This is a bit of a companion to American Airlines Explorer Awards: The Rules. That has my best guess on the rules; this explains why it's only my best guess. If you just want to book Explorer Awards, none of this information is helpful, and you should skip this post.

This is the second part of a multi-post Anatomy of an Award series about American Airlines Explorer Awards, which are ideal for around-the-world trips, trips with multiple destinations, and other "trick" itineraries. Previously: The Rules

A client contacted the Award Booking Service wanting to book an around the world trip with American Airlines miles.

This is the first part of a multi-post Anatomy of an Award series about American Airlines Explorer Awards, which are ideal for around-the-world trips, trips with multiple destinations, and other "trick" itineraries.

American Airlines Explorer Awards are an incredible value with three main uses:

around-the-world (RTW) trips
trips with many destinations in one region
combining multiple trips within one year onto one Explorer Award

When I say "incredible value," I mean 150,000 miles to go around the world with ten stops in business class.

The offers for the cards listed in this post have expired. Click here for the top current credit card sign up bonuses.

The merger of American Airlines and US Airways, announced today, is no news in the near term, fantastic news in the medium term, and bad news in the long term for me and similarly situated frequent flyer mile hackers.

No News in the Near Term

Your US Airways Dividend Miles are still there.

American Airlines is offering 15,000 miles per direction awards to Hawaii. (Hat tip Lucky)

My first thought: we can do better!

1. American Airlines Award Free Oneway- On any award returning from Europe, you should be able to get a free or cheap oneway to Hawaii. Zero miles or 9,000 Avios is a better deal than 15,000 AA miles.

2. Allegiant Air $358+ roundtrip- Allegiant Air is a super-low cost carrier that announced flights to Hawaii that will start in November.

Or: The Whole is Less than Either of its Parts

If you take a look at the American Airlines award chart, you'll see that Honolulu to Dallas costs 22,500 miles each way in economy. And Dallas to Buenos Aires costs 30,000 miles each way in economy.

Luckily both Hawaii and South America Zone 2 (most of South America including Argentina) have some dates when you can fly in economy at a discount.

Hawaii's off peak pricing of 17,500 miles each way runs from January 12 to March 8 and August 22 to December 15.

I recently booked a fascinating award that shows just how simply you can turn a good itinerary into a great itinerary using the the concept I laid out in a post titled 7,500 Miles to Europe and Negative 7,500 Miles to South America.

The basic premise is the inverse of a free oneway. If you are booking an award within the US on American Airlines, consider adding on an international leg to the domestic leg for very little extra.

My client Mark came to me with 105,000 American Airlines miles and 103,000 Ultimate Rewards.

Malaysia Airlines joined oneworld on Thursday, meaning you now have more options for your American Airlines AAdvantage miles and British Airways Avios to, from, and through Southeast Asia.

An unaffiliated airline joining an alliance is always a good thing for us because our miles have more uses, and usually the new airline will have incredible award availability, at least until it adjusts to having more people snapping up its awards.

Where Malaysia Airlines Flies

Malaysia Airlines flies from its Kuala Lumpur hub all over Asia and Australia.

American Airlines has recently added the option to reserve your entree in advance when flying in business or first class from a select, but expanding, number of cities.

This is a cool improvement that should ensure you're never without your first choice entree. (If this service is not available, remember the acronym FEBO. American caters from the Front on Even numbered flights and the Back on Odd. So you can choose your seat to maximize choices.)

Between 30 days and 24 hours before departure, you can reserve your entree.

With my recent posts about flying to Europe all year round for 20,000 American Airlines miles or flying to South American for negative 7,500 miles, there's one problem for a lot of people.

Using both tricks requires taking a stopover on an American Airlines award.