to join a global airline alliance.