If you're new to MileValue, welcome! You should click the Start Here tab on the top of the page; it tells you the best place to start depending on your skill level. Check back daily because in the next few days I'll be revealing how to get free oneways on US Airways and Delta awards!

Occasionally I give away something awesome like a gift card or lounge passes; it's another reason to check MileValue daily. On to the giveaway:

I’m giving away a $67 virtual American Airlines gift card.

Miles collectors are used to adding free oneways to American awards, but may not have learned about tacking a free oneway onto a United award until yesterday. Because of the newness, there is some confusion that I want to clear up by comparing the two types of free oneways. But if you haven't read either of those linked posts, please do so now. For this post, I'll use my normal notation to indicate a stopover (//). Here are the differences between the two:

1.

This is another post in my Anatomy of an Award series, in which I take a real award I’ve booked and break it down step-by-step to elucidate the award booking process. If you have a real award you’d like to write up in a similar post, please contact me, and you can write a guest post.

Yesterday I wrote about needing to find an award to Hawaii. I had found a return using Avios to fly on an American Airlines flight, but I still didn't have the flight to Honolulu.

This is another post in my Anatomy of an Award series, in which I take a real award I’ve booked and break it down step-by-step to elucidate the award booking process. If you have a real award you’d like to write up in a similar post, please contact me, and you can write a guest post.

My brother and I have decided to enter a tennis tournament in Hawaii this July.

Yesterday, I wrote about how to book free stopovers online on your United awards. While researching for that post, I made a typo that caused me to discover a loophole that allows us to get free oneway flights on United awards in much the same way we can get free oneways on American Airlines awards! This discovery completely changes the way I'll be booking United awards from now on.

Getting these free oneways requires taking advantage of United's booking rules that allow one stopover and two open jaws for international awards from the US.

Yesterday, I talked about how to book a stopover on an American Airlines award online. Booking an award with a stopover online saves time and money, so today I want to explain how to book a stopover on a United award online.

The main limitation when trying to book an award with a stopover online is that you can only book awards online when the airline whose miles you're using loads the availability of the partner whose planes you want to fly.

This post is part of a four-part series. In Part 1, we looked at the mechanics of the Delta Airlines program. In Part 2, we looked at its award chart and rules to find valuable awards. In Part 3, we valued specific SkyMiles awards. In Part 4, I’ll put a number on one SkyMile.

In this post, I’ll explain why I value one SkyMile at 1.22 cents, but your value will be different. To start I’ll go back to the values for the redemptions I found in Part 3.

Update: You can no longer book stopovers on American Airlines awards.

The card offers listed at the conclusion of this post have expired. Click here for the top current credit card sign up bonuses.

American, Delta, United, and US Airways all offer some version of a free stopover on award itineraries booked with their miles. Free stopovers are a great way to add tremendous value to your awards, but free stopovers can add complication to the booking process.

A natural instinct might be to call up the airline to book whenever your dream award includes a free stopover.

This post is part of a four-part series. In Part 1, we looked at the mechanics of the Delta Airlines program. In Part 2, we looked at its award chart and rules to find valuable awards. In Part 3, we’ll value specific SkyMiles awards. In Part 4, I’ll put a number on one SkyMile.

Now that we’ve looked at the rules of the SkyMiles program, and we’ve looked at the chart to find some valuable awards, we’re going to value specific awards.

This is another post in my Anatomy of an Award series, in which I take a real award I've booked and break it down step-by-step to elucidate the award booking process. If you have a real award you'd like to write up in a similar post, please contact me, and you can write a guest post.

My brother and I are going to Australia in January 2013 for the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne. He's got about ten days, and we decided to see Sydney, The Great Barrier Reef via Cairns, and Melbourne.