Singapore Airlines is altering its routes to the United States in October 2016. Currently, Singapore flies from four American cities to Singapore with stops along the way in Europe and Asia.

San Francisco to Seoul (ICN) to Singapore
San Francisco to Hong Kong to Singapore
Los Angeles to Tokyo (NRT) to Singapore
Houston to Moscow (DME) to Singapore
New York (JFK) to Frankfurt to Singapore

Singapore is making several changes though.

The landscape for credit card approvals, and more importantly, getting cards' bonuses has changed during years I've been in the game.

British Airways collects fuel surcharges on almost all award redemptions. People constantly complain to me that their recent "free ticket" cost $650 or $1,000 or more in "taxes."

In fact, taxes make up a small share of the cash component of most British Airways awards.

Although United offers no stopovers on one way awards, the airline allows one stopover on roundtrip awards in addition to your destination. This can lead to all sorts of outsized value:

You can see 2-3 cities for the price of one on your next trip.
You can book a later Free One Way from your home airport to somewhere else in the United States or Canada after you next roundtrip for no extra miles.
You can book three related or unrelated one way awards together and save miles.

From now through September 19, 2016 you can earn 2,500 SPG points for adding an authorized user to your Starwood Preferred Guest®Credit Card from American Express.

United is giving away one billion miles to Untited Mileage Plus members in a sweepstakes. 

The only condition is that you are a United Mileage Plus member.
How to Enter the Sweepstakes
Between August 1, 2016 and September 30, 2016, you can enter:

1. automatically via purchases on your United Mileage Plus Explorer Card.

2. by logging in here on the billion mile giveaway homepage (not active yet, will be on August 1, 2016) and follow the instructions (fill out a form, I assume).

Please welcome Sarah Page Maxwell as the newest member of the MileValue team. She will write several articles a week of the type you already enjoy on MileValue. She'll also bring her own voice and travel experiences to MileValue to complement mine.

Sarah Page has been living in Buenos Aires, Argentina for four years, and we met through the expat community there a few years ago.

T-Mobile's basic, contract-free, $50 plan offers free data and text messages in 140+ countries. I have had it for a few years, and I have been happy with it.

Unfortunately the free data abroad is at Edge speeds.

Let’s talk about transferring ThankYou Points to airline partners for redeeming on domestic awards. This is part one in a series that will allow you to master redeeming awards within the United States, no matter what kind of points or miles you might have.
"How to Maximize Domestic Award Redemptions" Series Index

How to Maximize Domestic Award Redemptions Series: ThankYou Points (this post)
How to Maximize Domestic Award Redemptions Series: Ultimate Rewards
How to Maximize Domestic Award Redemptions Series: Membership Rewards
How to Maximize Domestic Award Redemptions Series: SPG Points
How to Maximize Domestic Award Redemptions Series: Conclusions About Best