Update 2/24/14: Offer is dead!

Last week, American Express (possibly accidentally) offered its Business Gold Rewards Card with a 75k Membership Rewards sign up bonus after only $5k in spending in the first three months.

That's pretty incredible because:

Usually the card has no sign up bonus.
It had been offering only 50k Membership Rewards after $5k in spending.
Normally when it offers 75k Membership Rewards, it does so for only one or two days and requires $10k in spending to unlock the bonus.

That deal died, but two Business Gold offers have risen in its stead.

The current best deal is this offer for the Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express

Earn 30K bonus miles after you make $1K in purchases on your new Card within your first 3 months and a $50 statement credit after you make a Delta purchase with your new Card within your first 3 months.
Earn As You Spend: Get 2X miles on Delta purchases and 1X miles for all other eligible dollars spent.
Check your first bag free on every Delta flight - that's a savings of up to $200 per round trip for a family of four.

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 with American Express points.

I won't talk about that award specifically, but I'll use it as a jumping off point for discussion since it illustrates a typical Memberhip Rewards situation.

Starwood Preferred Guest's Cash & Points redemptions are some of the best values in travel.

As many of you may know, I am a college student by day and the amusing, yet mystical, Bengali Miles Guru by night. After traveling almost 100,000 miles since January, I knew that my upcoming spring break trip would have to be amazing.

Update at 9:31 AM ET on 3/8/13. Disregard most of this post. Commentor Angel pointed out trouble getting ANA to price this, and I found the problem. ANA rule: "The departure airport and the final destination on the itinerary may differ, but must be in the same country." I'll try to figure out a way to salvage some of this idea.

Yesterday I was effusive about the fact that ANA--a Japanese airlines most of us have never flown--stopped charging fuel surcharges on United and US Airways flights booked with ANA miles.

American Express Membership Rewards are valuable because of their ability to be transferred to dozens of partners. But they have a glaring weakness: they don't have a top-tier Star Alliance transfer partner--US Airways or United.

Membership Rewards can be transferred to Singapore, which is great because this is the only way to get into Singapore business or first class.

Membership Rewards can also be transferred to Aeroplan and ANA.

The 75k Membership Rewards bonus on the Business Gold Card from American Express Open is back until March 8 14 (according to the terms and conditions) if you can spend $10k in the next four months on the card according to Dan's Deals.

This is a great deal if you spend tons, or you manufacture tons of spend.

Several months ago, American Express had a very limited time offer of 70,000 bonus SkyMiles for signing up for the American Express Delta card. Delta miles aren't worth as much to me as miles from American, United, US Airways, Frontier, Southwest, Virgin America, or many other airlines, but 70,000 miles is a lot--especially since the normal bonus is 30,000 miles.

I jumped at the chance, and I was approved for the card.

LOT, a Polish airline that is a member of the Star Alliance, flies several Boeing 787 Dreamliners to North America with incredible award space in business class.

The Dreamliner is a technical marvel, a plane I am dying to get on.

LOT's business class on the Dreamliner is up to international standards--a fully flat bed with a big TV monitor at each seat.

LOT flies to three North American destinations, all with the Dreamliner.

New York (JFK) <-> Warsaw (WAW)

Chicago (ORD) <-> Warsaw

Toronto (YYZ) <->