Update 3/6/14: This post is outdated. See Master Thread: Holds on United Awards

In What You Need to Know about United Award Holds, I ran through the two ways to hold a United award online:

Any award that contains a partner segment can be held for free if your account does not have sufficient miles to ticket the award immediately.

Did you miss 20k Miles (or Less) to All of South America All Year yesterday? That post is a competing trick with this one, and it might be an even better deal for you.

Chicago to Santiago "should" cost 30,000 American Airlines miles each way in economy.

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.

The card offer in this post has expired so its links have been removed. Click here for the top current credit card sign up bonuses.

I was featured in a recent Forbes article called "20 Holiday Travel Secrets from Industry Insiders" about tips for cheaper and more comfortable holiday travel.

By using the principles of free oneways and an incredible sweet spot on the US Airways award chart, you can save up to 70,000 miles on your next US Airways award booking to Asia.

I'm flying Turkish Airlines Business Class on My Next US Airways AwardUS Airways charges ordinarily charges 120k miles roundtrip in business class to India or Thailand and 160k in first.

United.com has one glaring flaw in the way that it was programmed that you can correct to become a better award searcher than united.com.

This is the ultimate trick when united.com tells you there is no Saver Award Availability on the route you want on the date you want.

How can you be better at award searching than united.com?

United.com's award searching program is just that, a computer program.

United.com has one glaring flaw in the way that it was programmed that you can correct to become a better award searcher than united.com.

This is the ultimate trick when united.com tells you there is no Saver Award Availability on the route you want on the date you want.

How can you be better at award searching than united.com?

United.com's award searching program is just that, a computer program.

Reader Christopher emailed me an exciting tip the other day: free oneways are possible on United awards within the continental USA and Canada. I already knew free oneways were possible on international United awards and awards to Hawaii, but this was news.

He sent me some screenshots, and I was able to replicate his findings and add some more of my own. I learned four things:

Christopher's tip: You can get a free oneway on roundtrip Standard economy awards within the US and Canada. That means three oneway Standard awards for 50k United miles.

United, US Airways, American, and Delta among others rely on award charts to determine the price of your award.

With my recent posts about flying to Europe all year round for 20,000 American Airlines miles or flying to South American for negative 7,500 miles, there's one problem for a lot of people.

Using both tricks requires taking a stopover on an American Airlines award.