Tons of Cheap First Class Award Space to Madrid and Europe for Next Summer

American Airlines is releasing a ton of First Class award space from Miami and Dallas to Madrid for May through July, 2016.

This award space is easy to connect to from anywhere in the United States, and you can get anywhere in Europe with an Iberia flight from Madrid. These connecting flights do not add to the First Class mileage price of 62,500 American Airlines miles each way.

Glitch Causing Partner Award Space Not to Appear On Delta.com. How to Book It

Update 8/19//15:

The glitch is fixed. One way search results now include partners as they should. Here's a screen shot of Los Angeles to Sydney in February 2016 in Business Class. I can assure you that none of those days with 80,000 mile Saver seats are on Delta flights. ;)

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Virgin Australia, KLM, Virgin Atlantic, and Air France flights are not displaying on delta.com on one way searches. You can search them as part of roundtrip awards. You can book them by calling Delta at 800-323-2323.

Let's take a look at the problem with Virgin Australia award space.

New United.com Will Make Award Searching Much Harder. Complain Now to Stop Changes

Update 2/12/16: United brought back the nonstop calendar. The single column for Saver and Standard economy space remains.

United.com has completed a site redesign. The new site is live now.

The old site is still available, but will disappear in a few weeks.

The new united.com is far worse than the old one for award searches. This will negatively affect me, my Award Booking Service, and you.

How I Booked My Friend an Award Home When There Was “No” Award Space

Here is just how easy and how essential it is to search for awards segment-by-segment.

My friend is visiting me in Belgrade, Serbia and wants to fly home to Los Angeles next week, so we were searching for an award for him with United miles, which are definitely the best miles between the United States and Europe.

Unfortunately the only awards available are in Business Class, and he has more time than money or miles.

I'd personally fly this award in flat bed Business Class for 57,500 United miles + $78.

Devaluation: Delta Eliminates Some Mixed Cabin Awards

According to Delta's SkyMiles FAQs, mixed cabin awards are no longer allowed.

Mixed cabin awards used to be explicitly allowed (and indeed this FAQ at a slightly different URL has the old language.)

If mixed cabin awards were totally banned, that would terrible news. I can see three possible maladies:

Delta has "five" cabins: economy, Business, Business Elite, First, and One. Each plane has only two cabins but the front cabin is branded several ways.

How to Book a Five City European Award for 15,000 United Miles

I just booked myself a five city, four country award for 15,000 United miles + $73. Let's back up a little bit before I explain my current award.
My 2013 Euro Hopper
Two years ago, I flew a Seven City, Seven Flight, Six Country Award in Europe for 12,500 United miles plus taxes.

Huge SPG to Aeroplan Transfer Bonus Means Roundtrip To Europe Year Round for 40k Points or 80k Points in First Class

Right now 40k Starpoints plus taxes will get you a roundtrip economy class trip to Europe, 65k Starpoints will get you a roundtrip Business Class ticket, and 80k will get you a roundtrip First Class ticket.

Starpoints always transfer to dozens of airlines at a rate of 20k Starpoints to 25k miles.

Two Tricks When United.com Isn’t Working

United.com is convenient to use, but doesn't work very well.

I ran a simple search the other day, and got a different problem with a different solution for the outbound and the return.
The Plan
I was just running a search from Chicago to Sydney roundtrip.

Award Space Every Day This Summer to Lima

Some credit card offers in this post have expired, but they might come back. If they do they will appear --> Click here for the top current credit card sign up bonuses.

Bri wrote in her Free Credit Card Consultation:
2 passengers, to Lima, Peru. Anytime in July 2015 (hopefully stay 2 weeks). I would love to fly business class but I would like to err on the side of opening just 1 card, if possible. My friend is willing to also open a card.

4 Easy Ways to Spend Less Time on your Miles Hobby

I think miles and points are one area where you don't have to spend hours per day to get great results like flying some of the world's nicest First Class products or taking your family of four on vacation for pennies on the dollar.

Easy enough to get here

You could probably cut the amount of time you spend on this hobby to 20% of your current input and still get 80% of the results.