How to Redeem Miles on Malaysia Airlines

Malaysia Airlines joined oneworld on Thursday, meaning you now have more options for your American Airlines AAdvantage miles and British Airways Avios to, from, and through Southeast Asia.

courtesy of Google Maps

An unaffiliated airline joining an alliance is always a good thing for us because our miles have more uses, and usually the new airline will have incredible award availability, at least until it adjusts to having more people snapping up its awards.

Where Malaysia Airlines Flies

Malaysia Airlines flies from its Kuala Lumpur hub all over Asia and Australia.

How to Make Entree Reservations on American Airlines

American Airlines has recently added the option to reserve your entree in advance when flying in business or first class from a select, but expanding, number of cities.

This is a cool improvement that should ensure you're never without your first choice entree. (If this service is not available, remember the acronym FEBO. American caters from the Front on Even numbered flights and the Back on Odd. So you can choose your seat to maximize choices.)

Between 30 days and 24 hours before departure, you can reserve your entree.

Book Now to Europe for Next Summer: Economy

I started this series of posts about booking your trip to Europe for summer 2013 with a post about booking business class. This post will focus on booking an economy class award.

If you want to fly economy class this summer, I recommend getting some American Airlines miles. There are two main reasons:

All the legacy carriers--American, Delta, United, US Airways--charge 60k miles roundtrip to Europe in economy class. But I've outlined a trick that I'll repeat here to get your AA award for 50k miles.

Get on American’s New 777-300ER in Business Class

American Airlines business class used to stink.

How to Book Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards: The Video

Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

I made a YouTube video called How to Add Free Oneways to American Airlines Awards to include in my Los Angeles Frequent Traveler University Presentation.

The video goes through using aa.com to perform award searches, how to use the multi-city booking tool, and other pertinent info for booking these awards online or by phone.

The video is a companion to Master Thread: Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards.

It is included in my slide show about booking free oneways that has been downloaded over 10,000 times.

Anatomy of an Award: First Class to Buenos Aires with American Airlines Miles

This is another post in my Anatomy of an Award series, in which I take a real award I’ve booked and break it down step-by-step to elucidate the award booking process. If you have a real award you’d like to write up in a similar post, please contact me, and you can write a guest post.

A few months ago I used 62,500 American Airlines miles and $5 to book a oneway award from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires in American Airlines Flagship First Class. This is one of the simplest awards I've ever booked.

Happy Thanksgiving! Let’s Do Some Good

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you're spending it like I am with family and friends about to munch on turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, pie, and as few veggies as possible. This is absolutely my favorite holiday of the year.

Several years ago when traveling became such a part of my identity, I started saying I was "thankful I live at a time when I can get almost anywhere in the world within a day" at the what-are-you-thankful-for pre-dinner grace.

Best Practices for Searching Oneworld Availability

This post is about the best practices to use when searching oneworld availability when you want to use your American Airlines miles.

American Airlines miles can be used on any oneworld airline and on its non-oneworld partners. For a list of oneworld airlines, see Free First Class Next Month: Airlines’ Codes, Hubs, and Alliances.

The best part about using partner award availability is that partner award availability always prices at the sAAver level, so you are always getting the best miles price you can.

Using Qantas.com for American Airlines Award Searches

Using qantas.com for award searches can help you get maximum value from your American Airlines miles. American partners with the oneworld alliance and several non-oneworld partners.

Master Thread: Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards

American Airlines eliminated free stopovers in April 2014, killing the possibility of free one ways on American Airlines awards.