This is another post in my Anatomy of an Award series, in which I take a real award I’ve booked and break it down step-by-step to elucidate the award booking process. If you have a real award you’d like to write up in a similar post, please contact me, and you can write a guest post.

A few months ago I used 62,500 American Airlines miles and $5 to book a oneway award from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires in American Airlines Flagship First Class. This is one of the simplest awards I've ever booked.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you're spending it like I am with family and friends about to munch on turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, pie, and as few veggies as possible. This is absolutely my favorite holiday of the year.

Several years ago when traveling became such a part of my identity, I started saying I was "thankful I live at a time when I can get almost anywhere in the world within a day" at the what-are-you-thankful-for pre-dinner grace.

According to this thread on FlyerTalk, American Airlines is holding a holiday special on all purchased miles. Bonus miles are awarded depending on the amount of miles purchased. In similar fashion to previous American Airlines miles specials, there is a tiered bonus structure. The more miles you purchase, the more bonus miles you receive.

To purchase points and see the terms and conditions, go to American's Buy Miles page here.

What is the maximum number of miles I can purchase with this promotion?

You can purchase up to 60,000 miles.

Using qantas.com for award searches can help you get maximum value from your American Airlines miles. American partners with the oneworld alliance and several non-oneworld partners.

Delta offers 1,500 MQM for one year Sky Club membership

According to this thread on FlyerTalk, Delta is offering elite qualifying miles for buying a Sky Club lounge membership. To take advantage, you must purchase a one or three year membership by December 31st.

You can choose between two additional free months on a one-year membership or 1,500 Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs). MQMs are what Delta uses to calculate elite status.

American Airlines eliminated free stopovers in April 2014, killing the possibility of free one ways on American Airlines awards.

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

A free oneway is a oneway itinerary to or from your home airport added on to another award for no additional miles.

United has announced a 20% discount on economy class awards to Europe from January 15 to March 13, 2013:

United and United Express operated flights
Booked between now and November 15
Roundtrip economy class awards for 48k miles.

I'll break this promo down and compare it to the discounted awards to Europe being offered by American and US Airways.

United

Roundtrip awards entirely on planes bearing United and United Express paint jobs between the continental US, Alaska, and Canada and Europe in economy class, flown between 1/15/13 and 3/13/13, and booked between now and 11/15/12 cost 48,000 United miles.

American Airlines Escalating Bonus on Miles Purchases

According to this post on MilePoint, through November 15th American Airlines is offering up to 12,000 bonus miles when you purchase AAdvantage miles. The maximum number of miles you can purchase in a calendar year (and also through this promotion) is 40,000.

To purchase, follow this link and input your AAdvantage information.

As you can see from the terms and conditions page below, the highest bonus is earned when you purchase between 36,000-40,000 miles.

A few weeks ago, One Mile at a Time was all over the new American Airlines international routes:

Dallas (DFW) <-> Seoul (ICN)
Dallas (DFW) <-> Lima (LIM)
Chicago (ORD) <-> Dusseldorf (DUS)
New York (JFK) <-> Dublin (DUB)

Those flights went on sale yesterday, meaning that they were added to the award calendars. I decided to take a look at the award-space picture, and I found some surprising results.