I bet you 100 dirhams you’ve heard of Emirates, the flag carrier of the United Arab Emirates. I bet you 1,000 dirhams you haven’t heard much about Emirates Skywards, the Dubai-based carrier’s frequent-flyer program.

Ironically, Emirates continues to deliver the highest levels of service and therefore earns the highest levels of praise.

Many travelers have Australia on their bucket list. There really is something for everyone, from the snorkeling and diving at the Great Barrier Reef to wineries, cool cities and spectacular beaches. 

The competition for the very limited number of award seats to get there, however, is fierce. Airlines’ frequent miler programs certainly don’t make it easy and finding award space on the nonstop flights from the U.S. could be quite a challenge.

Alaska is tightening their the policy on change and cancellation fees in a couple weeks.

As of June 5, you will no longer be able to change or cancel an award 60 days or more prior to departure for free. The only window of time you'll have to make free changes or cancellations will be for 24 hours after booking. Any change or cancellation made after the 24 hour window will cost $125.

While not widely publicized, right now you can book flights within the United States or to Hawaii for less Alaska Miles in January or February than it would typically cost you.

There are various routes on sale, from short hops between Albuquerque and San Francisco to Hawaiian island routes like Honolulu to Oakland or Lihue to San Diego. Routes listed below are not the only ones on sale, but just examples (hat tip to Travel Codex for notice of the sale and the routes provided).

Fiji is a year-round tropical destination, known for its beaches, diving, and hiking.

Fiji Airways (formerly Air Pacific) flies from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Honolulu to Fiji.

Through October 5, 2017 at 11:59 PM ET, you can buy Alaska Airlines miles with up to a 50% bonus. It is a targeted offer, but it looks to be pretty widespread from what I can see. Log in to your account through this link to see your offer.

The current bonus is as high as we've ever seen it--don't expect to buy Alaska miles cheaper than this (if you are indeed targeted for the 50% bonus).
How the Bonus Works
The sale is structured as a bonus on the normal number of miles you’d receive.

The bonus

Flights from the West Coast to Hawaii on American or Alaska are 12,500 British Airways Avios

Alaska Airlines has added two new airlines to their lengthy list of partners recently.

Back in March of this year, Alaska added the German airline Condor. You can redeem and earn Alaska miles flying Condor. Even more recently, Alaska announced another new partnership: Finnair. You can't redeem Alaska miles flying Finnair yet but you can earn them when flying Finnair.

I'll focus more on Condor today since we don't know the redemption rates for flying Finnair yet.
Condor
Condor is a leisure airline.

*Note Bank of America's new rule concerning amount of cards they will approve you for in a two, three, and 12 month period before attempting to open various Alaska cards*

The last couple days I've been wading through this entire Flyertalk thread-->Alaska Airlines card offers, Personal &

lf you aren't already a member of Alaska MileagePlan, Alaska Airline's frequent flyer program, register before April 30, 2017, and take a paid Alaska Airlines or Virgin America flight by September 30, 2017 and you'll earn a bonus of 5,000 Alaska miles.
How to Get 5k Bonus Miles
If you don't have an existing MileagePlan account...

Register here before April 30, 2017.