Anatomy of an Award: Summer Trip to Paris & Free Oneway Home for Thanksgiving

My absolute favorite awards are the ones I've booked for family and friends. Helping them fly for (nearly) free is a great pleasure that can't be replicated. Recently, my sister came to me asking for advice on the cheapest ways to fly from Boston to Paris this summer. She has zero miles and a tight budget.

Anatomy of an Award: Booking Etihad Business Class Using American Miles

Last month I booked myself an awesome award to the Maldives using AAdvantage miles and flying Etihad Airways Business Class.

Anatomy of an Award: Nabbing an Extremely Rare First Class Seat from Australia on Qantas

I nabbed a scarce First Class award from Australia to Los Angeles on Qantas during peak travel season and added a first class segment on American's new Airbus A321T from Los Angeles to New York-JFK, both in fully flat beds.

I'm incredibly excited to try out another First Class product on the Airbus A380, especially after my great experience on a Thai flight from Paris to Bangkok.

Relative to other Anatomy of Award posts, this one was simple to construct and even easier to book online. However, Qantas premium cabin award space isn't widely available.

Anatomy of an Award: Burn United Miles for Flat Bed Lufthansa Business Class Before the Devaluation

The 50k mile bonus offer is back on the Lufthansa card mentioned in this post until 6/30/14.

Anatomy of an Award: Business Class Roundtrip to Europe with Two Free Oneways to Hawaii and Canada

Last month I wrote about using American Airlines' distance-based Explorer Award chart to save miles and add stopovers traveling to Europe. Check out Get a Roundtrip Business Class Award to Europe with Three Stopovers for 90k American Airlines Miles before proceeding. This post compares that Explorer Award option with a "regular" award option.

On a roundtrip from New York to Eastern Europe, I was able to add three stopovers and save 10k AAdvantage miles (90k vs.

Anatomy of an Award: Roundtrip from Chicago to Lusaka, Zambia Plus a Later Free Oneway to Alaska in Business Class with United Miles

I just booked two clients of the MileValue Award Booking Service a roundtrip award in business class to Lusaka, Zambia and added on a free oneway to Alaska several months later.

The award cost 120k United miles + $118 in government taxes per person.

Roundtrip Award from Chicago to Lusaka in Red and Later Free Oneway to Anchorage in Blue.

I am writing an Anatomy of an Award on this particular booking to illustrate:

Considerations on bookings to Africa
How to book a free oneway on a United award
Trouble shooting "phantom" award space
Searching

Anatomy of an Award: Southeast Asian and Mexican Vacations in Business Class for 90k US Airways Miles, 30k Arrival Miles, and Zero Cash

Two weeks ago, in How to Save 70,000 Miles on US Airways Awards to Southeast Asia, Bill blew people's minds with his post about one of the biggest tricks you can pull with US Airways miles:

When routing from the US to South & Central Asia, you can save up to 70,000 US Airways miles by adding segments from Mexico, Central America, or the Caribbean to your home airport before the main award.

The four step process is not difficult, but it is new, so there was some confusion in the comments section of that post.

Anatomy of an Award: Booking Lufthansa Flights with US Airways Miles

US Airways has announced its plans to leave the Star Alliance for the oneworld alliance and later merge wither American Airlines.

But for the time being US Airways is in the Star Alliance and its miles can be used on its own flights or its Star Alliance partners.

At least in theory.

In practice, for the past few months US Airways agents have not been able to see award space on Lufthansa, the Star Alliance airline that releases the most space between the US and Europe.

You could find award space on united.com, call US Airways, and the agent would

Anatomy of an Award: Using Lufthansa Miles for a Hawaii Award to in a Flat Bed

The 50k mile bonus offer is back on the Lufthansa card mentioned in this post until 6/30/14.

Anatomy of an Award: How to Fly a Peak Time with Off Peak Pricing and Add Two Free Oneways

I recently booked my friends a roundtrip award to Chile and Argentina, so that they can explore Patagonia next January for only 50,000 American Airlines miles each.

Lake District of Patagonia near Bariloche, Argentina

The award should have cost 60k miles each, but I saved them 20k miles by applying the same trick I used in the post 20k Miles to All of Europe All Summer, and I also added two free oneways onto the award, so that they already have half of their next vacation to Hawaii booked.

Here's a visual representation of