American Airlines' and El Al's partnership ends October 31, 2014.

To use American Airlines miles to fly to Israel on El Al, you must book by October 31, 2014. You can book American Airlines awards up to 11 months in advance, so you can travel on tickets booked October 31, 2014 until about the end of September 2015.

Once the partnership ends, you will still be able to use American Airlines miles to book US Airways flights from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv.

My sister asked me a few weeks ago: "Didn't you say there are no stopovers allowed on American Airlines awards?"

"Yes," I replied. "In April, American removed the ability to add a free stopover to awards under all circumstances.

If you THINK BIG, and take an amazing multi-destination trip, you'll need to book several tickets to hop between destinations.

In the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia, flights are fairly cheap because of the many competing airlines, including low cost carriers. In other regions, like Africa and South America, short flights can be exorbitantly expensive as a lack of competition drives up prices.

When ticket prices are expensive, that's the time to use miles. I've already laid out the cheapest intra-region bargain awards with American Airlines and United miles.

American Airlines' best Business and First Class are both found on the 777-300ER, its newest international plane.

The 777-300ER features fully flat beds in Business Class and First Class, plus a walk up bar on board for the folks up front.

Yesterday's post on the Coolest Thing You Can Do with 60,000 Miles was a hit, so I thought I'd follow up with how you can create your own THINK BIG itineraries with miles.

The basic premise of that post was connecting far-flung regions into a single trip by taking advantage of under-priced awards between the regions.

US Airways, American Airlines, and British Airways are all members of the oneworld alliance who should be equally sharing award space on their own flights with their partners.

For the first time, I've found a case where US Airways "Low" (their name for "Saver") price award space is not bookable with American Airlines or British Airways miles.

Either the US Airways space is phantom, or it isn't being shared with American Airlines and British Airways, which would be a huge problem because American Airlines and British Airways awards are often cheaper than US Airways awards.
Refresher on Partners Sharing Space

To Suzanne Rubin, head of American Airlines AAdvantage,

In April 2014, American Airlines eliminated the possibility of stopovers on award tickets with no notice.

Previously, one stopover was allowed on one way awards--two on roundtrip awards--at the North American International Gateway City.

That rule gave folks who lived where there were no international flights on American Airlines partners the chance to enjoy their awards more with stopovers in major international cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Honolulu.

Finnair is offering excellent Business Class award space in a state-of-the-art bed next year from New York and Miami to Helsinki and beyond in Europe.

Since Finnair is a member of the oneworld alliance, you can book the business class award space for 50,000 American Airlines miles each way or 100,000 US Airways miles each way.

Finnair space is searchable on aa.com.

What is the Finnair Business class product?
What is the award space picture for Spring and Summer 2015?
How can you book awards with Finnair flights

Let me clear up one of the most common types of questions I get from beginners.

There is no transitive property of miles.

Just because Airline A partners with Airline B and Airline B partners with Airline C does NOT mean Airlines A and C are partners.

For instance, in yesterday's post Fully Flat Business Class to Europe for 25,000 Miles, I wrote:
I searched award space on Aer Lingus' routes from Chicago, Boston, and New York to Dublin for one passenger next April through July.

I searched on united.com.

This is the thirteenth post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flyer miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.

I've covered how to earn miles and the redemption options for miles.