After a few eventful days in Bangkok, I was ready to head on over to Hong Kong. I initially booked my flights to Hong Kong on the specific purpose of flying Lufthansa's new 747-8i in First Class. As luck would have it, Lufthansa began flying to Hong Kong with the 747-8i two days before I was scheduled to fly that route.

Bangkok to Hong Kong has been operated by a Thai A380 because of Hong Kong's strong business-traveler demand.

I got to the airport at about 6:30AM for my 8:05 AM departure.

There are a lot of reasons to use an Award Booking Service, like the MileValue Award Booking Service. One great reason is because you have miles in several accounts and want to use the most efficient type for the trip you have in mind. Different miles have different best uses.

Recently I was contacted by a friend who had mid-six-figure account balances in his American, United, and Delta accounts. He wanted a simple open jaw trip to Europe in economy class. From Washington-Dulles to Nice and returning from London to Dulles.

Below is the email I sent to him.

Alitalia is offering $100 off roundtrip tickets to Europe this summer! Join their mailing list with a valid email address and receive a $100-off coupon for flights to Europe between now and the end of the year.

The coupon is also good for $150 off direct premium economy to Milan and Rome or $250 off business class to Europe if you are contemplating an expensive ticket.

For full details and to sign up for your "e-coupon code," head here.

To take full advantage of this deal, you need to find a cheap Alitalia flight, and that's easy.

I love stats, so the 2012 AAdvantage stats at the top of the AAdvantage FAQ caught my eye.

For all of 2012, there were 7,426,930 redemptions of American Airlines miles.

Over 700,000 were for "merchandise" including vacations, which I don't consider merchandise. Let's say the vast majority of these redemptions were awful values. Not all non-airfare redemptions are awful--Mommy Points found a good deal for Cubs tickets and experiences with Starpoints--but I rarely see values of even one cent per mile on these types of redemptions.

Over half a million were for upgrades.

It's been a long week for me as I have just spent a few days in Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The entire week was a blast and it was probably the best trip of my life. To make it even better, at the end of the week I was scheduled to fly Malaysia Airlines new A380 in their First Class cabin. Here's how it went.

I left Paris around 9AM to catch my 12PM departure. Originally, I was supposed to be dropped off but the train seemed like a more viable option.

Update 11/6/14: Here is an Anatomy of an Award post in which we book the theoretical award below for an actual client!

Two of the most frequent destination requests we receive at our Award Booking Service are Bora Bora and Australia/New Zealand. These are the aspirational trips that families want to take after diligently saving their frequent flyer miles. Luckily, both trips can be accomplished in a single award. Even better--Delta SkyMiles are the mileage currency to use. We recently had a couple with a sizable SkyMiles balance who wanted to visit both places.

I recently booked a family of four an economy award from Miami to Buenos Aires with their Membership Rewards. It was an interesting award that I think demonstrates the complexities and fun of booking with American Express points.

I won't talk about that award specifically, but I'll use it as a jumping off point for discussion since it illustrates a typical Memberhip Rewards situation.

Business ExtrAA is an American Airlines program designed for small businesses to be rewarded for their loyalty to American, and it's a great way for you to double dip your rewards on American flights, earning more free awards faster!

Right now, people who sign up for Business ExtrAA and meet minimum use requirements--more on those below--can earn 5,000 AAdvantage miles and 2,000 Business ExtrAA points.

Update 1/17/14: 35k offer is dead, but the 40k offer is alive!

FlyerTalkers are reporting success getting a 35,000 mile bonus and no annual fee for the first year on the Barclay's US Airways MasterCard.

Sometimes people ask me whether they need a visa to leave an airport during a layover, or what it costs to enter a country, or some other question related to their ability to enter a country with a certain passport.

I hesitate to answer those questions because I would sure hate to be wrong.