Anyone without United status is charged a hefty $75 fee to book an award within 21 days of departure. There are two tricks to reduce or eliminate this fee.

Trick 1- Transfer your Ultimate Rewards to a Status-ful spouse's United account

Ultimate Rewards can be transferred to your United account or your spouse's.

Hey there, you're reading an outdated post that's been removed! The updated series from April 2015 can be found here.

This is the tenth post in a monthlong series. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete.

This is another post in my Anatomy of an Award series, in which I take a real award I’ve booked and break it down step-by-step to elucidate the award booking process. If you have a real award you’d like to write up in a similar post, please contact me, and you can write a guest post.

Yesterday, I talked about transferring 10,000 Hawaiian Miles to 20,000 Hilton points.

Hawaiian Airlines Miles transfer to Hilton points at a ratio of one Hawaiian Miles to two Hilton points. This is the same ratio as Virgin Atlantic miles transfer to Hilton points.

While I recommended transferring Virgin Atlantic miles to Hilton points--I personally transferred 45,000 Virgin Atlantic Miles to Hilton points last month--because of the huge fuel surcharges imposed on Virgin Atlantic awards, I don't generally recommend transferring Hawaiian Miles.

Hawaiian Miles are valuable because Hawaiian releases incredible amounts of award space on its flights and flies to more mainland destinations from Hawaii than any other carrier.

Samir asks:
Hi Scott,
     I discovered your blog recently and am loving it. Your miles-related knowledge is pretty impressive and I most definitely appreciate the tips/advice I have gotten from your site so far. Needless to say, I have started reading your site daily. 
     Anyway, I have an issue that I was hoping you could help me out with. Last summer, I signed up for the AMEX Premier Rewards Gold card when it had a nice signup bonus at the time.

Hey there, you're reading an outdated post! The updated series from April 2015 can be found here.

This is the ninth post in a monthlong series. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete.

Today only is a bit misleading, since similar one day offers happened in February and June if memory serves. American Express seems to have a pattern of offering this, so if you can't get it today, you may have another shot soon.

Get the link from your second favorite blogger.

This offer has expired. Click here for the current Starwood Preferred Guest American Express offer.

The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card temporarily increased its sign up bonus from 25,000 SPG points to 30,000 SPG points after $5,000 in spending within six months of getting the card. Here are the stats:

Issuing Bank: American Express

Absolute Value of the Sign Up Bonus: $732+

Rebate Percentage of the Sign Up Bonus: 14.6%+

This card's sign up bonus is denominated in SPG points (Starpoints), the proprietary points of the Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program.

Hey there, you're reading an outdated post! The updated series from April 2015 can be found here.

This is the eighth post in a monthlong series. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete.

Last month I wrote:
US Airways didn’t announce when its off peak