Mighty Travels interviewed me about miles, travel, and this blog. As usual, I went on and on and on and ... ;)

My favorite question and answer:

What is your biggest learning from earning so many miles and points?

The best use of miles is often to give them away.

In 2013, I traveled nine months outside the US to 20+ countries. And yet I had more miles than I could use.

Or: Save 10k Miles by Adding a Free Oneway

Summer airfare--during our summer or theirs--to Southern South America usually tops $1,000 per person in economy.

But you can get to South America this summer for only 20k American Airlines miles one way.

All the legacy carriers--Delta, United, American, and US Airways--charge 60k miles roundtrip on Saver economy awards to Southern South America, which includes Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Paraguay.

American and United let you go one way for half the price while US Airways and Delta charge 60k miles for one ways.

American is even more generous with

I almost never write about hotel promotions because they are constant and usually underwhelming except as a few extra points for business travelers who have their rooms paid for. The IHG Big Win is an exception.

IHG Rewards has announced a repeat of its current Big Win promotion for January 1 to April 30, 2014. The current Big Win has been running since September 1, 2013, and I've already earned 153,700 bonus IHG Rewards points for participating in it.

You can register for The New Big Win today to see your offers, which vary by person.

A few months ago, I flew from Oktoberfest to the Chicago Seminars. From Munich to Vienna, I flew Lufthansa business class. From Vienna to Chicago, I flew Austrian Airlines new business class product.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG-Ou0vUnok

Overall I enjoyed Austrian Business Class.

The 50k mile bonus offer is back on the Lufthansa card mentioned in this post until 6/30/14.

Delta miles, an already low value type of miles, are being devalued further in 2014. The current award chart is only for flights flown by January 31, 2014. There is a separate chart for flights flown February 1 - May 31, 2014, and a third chart for flights flown from June 1, 2014 on.

For full details, see Delta’s Double Devaluation (Devalues its Devaluation) with No Notice.

The big changes are for business class awards.

Update 12/17/13: The 50k mile offer on the Lufthansa card is dead.

The 50k mile bonus offer is back on the Lufthansa card mentioned in this post until 6/30/14.

US Airways announced yesterday that it is leaving the Star Alliance March 30, 2014 and joining oneworld March 31, 2014 as part of its merger with American Airlines that legally closed yesterday.

US *A exit date: 3/30/14.