Reader Christopher emailed me an exciting tip the other day: free oneways are possible on United awards within the continental USA and Canada. I already knew free oneways were possible on international United awards and awards to Hawaii, but this was news.

He sent me some screenshots, and I was able to replicate his findings and add some more of my own. I learned four things:

Christopher's tip: You can get a free oneway on roundtrip Standard economy awards within the US and Canada. That means three oneway Standard awards for 50k United miles.

United, US Airways, American, and Delta among others rely on award charts to determine the price of your award.

The MileValue Award Booking Service now costs $111 per person per award (for most awards--more pricing info below.) As always, you don't pay if we don't find an award that meets your needs.

United has added its Dreamliners back to the schedule, which is good news for plane geeks. The FAA grounded United's 787-8 Dreamliners in January, but they are back on the upcoming flight schedule starting May 31.

Why This Is Cool

United recently acquired several Boeing 787 Dreamliners and announced the first international routes that will be serviced by the plane.

The plane has no first class (Global First), 36 business class seats (BusinessFirst), and a few hundred economy seats.

There are a lot of cool things you can do with miles. One of the coolest things I've thought up, and one which I am strongly contemplating booking, would turn 57.5k United miles and 10k Avios into:

A trip to a Pacific atoll to be determined, Guam, and Japan. Three places I've never been.
Fourteen hours on the famous Island Hopper route.
Flat bed business class for seven hours.

The center piece for this plan is the Island Hopper route, which I became obsessed with last week and read everything a google search could find.

I spent five hours booking a roundtrip from Buenos Aires to Bariloche this week. But at least I avoided an hour and a half in taxis to pick up paper tickets! HUH!?

Bariloche is 851 miles to the southwest of Buenos Aires as the plane flies.

I decided to book a last-second economy award for two because Bariloche is on the northern edge of Patagonia, and summer is over.

Tomorrow your miles will be worth money than today for two reasons:

The price of paid tickets is rising.
The knowledge of how to use miles efficiently is increasing.

I see a lot of arguments that miles should be used now because they depreciate. I don't see it like that. I see the value of miles basically following this pattern.

The default position of miles is to increase in value. Then every once in a while, they take a sharp drop.

Yesterday I talked about the 2014 off peak space to Europe and Brazil on US Airways, and how it's an amazing way to redeem 30,000 miles for a roundtrip award to Europe or South America--which is 50% off the normal price--or 55,000 miles for a flying bed to Brazil--which is 45% off the normal price! I also explained US Airways off peak awards.

Award travel reservations can usually be made up to eleven months in advance. Often, but not always, eleven months out has the best availability. Eleven Months Out is my new series looking at what you can book today for travel in eleven months.

US Airways off peak awards are some of the best deals in all of award travel. Right now is an excellent time to book a roundtrip award to Europe or Brazil for February 2014 for only 30,000 US Airways miles.

Airline phone agents have probably hung up on me a dozen times in my life. The story is usually pretty similar.

I call in with an award request that is complex. The computer prices it incorrectly according to published rules. I ask for clarification on the rule that is causing my award to misprice.

The agent makes up a rule. I point out that rule doesn't exist. I speak to a supervisor. The supervisor makes up a rule. I point out the rule doesn't exist.

At this point, the supervisor might go to the airline's internal experts on awards.