I recently booked an award for my parents that departed from their home--Charleston, South Carolina--to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We used a combination of their United miles and their Ultimate Rewards, transferred to United MileagePlus, to book the award in United Business Class.

I recently booked an award for my parents that departed from their home--Charleston, South Carolina--to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

I just booked myself a one way award from Honolulu, Hawaii to Charlottesville, Virginia for 17,500 Singapore miles and $6.

Last month, I booked an award from Buenos Aires to Honolulu for 25,000 Singapore miles and about $100 in taxes. The booking illustrates a few topics:

Sweet spots and how to find them
Awards you should book speculatively
Booking awards with foreign programs

The Problem
I have to get to Hawaii for my brother's wedding in February. The main problem is that I don't know where I'll be in February to book the ticket to Hawaii.

This is the third post in a series about how I used Singapore miles to book United BusinessFirst between San Francisco and Buenos Aires, as well as a review of the product and travel experience. 

Trip Report Part I: United Clubs in San Francisco and Houston
Trip Report Part II: United BusinessFirst Houston to Buenos Aires
Anatomy of an Award: Booking United BusinessFirst with Singapore Miles (this post)
Changing a Singapore Award (future post)

I had a one week window during which I wanted to fly Business Class from San Francisco, back home to Buenos Aires.
Checking Award Space of

Last week I booked myself an award from Chicago to Buenos Aires in United economy for 30,000 United miles + $5.60. This award was very simple, but it illustrated three interesting concepts:

When will last second award space open up?
United's secret extra award space.
The trick to save $75 on last second United award bookings.

Last Second Award Space
I had been searching award space for months from Chicago to Buenos Aires, and there was never any on the inflexible date I wanted to fly.

On Saturday in Chicago, I gave two presentations–one on the award chart sweet spots and the other a “Live” American Airlines Award Booking.

In this post, I'll recap the “Live” American Airlines Award Booking, including the audio of the award booking phone call.

Next month I want to fly Lufthansa First Class from the United States to Europe, like I did a few years ago, because I love the Lufthansa First Class Terminal in Frankfurt, the luxury of sitting in the nose of a 747-8, and the onboard food and drinks.

But I want to do it smartly. Instead of paying 110,000 United miles one way, I want to pay 40,000 Starpoints.

Last week my friend flew 24 hours of Lufthansa First Class and had a 3.5 hour layover in the famous Lufthansa First Class Terminal, which he booked for 125,000 United miles and $58.

For the second time, I used 5,000 ThankYou Points to book a one way Air Serbia flight award flight.