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.

A few months ago I used 62,500 American Airlines miles and $5 to book a oneway award from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires in American Airlines Flagship First Class. This is one of the simplest awards I've ever booked.

Today I'll be going to restaurants to buy gift certificates with my American Express cards. I have five including those issued by American Express and those just processed by American Express--and issued by Citi and Bank of America.

I registered for Small Business Saturday last week RIGHT HERE. Registration is still open today. Try to register all your AMEXes, except your prepaid cards because those won't work. Then go to one or more small businesses with your card and make $25+ purchases.

Maximizing Your Holiday Shopping Spend on Amazon.com

As the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals descend upon us, many will be eager to log onto Amazon and knock out all of their holiday shopping at once. Before you buy anything on Amazon, make sure you are maximizing your mileage earning potential.

Hawaiian Airlines' shopping portal is the only one that earns frequent flyer miles on Amazon purchases.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you're spending it like I am with family and friends about to munch on turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, pie, and as few veggies as possible. This is absolutely my favorite holiday of the year.

Several years ago when traveling became such a part of my identity, I started saying I was "thankful I live at a time when I can get almost anywhere in the world within a day" at the what-are-you-thankful-for pre-dinner grace.

Four months ago I broke the news that you could redeem Hawaiian Miles for Virgin Atlantic Upper Class without fuel surcharges, thus saving thousands of dollars. See Redeem for Virgin Atlantic Upper Class without Surcharges.

You still can, but the party may be over. The old chart was a solid value and simple to figure out.

The new chart, hat tip to Gary, is much worse.

I don't have any information on what North America East and West are.

JetBlue is running a winter sale for roundtrip tickets purchased by 11:59 PM ET tomorrow November 20.

For flights flown 11/27 to 12/20, you'll get 25% off the base fare with code WINTER25.

For flights flown 1/7 to 2/14, you'll get 20% off the base fare with code WINTER20.

For full details, head here.

To book, head here.

The discounts do not appear next to the flight times.

According to this thread on FlyerTalk, American Airlines is holding a holiday special on all purchased miles. Bonus miles are awarded depending on the amount of miles purchased. In similar fashion to previous American Airlines miles specials, there is a tiered bonus structure. The more miles you purchase, the more bonus miles you receive.

To purchase points and see the terms and conditions, go to American's Buy Miles page here.

What is the maximum number of miles I can purchase with this promotion?

You can purchase up to 60,000 miles.

Using qantas.com for award searches can help you get maximum value from your American Airlines miles. American partners with the oneworld alliance and several non-oneworld partners.

I got so wrapped up in my three posts yesterday that I forgot about Free Giveaway Friday!

Check them out if you didn't already:

Buying Priority Club points earns a 50% bonus. Buy them now to prepare for $35 hotel rooms.

Iberia is offering 25% off awards to Europe through the end of May. Good weather and cheap awards is unbeatable.

Today’s giveaway is for a pair of lounge passes that expire 12/31/12. The winning commenter can choose a pair of United Club passes or a pair of American Airlines Admirals Club Passes.

Today only, Southwest is offering 40% off roundtrip flights flown between 12/11/12 and 2/12/13 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

That's a massive savings if you can take advantage. Unfortunately I literally need a flight for February 13, the day after the promo period. Alanis Morisette would probably call that "ironic" since she doesn't know what that word means.

The deals are pretty incredible.

Here's a transcon for $221.