Latest Posts

EVA Air--Taiwan's second largest carrier--has announced that it will join the Star Alliance June 18, 2013.

Reader Christopher emailed me an exciting tip the other day: free oneways are possible on United awards within the continental USA and Canada. I already knew free oneways were possible on…

United, US Airways, American, and Delta among others rely on award charts to determine the price of your award.

The MileValue Award Booking Service now costs $111 per person per award (for most awards--more pricing info below.) As always, you don't pay if we don't find an award that meets your needs.

United has added its Dreamliners back to the schedule, which is good news for plane geeks. The FAA grounded United's 787-8 Dreamliners in January, but they are back on the upcoming flight schedule…

There are a lot of cool things you can do with miles. One of the coolest things I've thought up, and one which I am strongly contemplating booking, would turn 57.5k United miles and 10k Avios into:…

The Avianca/TACA LifeMiles program sells miles for around 1.36 cents per mile, which means you can get into luxury seats like Singapore business class beds on an A380 for less than the cost of a paid…

I spent five hours booking a roundtrip from Buenos Aires to Bariloche this week. But at least I avoided an hour and a half in taxis to pick up paper tickets! HUH!? Bariloche is 851 miles to the…

Unfortunately, all great trips must come to an end. Three-and-a-half months before the end of my stay in Argentina, it is time to book my oneway return to the US: from Buenos Aires (EZE) to Denver…

Tomorrow your miles will be worth money than today for two reasons: The price of paid tickets is rising. The knowledge of how to use miles efficiently is increasing. I see a lot of arguments that…

Yesterday I talked about the 2014 off peak space to Europe and Brazil on US Airways, and how it's an amazing way to redeem 30,000 miles for a roundtrip award to Europe or South America--which is 50%…

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…

Airline phone agents have probably hung up on me a dozen times in my life. The story is usually pretty similar. I call in with an award request that is complex. The computer prices it incorrectly…

After a few eventful days in Bangkok, I was ready to head on over to Hong Kong. I initially booked my flights to Hong Kong on the specific purpose of flying Lufthansa's new 747-8i in First Class. As…

There are a lot of reasons to use an Award Booking Service, like the MileValue Award Booking Service. One great reason is because you have miles in several accounts and want to use the most efficient…

Alitalia is offering $100 off roundtrip tickets to Europe this summer! Join their mailing list with a valid email address and receive a $100-off coupon for flights to Europe between now and the end…

I love stats, so the 2012 AAdvantage stats at the top of the AAdvantage FAQ caught my eye. For all of 2012, there were 7,426,930 redemptions of American Airlines miles. Over 700,000 were for…

It's been a long week for me as I have just spent a few days in Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The entire week was a blast and it was probably the best trip of my life. To make it…

Update 11/6/14: Here is an Anatomy of an Award post in which we book the theoretical award below for an actual client! Two of the most frequent destination requests we receive at our Award Booking…

I recently booked a family of four an economy award from Miami to Buenos Aires with their Membership Rewards. It was an interesting award that I think demonstrates the complexities and fun of booking…

Business ExtrAA is an American Airlines program designed for small businesses to be rewarded for their loyalty to American, and it's a great way for you to double dip your rewards on American…

Update 1/17/14: 35k offer is dead, but the 40k offer is alive! FlyerTalkers are reporting success getting a 35,000 mile bonus and no annual fee for the first year on the Barclay's US Airways…

Sometimes people ask me whether they need a visa to leave an airport during a layover, or what it costs to enter a country, or some other question related to their ability to enter a country with a…

Update 2/24/16: The blue dollar is dead as the currency was allowed to float in December 2015.

Asiana recently announced that starting on July 22, it would be flying a new 777-200ER daily on its New York-JFK <-> Seoul-Incheon route with the following flight times. OZ222 departs Seoul-ICN…