Australia and New Zealand are a tough place to get to with miles, especially if you want to go from mid-December through March, which encompasses Christmas, New Year's, and the Southern Hemisphere's summer.

Having booked several trips to Australia and New Zealand for myself, family, and others through my Award Booking Service, I'll share some tips on getting there with American Airlines miles.

Basics

American Airlines allows oneway bookings at half the price of roundtrip awards.

Earlier this year, Citi introduced a unique benefit to its American Airlines credit cards. (Yes, cards plural; serious mileage earners get two at a time.

Dancing Jay won the lounge passes and has been emailed. Check back next Friday for the next giveaway. And if you have something travel related you can't use, let me know, so I can give it away right here!

If you'll be at the Chicago Seminars in two weeks, drop me an email with the subject CHI-TOWN SEM and your name in the message body. You won't be disappointed (nor will you be be blown away) if you do.

A generous reader--FlyerTalker ramalama8--has offered to give away two United Club passes or two AAdmirals Club passes to a lucky MileValue reader.

In exchange for that generous offer, I gave him the free gogo inflight internet pass that I was going to give away this week.

If you'd like two United Club passes or two AAdmirals Club passes, comment below.

Here are some of the day's hot topics being discussed on the FlyerTalk and milepoint message boards.

Christmas Cutbacks from United and How to Deal With Them

The holidays are bringing some unfortunate consequences for people who book award flights on United around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, as seen in this FlyerTalk thread.

In January, I booked an award

There are five cardinal rules of American Airlines award tickets that I wanted to put together in one place for reference. All AA awards must comply with these rules and several other minor ones.

You should consult this post when planning an AA award, especially if you are trying to add a stopover or free oneway.

1. Stopovers are not allowed on American Airlines awards.

All connections on purely domestic itineraries must be less than four hours. All connections on international awards must be less than 24 hours.

2.

Hey there, you're reading an outdated post! The updated series from April 2015 can be found here.

This is the twenty-seventh post in a monthlong series. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete.

Hey there, you're reading an outdated post! The updated series from April 2015 can be found here.

This is the twenty-fifth post in a monthlong series. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete.

Hey there, you're reading an outdated post! The updated series from April 2015 can be found here.

This is the twenty-fourth post in a monthlong series. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.

This post presents the basics of using aa.com for award bookings.

Qantas and Emirates have announced a joint venture. (Story in audio or text format.)

My first thought was: "If they merge, can I now use my AA miles on an Emirates A380 in First Class?"

First things first: this is not a merger, just a joint venture. And Emirates has reiterated it has no interest in joining an alliance.

The loyalty programs of Qantas and Emirates are merging.