I created a slide show for my LAX Frequent Traveler University presentation that I promised I would share with those who attended.

My presentation was called "Three Vacations on Two Awards: Free Oneways."

The only difference between the presentation and the show below is that I deleted the videos in the original presentation, which had no audio, and replaced them with videos with audio.

I've uploaded the presentation online RIGHT HERE.

Today I'm giving away a free oneway award on Southwest Airlines that must be flown by April 20, 2013. Specifically, I am giving away half of a standard award--a capacity-controlled award on Southwest Airlines. Standard awards are a relic of the old Rapid Rewards program.

Eight months ago, I converted 19,200 Rapid Rewards points to a Southwest standard award. I explained how to do that in How to Exploit the Southwest-Airtran Merger.

I did this because Southwest currently effectively operates two loyalty programs, a revenue based program and a chart-based program.

Two month ago Tahsir joined the MileValue Award Booking Service team. His joining brought much appreciated expertise and capacity. But even with him, we are overworked. The next step may be to train and bring in more help, but we don't want to rush into that because maintaining the quality of our work is our paramount concern.

As Tahsir says, we enjoy award bookings because everyone we help is so excited afterward. They've just booked a dream vacation.

Yesterday I posted about flying to Europe for 20,000 American Airlines miles year round--even during peak summer time--by adding a free oneway to your award that falls between October 15 and May 15. See 20k Miles to All of Europe All Summer.

Gary Leff commented on the post:
This is a glitch in how the website prices the award, rather than AA policy.

Update 5/26/14: This deal is dead since American Airlines eliminated free stopovers.

Or: Save 10k Miles by Adding a Free Oneway

Summer airfare to Europe often tops $1,000 in economy class roundtrip. But you can get to Europe this summer for only 20k miles.

All the legacy carriers--American, Delta, United, US Airways--charge 60k miles roundtrip to Europe in economy class. That's where the European award similarities end.

American and United let you go oneway for 30k miles.

This weekend I spoke at the Los Angeles Frequent Traveler University at the Sheraton Gateway LAX.

I drove the 25 minutes to the airport on Friday afternoon, getting in an hour before the cocktail party started.

US Airways is extending its 100% bonus on purchased miles until December 7. Miles can be had for 1.88 cents. Bill wrote about this promo more fully last month.

This deal seems to run every other month, so I don't see a reason to stock up. And in general, I don't like the price of $1,938 + taxes to fly in roundtrip business class to Europe or slightly less to Asia.

But some sweet spots on US Airways' chart are incredible.

Through January 14, you can transfer 1,000 Membership Rewards to 1,300 Avios. The transfer are hard-coded into the Membership Rewards transfer page, meaning you don't have to know any special codes.

All my posts about Avios are contained here: milevalue.com/category/avios.

Or: Help Me Choose Which Business Class Products to Fly I got trigger happy and booked without asking

Or: How An American Can Exploit the South American Sweet Spot with US Airways Miles

Or: How to Get an Open Jaw AND a Stopover on a US Airways Award

Or: How I saved 20k miles

Necessity is the mother of invention. I wanted to think of a way to get from Buenos Aires to Europe next summer with a stopover in South Africa, then from Europe to Chicago in time for the Chicago seminars.

Introduction to Free One Ways (this post)
Master Thread: Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards (dead as of April 2014)
Master Thread: Free One Ways on United Awards
Master Thread: Free One Ways on Delta Awards
Master Thread: Free One Ways on US Airways Awards
Three Vacations on Two Awards

Just in time for my talk about Free Oneways on Sunday at the LAX Frequent Traveler University, I've figured out how to add free oneways to US Airways awards.

Until this week, I hadn't thought free oneways on US Airways awards were possible (without phone agent error), but