Forget paying 110,000 United miles one way for Lufthansa First Class. You can book the same flight for 40,000 points + $203 (and there is even a way to avoid the $203.)

Lufthansa First Class flying from Europe to the United States is a fantastic product.

The onboard First Class product is solid--a step above American carriers and a step below Asian and Middle Eastern carriers.

And the ground experience in Frankfurt is my favorite in the world.

American Airlines offers discounted MileSAAver awards within the United States and Canada to select cardholders, including people with the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ MasterCard®, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® MasterCard® and the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World MasterCard®.

With all of those cards, you can book one way awards within the USA and Canada for as little as 6,500 miles for flights less than 500 miles flown or 8,750 miles one way for longer flights.

Every two months, American Airlines publishes a list of new destinations in the United States and Canada eligible for

Transfers of Citi ThankYou Points to Virgin Atlantic miles will have a 25% bonus through 11:59 PM ET today (April 6, 2016.)

This is a fantastic deal that sets up a chance to book one way awards to Europe for 10,000 ThankYou Points + $135.

You must transfer ThankYou Points in 1,000 point increments, so until April 6:

1,000 ThankYou Points = 1,250 Virgin Atlantic miles

Getting ThankYou Points

Citi Prestige® Card: 50,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $3,000 in purchases made with your card in the first 3 months the account is open.

Turkish Business Class award space is widely available from this summer through the beginning of next year to Europe.

You can book yourself a tour around the Caribbean and South America stopping in three places for only 64,500 miles total with half the trip in a flat bed. By stopping in three places, I am referring to actual destinations, not connections that have to be under 24 hours.

This incredible deal relies on piecing together four sweet spots awards into one big trip.

Last month I wrote about sweet spots on the new devalued American Airlines award chart.

United.com is the fastest way to search most Star Alliance award space. I frequently use the search engine even if I'm using another type of Star Alliance miles.

I often use the site's calendar to search two months of award space at a time on a single route.

There used to be two programs that offered Emirates First Class and Business Class redemptions at reasonable rates:

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

Now there is only one.
Current State of Alaska/Emirates Awards
Sadly, Alaska Airlines massively devalued their Emirates chart with no notice.

Today Alaska Airlines announced it will buy Virgin America, after weeks of speculation. Alaska beat out JetBlue in the bidding.

Alaska is predicting that it will take nine months to close the deal and another year beyond that for the carriers to combine onto a single operating certificate.

To give you an idea of the relative sizes of these airlines, look at the 2015 passenger numbers for North American airlines, according to Wikipedia.

Virgin America is a minnow.

Yesterday, Alaska Airlines doubled the price of flying Emirates First Class awards with no notice whatsoever. Here was my take:
Devaluations stink.
Major devaluations stink more. (Please do it the Aeroplan way of small yearly devaluations with a few months notice instead.)
No-notice major devaluation stink the most.
They are plainly unethical. For weeks Alaska has been selling its miles with a bonus to entice you to buy.