You can no longer tack on an Excursionist perk, the essentially free segment within one region that United gives you on a "roundtrip", to the end of an itinerary any more.

Update 1/1/17: I've added a video of the ground experience to the end of this post

Recently I flew from Croatia to the United States in Lufthansa First Class for 40,000 Starpoints + $300. Here’s how I booked the award.

Trip Report: Lufthansa First Class Lounge in Munich
Trip Report: Lufthansa First Class Terminal in Frankfurt (this post)
Trip Report: Lufthansa 747-8 First Class Frankfurt to Washington-Dulles (future post)

After a one hour flight from Munich, I arrived in Frankfurt at a remote stand.

I already knew the answer to that question before I called Barclaycard last week. But I decided to call anyways for the sake of curiosity, and to possibly help out someone else that may be in the same position with their Barclaycard Arrival Plus that is actually considering keeping it open.

I want to be able to get the sign up bonus on the Arrival Plus again, and the general consensus is that you can, but your previous card must be closed for at least six months before applying again.

Bad news, good news:

The bad news is that the year-round 12,500 Avios award from Boston to Dublin or Shannon, Ireland on Aer Lingus is dead.

The good news is that those awards from Boston as well as awards from New York, Newark, Hartford, Toronto, Washington-Dulles, and Chicago to Ireland are now only 13,000 Avios for more than two-thirds of the year.

I spent the previous two weeks in the Bahia state of Brazil, an incredible region rich in Brazilian culture lined with endless beautiful beaches. The first week I stayed in Itacaré, a small fishing and surfing village with some of the best Brazilian food I’ve ever tasted. I wrote a trip report about my experience in Itacaré earlier this week. The second week I stayed about a 45 minute drive north of Itacaré on the Maraú peninsula, at a beach called Taipú do Fora that’s known for excellent snorkeling.

Several cards not only give you points when you meet their sign up bonuses and spend on them, but also rebate points back to you when you redeem your rewards.

This post covers the Business Platinum Amex, the Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCard, and the Barclaycard Arrival Plus, which are all offering temporarily elevated, lucrative sign up bonuses at the moment and offer rebates on redemptions.

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.

Enhanced Business Platinum by

Delta is running a flash sale on awards booked by December 14, 2016 (tomorrow night) and flown from January 10 through March 3, 2017, between the United States and Asia.

If you book by 11:59 PMET tomorrow, December 14, you can get up to 30% off award prices between the United States and places like (but not limited to):

• Narita
• Haneda
• Nagoya
• Singapore
• Manila
• Taipei
• Hong Kong
• Beijing
• Shanghai

Unfortunately Delta doesn't list all the destinations the sale applies to, it only suggests the destinations above. You'll have to do

I spent the past two weeks in the Bahia state of Brazil, an incredible region rich in Brazilian culture lined with endless beautiful beaches. The first week I stayed in Itacaré, a small fishing and surfing village with some of the best Brazilian food I've ever tasted. In this post I'll tell you about my experience there and share some pointers I picked up along the way.

Alaska Airlines partnered up with Japan Airlines (JAL) back in May of this year. Just last week Alaska published their prices for redeeming Alaska miles on JAL flights between the continental United States and Asia, Southeast Asia, and intra-Asia.

Here are the prices in Alaska miles to fly Japan Airlines from the continental United States:

In this case Alaska defines "Asia" as Japan, South Korea, and India, and "Southeast Asia" as Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, China, and Tawain.

JAL obviously flies other places but only those redemption rates for US <>

Avianca LifeMiles is offering a bonus of up to 125% on purchased miles through December 20, 2016. You can buy up to 150,000 LifeMiles during the sale and get up to 187,500 bonus miles.

LifeMiles cost 3.3 cents each, so with a 125% bonus, you get the miles for 1.47 cents each.