Not all points are created equally. At MileValue, we take pride in assigning values to frequent flyer miles and analyzing their best uses. Scott worked up the Mile Value Leaderboard, and his math reveals the rational step-by-step method he used to arrive at his cent per mile valuation. He even created a Mile Value Calculator to help you with your own valuations if you want to take a crack.

In the coming months, we will assign a value to hotel points as well. The process is going to be a bit trickier.

According to this thread in the FlyerTalk Mileage Run forum, several airlines are featuring extremely low fares between the US and Istanbul, Turkey.

There appears to be solid availability in February and early March, and I'm seeing fares as low as $413! This is great news, especially for those of us who couldn't get in on the paid first class fare sale to Istanbul and Moscow last week.

Part I: The Main Award & Finding a Free Oneway

Part II: US to Asia via Europe for 90k Miles in Business

Part III: Adding a Great Sidetrip

This is the third and final installment breaking down my trip to Asia using US Airways miles. The main award is posted below:

Washington-Dulles -> Istanbul (23 hour layover) [Turkish]
Istanbul -> Seoul-Incheon -> Tokyo-Narita [Asiana]
Tokyo-Narita -> Washington-Dulles [All Nippon Airlines]

US Airways is extremely relaxed with their routing rules as you can see above.

Part I: The Main Award & Finding a Free Oneway

Part II: US to Asia via Europe for 90k Miles in Business

Part III: Adding a Great Sidetrip

This article is a continuation of the post from last week, discussing getting to Tokyo in business class for only 90,000 US Airways miles.

According to this thread on FlyerTalk, the Wyndham hotel group has devalued their loyalty program in a big way.

This is terrible news, especially coming on the heels of Priority Club adjusting their award chart for the worse by introducing a whopping nine redemptive tiers. For a complete breakdown of that change, check out my post, Priority Club's Big Award Chart Devaluation.

What does the new chart look like?

I have attached a screen shot of the new award chart below:

That looks fairly innocuous.

Part I: The Main Award & Finding a Free Oneway

Part II: Breakthrough: Maximizing the Routing in a Major Way

Part III: Adding a Great Sidetrip

As part of my New Year's travel resolutions, I really wanted to visit Tokyo and see a close friend in Europe this year. My vacation time is extremely limited, so I was forced to maximize the award ticket. Luckily, my best times to take off are in October and November.

According to this thread on FlyerTalk, the Priority Club hotel group will be changing their award chart to mirror other hotel loyalty programs. Read on to see why this change isn't good news for frequent guests.

What does the new chart look like?

I have attached a screen shot of the new award chart below.

Priority Club has decided to split their hotels into nine categories. In comparison, Hyatt has six hotel categories. Starwood and Hilton have seven.

American Airlines Buy Miles Promotion

American Airlines is offering bonus miles on all AAdvantage miles purchases through January 31. As with past promotions, the bonus miles awarded are scaled. Buying 40,000 (or more) miles will yield a 15k bonus. Buying lesser quantities will result in fewer bonus miles being awarded.

The full promotion chart can be found below.

American seems to be running these deals fairly regularly.

The continuation of Tahsir's round-the-world first class trip report that started here.

During my trip around the world, I stumbled upon some cash + points availability at the brand new W Bangkok. This hotel opened a few weeks ago (December 7th) and it is absolutely beautiful. For 4,800 Points & $60, this hotel should be one of the better options in the heavily Starwood-saturated Bangkok.

We were picked up from the airport and taken to the W, which is kind of far from the main area of Bangkok.

Right before Thanksgiving I posted an article on earning Hawaiian Airlines miles by going through their shopping portal and making purchases at Amazon.com. For many this was old news but still a helpful reminder. Though shopping portals are one of the easiest ways to earn miles, Amazon only partners with Hawaiian.....or so we thought. Reader Vera recently tipped us off to to another site that (indirectly) earns you Lufthansa miles for Amazon purchases: Payback.

This was an exciting scoop, so I had to find out for myself.