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.

As many of you may know, I am a college student by day and the amusing, yet mystical, Bengali Miles Guru by night. After traveling almost 100,000 miles since January, I knew that my upcoming spring break trip would have to be amazing.

At our Award Booking Service, we receive numerous requests to get our clients to the Maldives.

At MileValue, we constantly champion the free oneway on award tickets. Adding a free oneway is possible (to varying degrees) using all four legacy carrier's miles. For more information, make sure to check out Scott's comprehensive posts below:

Master Thread: Free Oneways on United Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on American Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on Delta Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on US Airways Awards

Free oneways are great, but nothing gets us more excited than "negative" awards.

Update 3/6/14: This post is outdated. See Master Thread: Holds on United Awards

The ability to hold awards is extremely valuable especially at our increasingly popular Award Booking Service. Our clients might need to transfer their Chase Ultimate Rewards or American Express Membership Rewards into their frequent flyer accounts. They might need to purchase additional miles to reach the next award threshold or just simply firm up their hotel plans. Having a few days to hold an award is critical in these cases.

Of the four legacy carriers, American Airlines is the most generous.

Searching for award space can often be an exercise in frustration. The dates you want don't have availability and premium cabin seats are often scarce. There is nothing in the world, however, more frustrating than phantom availability. You think you've found your dream trip only to have the rug yanked out from under you.

We recently received a request through the Award Booking Service where this came into play. A family of four was looking to travel from New York to Johannesburg, Africa in July using their US Airways miles.

Greetings, MileValue readers! You may have noticed that I haven't posted recently, as I've been helping out Scott and Tahsir with our increasingly popular Award Booking Service.

I did want to take a few minutes and explain my stance on airline elite status which was featured in today's New York Times. [Scott: Everyone should click just to see Bill's photo. The pose is hilarious.]
“I’ve definitely noticed an erosion in benefits since I became elite,” said Bill Wilkes, a Delta SkyMiles Gold member, the second-lowest rank in Delta’s four tiers of elites.

Pack your bags folks. Today, we're going on one of the most coveted First Class products out there. It's so luxurious that it's not even called First Class.

Singapore Airlines Suites were introduced in 2008 exclusively on their flagship A380-800. Ever since then, people have been hoarding their points for a chance to fly this room in the sky. For years, Singapore Suites could only be booked by using KrisFlyer points at an astounding 1 million miles roundtrip!

At the end of 2012, Singapore released their Suites product to saver availability on KrisFlyer.

Elegant, Opulent, Grand, Colorful and Detailed.

These are all traits that describe the Ritz Carlton in Kuala Lumpur.

I stayed at the Ritz Carlton for a night and here's what I found:

Check in

As soon as our car arrived, the door-man helped us out of the car. He took the luggage to a holding area as I checked in. At the check in desk, there were three employees that had all welcomed me with a smile. After asking for an upgrade, I was given the executive room. This room was said to be bigger than a normal room.

Singapore Airlines is probably one of the best airlines in the world.

I've had the privilege to fly Singapore Airlines almost 2-4 times a year since I was born. I was even one of the first "children" to fly the nonstop LAX-SIN flight which was then dubbed as the A345 Leadership. Although I always flew in Economy, in the next few days, I'll be flying Singapore's Suites product from Singapore-Los Angeles. I've dreamed of this day since I first knew what the First Class product looked like.