Last week I wrote about SPG's newest airline transfer partner. You can now transfer Starpoints 1:1 to Virgin America Elevate points and get 5,000 bonus Virgin America points for every 20,000 Starpoints transferred. That's particularly amazing because Virgin America is a 2:1 transfer partner of American Express and Citi (eg 20k Membership Rewards = 10k Virgin America points.)

One of the best deals with Virgin America points is flying Virgin Australia from Los Angeles to Sydney or Brisbane.

Last year I predicted that award space to Air New Zealand would be much improved in 2016, especia

American Express added Etihad Guest miles as its 17th airlines transfer today.

You can send Membership Rewards in increments of 1,000 points to Etihad miles at a 1:1 rate.

Etihad Guest is already a 1:1 transfer partner of Citi ThankYou Points. In November 2015, we saw a 25% transfer bonus from many programs including Citi ThankYou Points to Etihad Guest miles. I expect if we see a future transfer bonus like that, American Express Membership Rewards would be included.
Uses of Etihad Miles
Etihad Guest miles are NOT good for booking Etihad flights.

Qatar Airways First Class on its A380 is available nearly every day between Paris and Doha and widely available between Doha and Bangkok.

Club Carlson is offering up to 50,000 bonus Gold Points on eligible stays completed through July 31, 2016.

Club Carlson is the loyalty program of these brands.

You earn bonus points for two, five, ten, and fifteen eligible nights:

Eligible nights are basically paid nights.

Delta is offering discounted flat bed Business Class awards to Europe this summer on select routes. The East Coast and Midwest routes are 105,000 miles + taxes roundtrip. The West Coast routes are 115,000 miles + taxes roundtrip. The normal price is 125,000 miles roundtrip (although I am basing "normal" on the old Delta award charts.

You can now use Malaysia Airlines miles to book Emirates Economy and Business Class. Malaysia Airlines is a 1:1 transfer partner of Citi ThankYou Points. 

Malaysia Airlines started up a partnership with Emirates in the end of last year, but they just released mileage earning and award redemption charts in the beginning of this month.

For Emirates flights, Malaysia Airlines uses a distance based award chart. The price of your award is determined by the cabin and distance flown, which you can check on Great Circle Mapper.

Update: I used this trick successfully. Here was my experience.

As I led a session at the Chicago Seminars this weekend on "Special Awards," someone chimed in with an intriguing tip:

There is a simple method to avoid the $75 "close in ticketing fee" on United awards that is triggered when you try to book a ticket within 21 days of departure.

I tested out the proposed method yesterday, and I have some input on how it works.

The current sign-up bonus available to the public for the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® Card is 25,000 Alaska Airlines miles upon approval. There are higher offers out there however, and the official public offer is increasing in May, but with a new minimum spending requirement.

There is no minimum spending requirement to earn the current sign-up bonus of 25,000 miles.

There is also a $75 annual fee.

Delta will no longer charge a $25 per passenger fee to book tickets by phone. That's excellent news since some Delta partners like Air Tahiti Nui can't be booked on delta.com.

In February 2015, American Airlines eliminated phone ticketing fees for awards flying airlines that can't be booked on aa.com.

United still has phone ticketing fees for awards--$25 per passenger.