According to this thread on FlyerTalk, Hawaiian Airlines will be adding an interesting new route to their network in July of 2013. Hawaiian will add nonstop service between Honolulu and Taipei, Taiwan three times weekly. They will be flying this route with their 294 seat A330-200 aircraft.

Scott actually just wrote a mini review of Hawaiian's A330 product in economy.  You can read it in this post, 20k Points Roundtrip to Hawaii, 45k Roundtrip to Asia, 55k Roundtrip to Australia. The economy seat looks really solid with personal TVs and decent food offerings.

According to this thread on FlyerTalk, British Airways has tweaked the functionality of their website for the better. Searching for award tickets, especially on oneworld partner airlines, is quite a bit easier now. I had to see for myself, so I tried out a few dummy bookings.

Scott has actually written up a helpful post on this for newbie travelers. To read his step by step, check out Free First Class Next Month: Using BA.com for oneworld Awards. Using BA.com to search for partner awards can be really useful.

According to Delta's press release and media outlets such as the New York Times, Delta Airlines and Virgin Atlantic are forming a new strategic partnership. Delta is acquiring a 49% stake in Virgin that was previously held by Singapore Airlines, who cozied up with Virgin in 2000.

On a pure deal standpoint, Delta got a cheaper price than Singapore. Singapore initially invested over $900 million to acquire the 49%. Delta is paying $360 million for that same stake.

Update: Why get 50% off a hotel room when you can get two free nights at almost any Hilton worldwide, including top tier properties that go for $1,000 or more per night, AND Hilton Gold Status (free breakfast and internet) by getting the Citi Hilton Reserve.

Application Link: Citi Hilton Reserve

According to this thread on FlyerTalk, Hilton is offering up to 50% off the Best Available Rate at participating hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio.

Hot off the heels of FTU LAX, I'm writing a post to show people how to construct an awesome, yet rare aspirational trip. It's a trip with United, ANA, and Thai First!

For the past few months, I've been super busy with our Award Booking Service and haven't had time to post here. I was amazed at how many people actually came to me this weekend and told me to write more! Everyone also asked me to write about my upcoming trip that I booked.

For many, the question is simple.

Priority Club PointBreaks List Announced

According to this thread on FlyerTalk, Priority Club has announced their new PointBreaks list of hotels that can be booked through January 31st. This is huge news because PointBreaks hotels can be booked for $35: How to Book Any PointBreaks Hotel for $35/night.

PointBreaks hotels can be booked for 5,000 points, which can represent a huge savings. Some Intercontinental properties normally cost 50,000 points per night, so 5,000 is a 90% discount.

Hilton HHonors-33% Bonus on Membership Rewards Transfers

Per this thread on FlyerTalk, Hilton is offering a 33% bonus when transferring Membership Rewards into Hilton HHonors points. This offer is good for transfers through January 31st. Transfers must be made in increments of 1,000 Membership Rewards points.

First, and most importantly, it was great to attend Frequent Traveler University hear all of the positive feedback about the blog. Scott has really created excitement over his creative oneway awards and expert routing knowlege. It's a lot of fun to part of something special like this. I just hope to contribute a small fraction to MileValue now and in the future.

As I posted early Saturday morning, I didn't really know what to expect in attending Frequent Traveler University.

I have to say, the journey to Frequent Traveler University has been a long strange one. I first “discovered” this hobby about five years ago. A small finance blog (now long defunct) casually mentioned the Starwood Preferred Guest credit card as a great addition to anyone’s wallet, and the ball rolled from there. I then accidentally tripped over FlyerTalk and was initially overwhelmed by the sheer amount of knowledge and expertise it contained.

After perusing FlyerTalk, I started following one travel blog (incidentally, the Frugal Travel Guy).

Update from Scott: I'm finding $382 all in roundtrip now too:

According to this thread in the ever popular Mileage Run forum on FlyerTalk, Hawaiian Airlines is running a fare sale from New York  to Honolulu. Hawaiian Airlines operates a direct flight from JFK to Honolulu, and we are seeing fares for as low as $435 for this direct flight.

There appears to be only one stretch of days in early December and great availability in January and February.

What's the best way to hunt for eligible dates?

I always use the ITA Software Matrix.