There will be a MileValue meet up tomorrow (2/17/14) at The Australian at 20 W 38th St in Manhattan from 5 PM to 8 PM.

I've wanted to hold a meet up in New York City for quite a long time. Unfortunately I will only be there from Monday through Thursday, so I can't hold a customary MileValue dinner. And I really apologize for not having my other plans set soon enough to give more than 24 hours notice.

But I hope everyone will be able to join me for Happy Hour at the Australian.

United.com prices a certain one way award from the Europe to the US entirely on partner metal at the United business class price of 57,500 miles though there is a big catch:

The intra-Europe 1hr20min flight is in business class (Hamburg to Zurich)
The region-connecting 9hr5min flight is in economy (Zurich to New York)

Still 57,500 miles--the United chart price--is intriguing instead of the partner business class price of 70k miles or the partner economy price of 30k miles.

I am well aware that this is a minor curiosity and not a major breakthrough that will help you

For flights between the US and Europe, Austrian Airlines releases its economy class award seats to partners 298 days before the flight and its business class award seats to partners 88 days before the flight.

Austrian routes between the US and Europe have economy award space up to 298 days out

Austrian is a Star Alliance member that operates five routes to North America from its hub in Vienna:

New York-JFK
Chicago
Washington-Dulles
Toronto (don't forget about routing to Europe via Canada)
Newark (begins July 2, 2014)

Austrian operates two cabin Boeing 777s and 767s

I just got back home from two nights at the Andaz Maui at Wailea.

It's a beautiful, luxurious, attentive resort with breathtaking sunset views.

It's also very expensive, poorly located for the activities that interested me on Maui, and charges a $30 mandatory valet fee per day if you come with a car.

What are my thoughts on the service, food, room, value, and more (with tons of pictures)?

Valet
There is no self-parking at the Andaz

There are a ton of Canada-to-Europe Star Alliance routes with better availability in economy and business class this summer than USA-to-Europe routes.

Connections from the US to Canada are easy to find, connecting in Canada generally leads to less flying than connecting in the US, and all airlines I can think of allow a connection in Canada between the US and Europe.

Since direct flight paths from the US to Europe cross Canada, connecting in Canada saves distance compared to connecting in the US.

What are the routes with award space?

Last year, United reduced its service to Buenos Aires. Across its entire system, United has only one daily flight to Buenos Aires, which leaves from Houston.

The U.S.

American Airlines is offering two stackable promotions for buying AAdvantage miles that allow miles to be purchased for as little as 1.98 cents:

Get up to a 30% bonus on the miles you purchase until February 28, 2014.
Get a 10% discount on the price of miles until tomorrow February 6, 2014.

How do these promotions stack? How do these promotions compare to previous Buy Miles sales? Is this a price at which you should speculatively buy American Airlines miles?

The miles bonus is tiered.

Frontier has announced a 14% discount on domestic flights bought by February 6, 2014 and flown by March 12, 2014 with promo code SUPER. (Blackouts: February 13, 14, and 17)

This 14% discount does not apply to Frontier’s international destinations like Jamaica, Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic.

To get to those places, your best bet is to redeem 15k Frontier miles each way.

I was nervous that free oneways might be eliminated by United upon its new chart taking effect yesterday. There was a cryptic comment on the new award chart that stopovers on certain awards might require extra miles.

Free oneways rely on a stopover at your home airport to pull them off. If certain free stopovers were eliminated, free oneways could have been eliminated with them.