I'll be giving some activity ideas for New Zealand during my trip here. See Wellington, NZ.

Yesterday I biked the Queenstown Trail in Queenstown, New Zealand.

Queenstown is my favorite place so far in New Zealand for its amazing array of outdoor activities from bungee jumping, sky diving, hiking, biking, boating, and more. I was in Queenstown for four days, and it rained for two complete days.

Pre-departure services and the Global First lounge

United Global First Los Angeles to Sydney

Sydney Airport and Air New Zealand Lounge

Air New Zealand Business Class Sydney to Auckland

United 839
Los Angeles (LAX) – Sydney (SYD)
Depart: 10:10 PM on Monday, December 31
Arrive: 7:45 AM on Wednesday, January 2
Duration: 14:35
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Seat: 2A (First Class)

After several full meals in the Global First lounge, I headed to gate 77. There were two separate doors, one for the premium cabins and one for the hoi polloi people who haven't discovered miles yet.

Picking a hostel is a crucial part of my trips. Before I talk about how I pick one, let me give a quick advertisement for hostels.

Hostels are not just for young people.

Hostels are great for:

solo travelers of any age
budget travelers of any age
outgoing travelers of any age

My hostel in Queenstown had families with young children, a few solo travelers in their sixties, and everyone in between.

One common misconception is that hostels equal dorms. Most hostels house most guests in dorms, but there are usually private rooms too, often with private bathrooms.

Today I was featured in a MarketWatch article. Here's the relevant section. See two posts below for a good day trip on Oahu. See right below for information on how I found those dirt cheap fares.

Hawaii

“I’m seeing incredible deals to Hawaii for the spring,” says travel writer Scott Grimmer of MileValue.com. The deals he’s talking about include round-trip airfare to Hawaii for about $400 from Los Angeles and $415 from New York (though these usually require flying on select weekdays).

On my recent trip to Oahu, my friends and I explored a number of areas and tried a variety of activities. I'll be summarizing them as possible day trips around Oahu.

On a Friday morning, my friends and I rose early in Kailua in search of a hike. My sister recommended Maunawili Falls, which I had never hiked.

Award travel reservations can usually be made up to eleven months in advance. Often, but not always, eleven months out has the best availability. Eleven Months Out is my new series looking at what you can book today for travel in eleven months.

Thanksgiving is in less than 11 months. Turkey, pie, potatoes, family, and giving thanks may be your highlights, but travel doesn't have to be a lowlight.

Singapore has recently entered a codesharing partnership with Virgin America to allow more passengers to connect to Singapore flights leaving Los Angeles and San Francisco.

To celebrate the partnership, you can earn both Singapore miles and Virgin America points for the codeshared flights from now until February 28, 2013.

To earn the double dip, you must register your flights in advance here.

There's a very good JetBlue sale going on today and tomorrow: The Fly-Somewhere-New Sale.

I've been in New Zealand for two days now. The first two days in Auckland were pretty uneventful. I was just getting my bearings and planning the rest of the trip. Except for that one thing...

While in Auckland, I booked Jetstar flights from Auckland to Wellington and Wellington to Queenstown. Jetstar is a low-cost subsidiary of Qantas, a member of oneworld.

Jetstar flights that are also marketed by Qantas with a Qantas flight number can be purchased with American miles and Avios.

I started this series of posts about booking your trip to Europe for summer 2013 with a post about booking business class. This post will focus on booking an economy class award.

If you want to fly economy class this summer, I recommend getting some American Airlines miles. There are two main reasons:

All the legacy carriers--American, Delta, United, US Airways--charge 60k miles roundtrip to Europe in economy class. But I've outlined a trick that I'll repeat here to get your AA award for 50k miles.