United, Lufthansa, US Airways, Air Canada, ANA, Singapore, and TACA/Avianca are all members of the Star Alliance.

With few exceptions, all of their miles can be used with equal access to any Star Alliance carrier's Saver award space.

You cannot transfer one type of miles to another. For instance, you cannot transfer your Lufthansa miles to your United account.

But you can combine the power of your miles by using miles from several different accounts to book awards on the same flight.

I've written several posts about Explorer Awards from American Airlines. My favorites are:

American Airlines Explorer Award: The Rules
The Start of My Anatomy of an Award Series on a Real Explorer Award: Planning a RTW Trip
My Post about Getting the AA Miles Needed for a Business Round-the-World Trip

American Airlines Explorer Awards are by far the cheapest option for round-the-world awards and a great option for hopping around one part of the world with many stops.

Explorer Awards are also incredible for combining many trips onto a single award at a huge discount.

Our Award Booking Service has been rocking and rolling lately. Busy frequent flyers love the personal attention we give each itinerary, as well as our expert knowledge of award programs.

The MileValue crew has a battle-tested recipe for award booking success.

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

While booking a family of four to Australia through our popular Award Booking Service, I ran into a  vexing problem with Star Alliance award space.

On a certain Air Canada route, Air Canada's own Aeroplan members  had access to more award seats than its Star Alliance partners. That's not a surprising practice on the surface. Air New Zealand never releases transpacific space to Star Alliance partners.

Mashable readers: Welcome to the best blog on redeeming frequent flyer miles. The way that I've traveled to over 20 countries this year and spent nine months abroad is by signing up for credit cards and using the miles to book business and first class awards.

Here is a post that explains to beginners what I do and why I do it.

Mashable readers: Welcome to the best blog on redeeming frequent flyer miles. The way that I've traveled to over 20 countries this year and spent nine months abroad is by signing up for credit cards and using the miles to book business and first class awards.

Here is a post that explains to beginners what I do and why I do it.

Update: Link to Etihad Press Release about Route

According to USA Today and Will Horton of Centre for Aviation, Etihad Airways will begin service to Los Angeles from its hub in Abu Dhabi beginning on June 1, 2014. This is fantastic news for those with AAdvantage balances, especially those on the West Coast!

From Etihad's own website. Etihad's Diamond First Class is a fully enclosed suite.

The introduction of Etihad's long nonstop from Los Angeles to Abu Dhabi will be a great jumping off point to the Middle East for West Coast flyers.

Qatar Airways awards are now searchable and bookable at ba.com and bookable by calling American Airlines. This is huge news because Qatar has an excellent route network from the US to the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent, and Maldives.

As announced on the oneworld site, Qatar Airways will join the oneworld alliance on October 30th. This is great news for those with large American Airlines AAdvantage or British Airways Avios balances.

One of my most popular posts was How to See Seven Cities in Europe on One 12,500 Mile Award.

In that post from June, I explained how to use the 23-hour layover trick to see seven (or more) cities on one United award for only 12,500 miles plus taxes (of $155 in this case.)

I am in Rome, heading to Brussels tomorrow, so I am already done with three of my goals for the week.

party in Zagreb--check!

cliff jump in Dubrovnik--check!