I recently flew in Business Class on the Avianca 787 Dreamliner from Los Angeles to Bogota. After spending a little over a week in Hawaii as a brief interlude between the summers of Europe and South America, I flew United First Class to Los Angeles and connected to Avianca Business Class to the Colombian capital.

Last week I redeemed 20,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles and $27 for a one way trip in Business Class from Bogota to Buenos Aires with an overnight in Lima. I will fly the award in a few months.

That’s over seven hours of flying up front for only 20,000 miles. United would have charged 40,000 miles for me to book the exact same award space.

Last week I used 27,500 Asiana miles + $38.30 to book myself a Business Class award from Honolulu to Bogota that I'll fly next month.

This is a steal of a deal because United would have charged 45,000 miles for the same ticket.

While I am ticketed, one of my two legs is in economy, so I have set an automatic alert to let me know if Business Class space opens on the leg on which I'm currently ticketed in economy.

Why use Asiana miles?
How to get Asiana miles and transfer time
Route planning
Award Search
Award

Last week I used 27,500 Asiana miles + $38.30 to book myself a Business Class award from Honolulu to Bogota that I'll fly next month.

This is a steal of a deal because United would have charged 45,000 miles for the same ticket.

While I am ticketed, one of my two legs is in economy, so I have set an automatic alert to let me know if Business Class space opens on the leg on which I'm currently ticketed in economy.

Why use Asiana miles?
How to get Asiana miles and transfer time
Route planning
Award Search
Award

Avianca LifeMiles is running a 2 x 1 sale on the purchase of their miles through May 29, 2015. You can buy up to 75,000 LifeMiles during the sale and get up to 75,000 bonus miles.

LifeMiles cost 3.3 cents each, so with a 100% bonus, you get the miles for 1.65 cents each.

I just booked myself a trip to Cuba with miles. One direction I am flying on a single award from the United States to Cuba. On the return, I am flying two awards: Cuba to Colombia and Colombia to the United States.

I used American Airlines, Asiana, and Lufthansa miles, all of which are easily available to Americans.
Can Americans Travel to Cuba?
Here is the State Department's page on visiting Cuba.

I am going to travel to Cuba on a general license as a journalist.

I'm intrigued by flights and awards that don't involve America. If there's a cool award to get from Australia to SE Asia, that can be integral to a longer, better, and cheaper trip.

My two favorite continents to explore are South America and Europe.

Avianca recently began flying the 787 Dreamliner from Colombia to destinations in South America and North America. Soon it will also fly the Dreamliner to Europe!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqdYxH8Y1WA&t=0m17s

This is exciting because Avianca's fully flat Business Class looks very nice, award prices on the long intra-South American flights are super cheap, and this is be the most comfortable way to fly between the United States and Colombia.
The Product
I just flew Avianca's angled flat bed on its A330 from Bogota to Buenos Aires.