You can book yourself a tour around the Caribbean and South America stopping in three places for only 64,500 miles total with half the trip in a flat bed. By stopping in three places, I am referring to actual destinations, not connections that have to be under 24 hours.

This incredible deal relies on piecing together four sweet spots awards into one big trip.

This change takes effect for bookings made February 2 at 5 AM ET or later.

British Avios are great for short, direct, economy awards on flights with no fuel surcharges--but they are getting less great.

The price of an award flight booked with British Airways Avios is determined by only two things: the distance of the flight and the cabin you book. The price of an Avios award is the sum of the prices of each flight segment.

One of the main reasons why people who don't know how miles work think that miles are a scam is because they searched award space in the wrong place! For instance, they wanted to use American Airlines miles and searched AA.com. While that sounds logical, that's often the wrong place to search. BA.com is often the better place to search.

Knowing how to use BA.com is crucial for making award bookings with British Airways Avios and American Airlines AAdvantage miles.

I just redeemed 5,650 Avios and $84 for a flight from Santiago to Buenos Aires (AEP), the closer airport to the city. Tickets to that airport were running over $400 one way.

Even tickets to the worse airport were $180+, meaning I was very happy to use an Avios & Money award.
Award Planning
I am planning to return to Buenos Aires in February. I am planning to come from Santiago (though I don't have a ticket to Chile yet).

Buenos Aires has two airports, EZE and AEP.

MG asks:
I’m not too well-versed with AA miles, but I have about 100k. I really want to use them for off-peak to either Chile or Argentina and somehow use them to get down to either country’s Patagonia region. Where do you recommend searching for LAN and TAM to get to Patagonia… the airport codes don’t seem to show up on BA.com???
 

If you search ba.com for award space, which you should do a lot when trying to redeem American Airlines miles, you will notice some missing airports.

Membership Rewards used to transfer 1,000:1,000 to British Airways Avios, but the rate was cut to 250:200 on October 1, 2015.

Through the end of the year, though, you can temporarily get the old 1:1 rate through a two-step process.

Transfer Membership Rewards 1:1 to Iberia Avios during the current 25% transfer bonus.

Transfer Iberia Avios 1:1 to Brit

British Airways is happy to handle a number of transactions in dollars, pounds, or euros.

Through Friday December 4, 2015, British Airways is offering a 40% bonus on the purchase of Avios. The biggest bonus ever offered on the purchase of Avios was 50% in February, so this is a big bonus.

The maximum Avios you can purchase in a year is 35,000. With a 40% bonus, that means you can add 49,000 Avios to your account.

Effective this Thursday, October 1, 2015, 250 Membership Rewards will transfer to 200 British Airways or Iberia Avios. That's a 20% reduction of the current 1,000 Membership Rewards to 1,000 Avios transfers.

This is a huge blow to Membership Rewards. It still has great 1:1 transfer partners like Delta, ANA, Aeroplan, and Singapore, but this majorly hurts the value of its best oneworld transfer partner.

In the past we've seen transfer bonuses from Membership Rewards to Avios like this year's 40% bonus.

LAN Airlines, the flag carrier of Chile, has daily flights from Santiago to Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui and Isla de Pascua. That route makes sense to connect Easter Island to its capital city.

What makes far less sense is the weekly flight from Easter Island another five hours west to Tahiti. There's also usually a summer seasonal (our winter) route from Lima to Easter Island, though it hasn't been announced for 2015/2016.

LAN is a member of a oneworld, so you can use American Airlines miles or British Airways Avios to book the flights.