Last week the Hilton no annual fee credit card increased its sign up bonus to 75,000 points and the Starwood Preferred Guest personal and business cards increased their sign up bonuses to 35,000 points.

Credit card links have been removed from posts and added to the menu bar at the top of every page of MileValue under the heading Top Travel Credit Cards.

So which offer is better?

I use Hilton points for free hotel nights at not-fancy hotels--categories 1, 2, and 3 (out of 10.) I use SPG points for free hotel nights, to transfer to airline

I tweeted this deal first from @MileValueAlerts. Follow @MileValueAlerts on Twitter and follow these directions to get a text message every time I tweet from that account.

Through Friday (February 17, 2017), you can buy 5,000+ IHG Rewards Club points with a 100% bonus.

While writing yesterday's post about United now allowing free Hawaii flights on awards, I had a separate idea about United miles and Hawaii flights that I didn't want anyone to miss:
You can see four Hawaiian islands on a single award that costs 6,000 United miles and $5.60.
United charges 6,000 for intra-Hawaii flights on Hawaiian Airlines or Island Air.

This is Hawaiian's route map.

Fly a flat bed to Madrid for 25,500 Avios and low fuel surcharges this spring. Economy awards start at 12,750 Avios + $71 or 3,200 Avios and $181 one way.

Iberia is offering a 25% discount on economy and Business Class awards booked by today (2/14/17) between Madrid and:

Miami, New York, Boston, Chicago, Zurich, London, Vienna, Moscow, Bogota, Medellin, Johannesburg, Panama, Shanghai, Mexico City, Lima, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, and Havana

The discounts to/from the USA must be flown by June 14, 2017 with blackouts dates including all of April;

United partners with both Hawaiian Airlines and Island Air to offer codeshares within Hawaii.

You can redeem United miles for interisland flights on either airline. The cost is 6,000 miles + $5.60 one way.

You can also include Hawaiian or Island Air flights as part of a larger award, like Newark to Honolulu on United, connecting to Molokai on Hawaiian. Until very recently, though, United would price this as two separate awards.

I tweeted this deal first from @MileValueAlerts. Follow @MileValueAlerts on Twitter and follow these directions to get a text message every time I tweet from that account. I tweet from @MileValueAlerts only a few times a month because it is designed to be used only for the best and most limited-time deals–like mistake fares–so that you aren’t bombarded by text messages.

AirAsia X is offering $129 one way and $291 roundtrip flights from Honolulu to Osaka, Japan.

I recently went to Patagonia with my friend from Hawaii.

I helped her book her trip with American Airlines and Singapore miles, and I learned some things along the way. Takeaways:

Days of the year with good award space
The only airline within the Americas with fuel surcharges
When to book and when to wait

The Plan
My friend and I wanted to see Chilean and Argentine Patagonia plus Buenos Aires.

25 Euro Flight Sale
Air Baltic has a sale for flights booked by February 14, 2017 and flown March 9 to April 10 with fares starting at 25 euros. Example fares:

Most deals are to or from Riga, Vilnius, or Tallinn. I highly recommend the Baltics because they are small countries with interesting histories that are accessible and cheap.

Within the Baltics, though, I wouldn't fly. I'd use buses and ferries. Here's my guide to buses and ferries for Baltic travel.

I'm Going to Belarus
I love Eastern Europe.

I am updating and re-posting this series on redeeming American Airlines miles in light of the fact that right now it’s super easy to earn 146,000 American Airlines miles.

For a limited time, the Citi /AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCard and the CitiBusiness / AAdvantage Platinum Select World MasterCard are both offering 50k bonus miles for spending $3,000 on each card within three months of opening it. The new Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard is offering 40k bonus American Airlines miles after just one purchase and paying the annual fee of $95.