Etihad Airways is the second biggest carrier in the United Arab Emirates that flies an incredible product renowned around the world. Etihad miles have gotten easier and easier to come by as Etihad Guest is now a transfer partner of three out of the four big transferrable point currencies.

SPG Points transfer 1:1 to Etihad
Membership Rewards transfer 1:1 to Etihad
ThankYou Points transfer 1:1 to Etihad

What you've seen us write about in the past is redeeming Etihad miles on partner awards, like

The Hilton chain has a large presence in Egypt. There are a number of beautiful Hiltons in interesting places, many of which are classified as Category 1, 2, or 3.

But before I get ahead of myself, let's start with how to get to Egypt--you should always book airline awards first since they are capacity controlled and hotel loyalty programs are not.
How to Get to Egypt With Miles
All Nipon Airways (ANA) and Singapore have some of the cheapest awards to the Northern Africa region.

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

The award started with an early morning flight from Zagreb to Munich to meet my sister for a day at Oktoberfest.

Last month, I booked an award from Buenos Aires to Honolulu for 25,000 Singapore miles and about $100 in taxes. The booking illustrates a few topics:

Sweet spots and how to find them
Awards you should book speculatively
Booking awards with foreign programs

The Problem
I have to get to Hawaii for my brother's wedding in February. The main problem is that I don't know where I'll be in February to book the ticket to Hawaii.

In case you aren't familiar with Arrival miles, they are a type of reward earned by the Barclaycard Arrival

The Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Card comes with Two Free Weekend Nights worldwide at top tier Hiltons after spending $2,500 on the card in the first four months.

As a retention bonus, the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Card offers an additional free weekend night certificate after spending $10,000 within a cardmember year.

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.

Since any new cardholder will spend $2,500 on the card to get the first two free

This is the fourth post in a series about how I used Singapore miles to book United BusinessFirst between San Francisco and Buenos Aires, as well as a review of the product and travel experience. 

Trip Report Part I: United Clubs in San Francisco and Houston
Trip Report Part II: United BusinessFirst Houston to Buenos Aires
Anatomy of an Award: Booking United BusinessFirst with Singapore Miles
Changing a Singapore Award (future post)

In the last post of this series, I explained why and how I went about booking United Business Class with Singapore Krisflyer miles from the United States to

Virgin Atlantic is dramatically altering its award charts for bookings made January 16, 2017 or later.

The United States goes from two regions to three.
The year round price is no more. Now we will have off peak and peak prices.
Economy and Premium Economy prices for most of the year drop dramatically.

For about a month, the Delta Gold and Platinum cards have had 50,000 to 70,000 point sign up bonuses.

There has been buzz since this summer about Avianca's new co-branded credit card.