We've all been there.

With no prior warning, you're faced with a large expense that must be paid ASAP. Most cards cards take a week if not more to arrive in the mail. But to spend that much money and not reap tons of rewards from it seems like blasphemy... what's a girl to do??

Sometimes you can request a card number (and expiration date and security code, all you'd need for purchase) immediately after approval.

There's a large amount of United Business Class available from the United States to Europe for the coming summer months of July and August. We're talking up to eight seats available some days and up to four on many days. Award space flying United Business Class costs just 57,500 United miles versus the 70,000 it would cost you to fly another Star Alliance partner like Austrian or Turkish.

This post is part five of a series about how to maximize value when transferring your Chase Ultimate Rewards to loyalty program partners. 
Maximizing Your Ultimate Rewards Series Index

Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: United MileagePlus
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Singapore Krisflyer #1
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Singapore Krisflyer #2 
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean SkyPass #1
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean Skypass #2 (this post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean Skypass #3 (future post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: British Airways Avios (future post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Flying Blue (future post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Taking no-frills, short distance flights on low cost carriers is a great way to fill in the hole on an open jaw award and to hop around Europe if you're traveling light.

You often cannot redeem traditional miles on these kinds of flights--or if you can it just wouldn't be worth it because the value you'd be getting per mile would be so low.

Avianca LifeMiles are easier to earn than ever thanks to the Avianca Vuela Visa that was introduced at the end of 2016.  In light of that fact, today I'm going to go over strategies for maximizing your LifeMiles.

Best Ways to Get Avianca LifeMiles

The new Avianca card issued by Banco Popular comes with 40,000 Avianca LifeMiles after your first purchase on the card and a $149 annual fee.

Update 1/18/17: A reader reports that he tried to book San Francisco to Boston Virgin America First Class award space with Alaska miles--he tried various summer dates--and every time received an error message. When he called Alaska, a representative confirmed that there was no award space on the days he checked. Who knows if that will happen to you, but beware that the Virgin Atlantic First Class award space displaying on alaskair.com could be phantom. 

Alaska Airlines and Virgin America merged earlier this month, and it's now possible to redeem Alaska miles on Virgin America flights.

This post is part four of a series about how to maximize value when transferring your Chase Ultimate Rewards to loyalty program partners. 
Maximizing Your Ultimate Rewards Series Index

Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: United MileagePlus
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Singapore Krisflyer #1
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Singapore Krisflyer #2 
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean SkyPass #1 (this post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean Skypass #2
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean Skypass #3
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: British Airways Avios 
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Flying Blue
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club #1
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club #2
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Southwest Rapid Rewards
Maximizing

Arrival miles never expire as long as you hold your Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard®. They do disappear the second you cancel the card though.

Other than canceling the card, the only time constraint on using Arrival miles is that you have 120 days after any travel purchase to redeem miles for an offsetting statement credit.

Beginning October 5, 2017, LATAM will fly a Boeing 787-9 three times a week on its first non-stop route to Australia, between Santiago, Chile and Melbourne, Australia.

The Business Platinum Card from American Express is offering 100,000 total bonus points through January 25, 2017 (which is just a couple weeks from now):

50,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 in the first three months
50,000 more bonus points after spending another $10,000 in the first three months

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.

Check out Scott's full review here.
A Short History Lesson
In October of 2016, American Express added