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How lucky are they?
For the wedding, I’m staying with some friends at the Westin Pittsburgh. There is something in the room that we hung on the door knob that declined housekeeping during the stay in exchange for a $5 coupon per day or 500 SPG points per day.
Since 500 SPG points are worth more than $10, I told my friend to take that option. This was slipped under our door this morning:
I assume that at checkout we turn this in for the 500 points.
I’m really pushing these old articles, so I can enjoy my day in Pittsburgh instead of writing. (Best Of tab coming soon.)
Free Oneways on United Awards is my most viewed post of all time. As far as I know, it’s the first post to explain how to add a free oneway to any international award (or award to Hawaii) that uses United miles.
The United-award free oneway is especially awesome because it can be enjoyed even by people who are based at tiny regional airports, and it can go more places than an American Airlines free oneway.
The Four Rules of an American Airlines Stopover and Free Oneway
The Four Rules… is a must read if you want to take advantage of the well-known but poorly-understood free oneway available on American Airlines awards. In it, you’ll see a link to my first post about free oneways on AA awards that you might also want to click.
Free First Class Next Month
I first published a 30-part beginner series in March. This series was for ultra beginners and had short posts on everything a beginner should know. I’ve been reposting the series in a better order with updates, added screen shots, and improvements. That is ongoing. (See the post right below this one.)
If you want to see the whole first series, click here.
The Mile Value Calculator is an incredible tool I designed to figure out how much value you’re getting from your miles on a particular award. Hint: it’s not cash price of ticket divided by miles used.
I’ve put 12 posts in the Anatomy of an Award category. They show step-by-step the process of conceiving and booking actual awards I’ve booked for myself or through my Award Booking Service.
How to Exploit the Southwest-AirTran Merger
This is very salient to me right now because I’m writing this post on a Southwest flight from Burbank to Tampa. I saved several thousand points on the award by using the trick detailed in the post linked above. The details of the award booking are in this Anatomy of an Award post.
I have videos of my computer screen as I book free oneways with several types of miles. Hopefully I’ll add more soon. Check it out.
How to Book Any PointBreaks Hotel for $35/night
This is the cheapest way to get hotels, and it’s a simple, repeatable trick that is well within the rules of the Priority Club program.
The Cheapest Ways to Get to Hawaii
I was born in Hawaii, and I go back about once a year, so I compiled the cheapest ways to get to Hawaii.
Lists of Possible Avios Awards and International Gateway Cities
I’ve made lists of all possible Avios awards from New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas.
I’ve also made a list of all possible international gateways on American Airlines awards. This is crucial since stopovers can only be at the North American International Gateway City on AA awards.
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel℠ and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
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Is there a trick to getting a 1st class 3-leg Saver award on United?
What routing are you looking at? Always search segment by segment.
I’m going from MCI-SYD and likely needing one or two plane changes in Denver, SFO or LAX depending on the schedule. 1st class domestic I can do without if it just won’t work, I’m really holding out hope for the international leg.
Scratch that: I’m EITHER doing MCI-SYD on the way there, or WLG-MCI on the way back. I’m only doing a United one way and doing American the other, and I guess it just depends on who is offering what type of availability that will decide which one I use on depart/return
When you want to book, sign up for a free five-day membership at expertflyer.com. You can search the LAX-SYD, SFO-SYD, SYD-SFO, and SYD-LAX legs for first class space a week at a time. That is by far the quickest way to find the availability, which is very sparse, but possible to get.
Thanks!
Quick question re the free AA. I did the calculation for CDG-LHR-LAX//LAX-MIA and it comes up as exceeding the MPM, but AA.com is letting me book it for 62.5 in first. Am I doing something wrong and/or should I just book it online if it lets me? Thanks…love the blog!
You are allowed to exceed the MPM of CDG-MIA by 25% on this trip. If you’re just exceeding that, and you can still book it, that may be because either the MPM or flight distances you’re using differ slightly from what aa.com is using.
Wow, that looks about as impressive as the “Free House Vacuuming Coupon” I would give Mom for mother’s day when I was 11.
Was it part of a booklet that included Free Hug and Free Dog Walk?