Australia and New Zealand are a tough place to get to with miles, especially if you want to go from mid-December through March, which encompasses Christmas, New Year's, and the Southern Hemisphere's summer.

Having booked several trips to Australia and New Zealand for myself, family, and others through my Award Booking Service, I'll share some tips on getting there with American Airlines miles.

Basics

American Airlines allows oneway bookings at half the price of roundtrip awards.

US Airways and American Airlines have merged since the publication of this post, so it is no longer valid. Click here for the top current credit card sign up bonuses.

US Airways Double Miles Promotion

According to this milepoint thread and this FlyerTalk thread, there is a recent offer to get double miles on any US Airways or US Airways Express flight purchased with a MasterCard or US Airways Dividend Miles MasterCard. To exploit this offer, you must book by October 31.

You must register for the promotion in advance through this link.

Earlier this year, Citi introduced a unique benefit to its American Airlines credit cards. (Yes, cards plural; serious mileage earners get two at a time.

Dancing Jay won the lounge passes and has been emailed. Check back next Friday for the next giveaway. And if you have something travel related you can't use, let me know, so I can give it away right here!

If you'll be at the Chicago Seminars in two weeks, drop me an email with the subject CHI-TOWN SEM and your name in the message body. You won't be disappointed (nor will you be be blown away) if you do.

The images in this post are showing up smaller than I'd like. I can't solve it, but if you just click on them, they'll go full screen.

Incredible Sub-$800 First Class Fare from Myanmar

Both FlyerTalk and MilePoint are absolutely buzzing about a Star Alliance premium cabin mistake fare departing from Yangon, Myanmar and ending in Montreal, Canada.

The trip routes through Tokyo, Zurich, and New York, and all legs are in premium cabins on great carriers such as Swiss and All Nippon Airways.

A generous reader--FlyerTalker ramalama8--has offered to give away two United Club passes or two AAdmirals Club passes to a lucky MileValue reader.

In exchange for that generous offer, I gave him the free gogo inflight internet pass that I was going to give away this week.

If you'd like two United Club passes or two AAdmirals Club passes, comment below.

Last month, I got an interesting email from reader Ed that started:

Scott,

Please consider if this is viable, albeit challenging to book:

[UA]  DCA-BOS-YYZ-ORD-CLE-EWR // EWR-ZRH-IST, IST-IAD

The answer is yes it is possible, and what it means is that you can add a free circle trip onto roundtrip international United awards.

Hopefully readers of this blog are well acquainted with Free Oneways on United Awards, the most-read post I've written.

The central idea of free oneways is to take your free stopover at your home airport, then start a second trip from there on the same award.

Here are some of the day's hot topics being discussed on the FlyerTalk and milepoint message boards.

Christmas Cutbacks from United and How to Deal With Them

The holidays are bringing some unfortunate consequences for people who book award flights on United around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, as seen in this FlyerTalk thread.

In January, I booked an award

United allows one free stopover on roundtrip awards. I've discovered and posted extensively on how this free stopover can be turned into a free oneway. See Free Oneways on United Awards.

A free oneway is a oneway trip to your home airport before your main award or from your home airport after your award. To unlock a free oneway, you need to conserve your United award's free stopover.

Why? Because you need to take that free stopover at your home airport.

I've talked before about the American Express Platinum personal card with its current sign up bonus worth $1,025, a rebate of 102.5% of the minimum spending requirement.  Click here for the top current credit card sign up bonuses.

One of the benefits that makes the Mercedes-Benz branded version of this card the current third biggest sign up bonus is that you can get $400 worth of airline fees reimbursed by American Express in your first year of being a cardholder.

That's because the $200 annual airline fee reimbursement is a calendar-year benefit.

For instance, I got my AMEX Platinum