Get 1,000 United miles just for signing up for MileagePlus dining. Get another 500 miles per qualifying restaurant visit in the next two months up to an additional 2,500 bonus miles.

These aren't huge miles, but they are easy to get, since signing up will just take a few minutes and is free.

Generous reader Caveman is donating two United Club passes that expire June 30, 2017–bout a year and a half from now–to one lucky winner.

United has lounges all over the world. The clubs are a pleasant place to relax in a comfortable chair, use free wifi, and enjoy free snack and drinks. Here are the amenities. One-time entry goes for $59, so this giveaway could be worth up to $118.

There are two ways to enter this contest:

Comment on this post for a chance to win the passes.

United.com was redesigned last fall. Most of the changes were neutral or positive, but one was atrocious.

Starting June 1, 2016, United will fly daily nonstop between San Francisco and Singapore.

This will be the first nonstop flight between Singapore and the United States since Singapore Airlines dumped routes to Los Angeles and Newark in 2013.

UA1 (flight #1? they must be proud): Depart San Francisco at 11:25 PM, arrive in Singapore at 6:45 AM +2 days
UA2: Depart Singapore at 8:45 AM, arrive in San Francisco at 9:15 AM (the same day)

That's 16:20 westbound and 15:30 eastbound.

You can already search award space on united.com.

Updated 1/29/16 to reflect new Aeroplan award prices effective for awards booked 12/15/15 or later.
Updated 10/6/15 to reflect new ANA award prices effective for awards booked 10/15/15 or later.

In the last few weeks, I have published some comparative charts of Star Alliance award charts. I'm putting all of those charts into this post for easier reference.

You can use any type of Star Alliance miles to book almost any Star Alliance flight. (Swiss, Lufthansa, and Singapore hold back some premium cabin award space for their own members.

Updated 1/27/16 because the offer ends tomorrow.

United has announced a 20% to 25% discount on economy class awards from the United States to Sydney, Australia:

Roundtrip awards booked between now and January 28, 2016
for flights flown between February 2 and June 22, 2016
on itineraries wholly operated by United and United Express flights
will cost only 60k to 64k miles roundtrip, depending on the days of travel

United has run nearly identical promotions for travel to Europe and South America for the last several years.
United’s Current Promotion

I did a few dummy bookings to test out what’s

The three best uses of ThankYou Points are:

Transferring to Singapore miles to book Singapore Suites

Transferring to Singapore miles to book United First Class to Hawaii
Transferring to Etihad miles to book American Airlines flights

Singapore Suites
Singapore Suites is inarguably one of the nicest First Class in the world.

I just booked myself an award from Los Angeles to Santiago, Chile in Business Class for 35,000 Asiana miles + $24. United would have charged 55,000 miles for the same flights!

Why Asiana Miles
Asiana has really cheap awards to Europe and South America and really expensive awards elsewhere.

Award space is wide open in Turkish Airlines Business Class between the United States and Europe for four people per flight over the heart of the Summer.

This is amazing news because normally award space over the summer is the toughest to find, finding four seats on the same flight in Business Class is almost unheard of, Turkish flies to more countries than any other airline, and you can book the space for as cheap as 40,000 miles one way with no fuel surcharges.
Turkish Routes
These are Turkish's routes to the United States.

From Istanbul, there are great

United 903
Honolulu (HNL) – Tokyo (NRT)
Depart: 11:50 AM on Saturday December 26, 2015
Arrive: 4:00 PM on Sunday, December 27, 2015
Duration: 9:10
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Seat: 13J BusinessFirst (United confusingly calls Business Class "BusinessFirst." The real First Class is called "Global First.")

Because I was flying international Business Class, I had free access to the United Club, which is right above Gate 8, the gate we were using, at Honolulu International Airport.

I left the United Club at about 11:15 AM, ten minutes after boarding started.