Award space is wide open in Business Class on United flights to Brussels and Amsterdam for Summer 2017 for 2+ people. That means you can book your family flat beds to Europe for as little as 40,000 miles plus taxes with no fuel surcharges.
Product
United Business Class features a comfortable flat bed, but it isn't up to the standards of the absolute best products in the world because there are as many as eight narrow beds per row.

Only true aficionados will complain.

This contest is closed. We picked the winners and have emailed them requesting addresses, so if you entered check your inbox. Thanks to everyone for participating!

Generous reader Lien is donating four pairs of United Club passes that expire September 30, 2016–in one month–to four lucky winners (one pair to each winner.)

If you have a use for the passes between September 8th (to allow time for them to be mailed to you) and 30th of this month, comment on this post for a chance to win the passes.

Award space is wide open in Austrian Airlines Business Class between the United States and Europe for EIGHT people per flight over the entire Summer.

This is amazing news because normally award space over the summer is the toughest to find-- finding even four seats on the same flight in Business Class is almost unheard of.

You can book Business Class to Vienna for 70,000 United miles one way with no fuel surcharges.
Where Austrian Airlines Flies in the US
Austrian Airlines flies from Vienna to the following cities:

Chicago
Miami
Newark
New York JFK
Toronto
Washington Dulles

Award

United is running two award sales at the moment:

20% off domestic awards
Up to 25% off awards to Asia (announced here-- note that the promo code doesn't activate until August 11)

20% Off Domestic Awards
Here are (what look to be) the conditions for the unannounced domestic sale.

Register here
Economy Saver only
Roundtrip only (open jaw itineraries within the same region also count)
Must book by 11:59 p.m.

I just booked myself a $1,233 economy flight from Hawaii to Chicago for 17,500 Singapore miles and $5.

You probably already have the miles I used, so you're only a 10 minute phone call away from a trip to Hawaii that costs thousands of miles fewer than it "should."

The basic idea is that you don't want to use United, American Airlines, or Delta miles to fly to Hawaii. You want to use their planes, but you want to book those flights with miles issued by foreign airlines, which for whatever reason, offer far cheaper award prices to

Although United offers no stopovers on one way awards, the airline allows one stopover on roundtrip awards in addition to your destination. This can lead to all sorts of outsized value:

You can see 2-3 cities for the price of one on your next trip.
You can book a later Free One Way from your home airport to somewhere else in the United States or Canada after you next roundtrip for no extra miles.
You can book three related or unrelated one way awards together and save miles.

United is giving away one billion miles to Untited Mileage Plus members in a sweepstakes. 

The only condition is that you are a United Mileage Plus member.
How to Enter the Sweepstakes
Between August 1, 2016 and September 30, 2016, you can enter:

1. automatically via purchases on your United Mileage Plus Explorer Card.

2. by logging in here on the billion mile giveaway homepage (not active yet, will be on August 1, 2016) and follow the instructions (fill out a form, I assume).

I received the following email from a reader.

Dawn writes:
I wanted to ask a question that I didn't see an answer for on your site or clearly on the interwebs.
I am hoping to do a trip this winter to India.

The Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ MasterCard® 60,000 mile offer has expired. Check out the current best credit card offers here.

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Feeling spontaneous? You should be. You collect miles and points, which means you have the ability to fly all over the world without having to spend tons of hard earned money.