Hey! You're reading an outdated Free First Class Next Month series. Check out the latest version published in April of 2015 here.

This is the thirty-fourth post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.

Hey! You're reading an outdated Free First Class Next Month series. Check out the latest version published in April of 2015 here.

This is the thirty-third post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.

Hey! You're reading an outdated Free First Class Next Month series. Check out the latest version published in April of 2015 here.

This is the thirty-second post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.

Hey! You're reading an outdated Free First Class Next Month series. Check out the latest version published in April of 2015 here.

This is the thirty-first post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.

American Airlines has introduced a cool new Award Map, which tries to make award booking easier. It seems pretty useless to me. I want to be wrong. Please tell us in the comments how it can be useful.

The Award Map lets you input your home airport and either a destination region or goal. Your options:

You also input the number of passengers, how many miles you have, what cabin you want, whether it's one way or roundtrip, and the dates.

Clicking search will hopefully generate a map of results that meet your criteria.

American Airlines has introduced a cool new Award Map, which tries to make award booking easier. It seems pretty useless to me. I want to be wrong. Please tell us in the comments how it can be useful.

The Award Map lets you input your home airport and either a destination region or goal. Your options:

You also input the number of passengers, how many miles you have, what cabin you want, whether it's one way or roundtrip, and the dates.

Clicking search will hopefully generate a map of results that meet your criteria.

Hey! You're reading an outdated Free First Class Next Month series. Check out the latest version published in April of 2015 here.

This is the thirtieth post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.

This is the sixth part of a multi-post Anatomy of an Award series about American Airlines Explorer Awards, which are ideal for around-the-world trips, trips with multiple destinations, and other “trick” itineraries. The first five parts dealt with a round-the-world example. To understand Explorer Awards, see The Rules.

American Airlines Explorer Awards aren't just ideal for round-the-world trips. They are also the ideal vehicle to take a trip to one region with many stops.

Normally you cannot take any stopovers outside North America on American Airlines awards unless you know some tricks.

Big thanks to anyone who voted for MileValue in the first annual Travel Summary Awards. We were the only double winners, taking home The Best New Blogger and The Best Travel Hacker categories.

With only four days until the one year anniversary of my first post, it's quite an honor to be recognized for the work I've put into the blog.

When I started this blog, I had no idea the amount or type of work it would be. I couldn't have anticipated the challenges, fun, or interesting people I'd meet.

This is the fifth part of a multi-post Anatomy of an Award series about American Airlines Explorer Awards, which are ideal for around-the-world trips, trips with multiple destinations, and other “trick” itineraries. Previously: Asia West.

I had found a client the following round-the-world dream trip for 150k American Airlines miles and $278 per person.

Finding the award space should be the challenge, not booking the award, so here's how to make booking your Explorer Award painless.

1.