United is offering its direct flight from Newark to Honolulu for $420.40 roundtrip on several dates in November and December! I hear Hawaii has better weather than New York that time of year.

For all my Oahu-based readers, the same deal is available in reverse December 3 -11.

How do you get in on the deal?

The easiest way is to start at matrix.itasoftware.com. Type in EWR-HNL or HNL-EWR. Tell the software your desired vacation length and give it a date to start searching.

After hitting search, you'll get a thirty-day calendar.

The legacy carriers--United, US Airways, Delta, American--all charge a fee if you ticket your award by phone instead of online. Here's your guide to avoiding those phone fees:

United

United charges $25 per passenger if you book by phone. They will not waive this phone fee just because a booking could not be completed online. That's frustrating because many multi-city and free-oneway awards can't be booked online. They generate error messages despite being within the routing rules.

Here's how you avoid the phone fee with United:

First, search for and reserve any United flight.

US Airways miles stink because their routing rules and fees are frustrating.

But US Airways miles are incredible because the award chart is so generous. I've talked about sweet spots here and here.

Overall, the sweet spots on the award chart and US Airways off peak awards more than make up for the routing restrictions, so I value US Airways miles more highly than any other airline mile at 1.95 cents each.

If you use US Airways miles correctly, you can reap incredible value.

US Airways and American Airlines have merged since the publication of this post, so it is no longer valid. Click here for the top current credit card sign up bonuses.

US Airways Double Miles Promotion

According to this milepoint thread and this FlyerTalk thread, there is a recent offer to get double miles on any US Airways or US Airways Express flight purchased with a MasterCard or US Airways Dividend Miles MasterCard. To exploit this offer, you must book by October 31.

You must register for the promotion in advance through this link.

The images in this post are showing up smaller than I'd like. I can't solve it, but if you just click on them, they'll go full screen.

Incredible Sub-$800 First Class Fare from Myanmar

Both FlyerTalk and MilePoint are absolutely buzzing about a Star Alliance premium cabin mistake fare departing from Yangon, Myanmar and ending in Montreal, Canada.

The trip routes through Tokyo, Zurich, and New York, and all legs are in premium cabins on great carriers such as Swiss and All Nippon Airways.

Last month, I got an interesting email from reader Ed that started:

Scott,

Please consider if this is viable, albeit challenging to book:

[UA]  DCA-BOS-YYZ-ORD-CLE-EWR // EWR-ZRH-IST, IST-IAD

The answer is yes it is possible, and what it means is that you can add a free circle trip onto roundtrip international United awards.

Hopefully readers of this blog are well acquainted with Free Oneways on United Awards, the most-read post I've written.

The central idea of free oneways is to take your free stopover at your home airport, then start a second trip from there on the same award.

Here are some of the day's hot topics being discussed on the FlyerTalk and milepoint message boards.

Christmas Cutbacks from United and How to Deal With Them

The holidays are bringing some unfortunate consequences for people who book award flights on United around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, as seen in this FlyerTalk thread.

In January, I booked an award

United allows one free stopover on roundtrip awards. I've discovered and posted extensively on how this free stopover can be turned into a free oneway. See Free Oneways on United Awards.

A free oneway is a oneway trip to your home airport before your main award or from your home airport after your award. To unlock a free oneway, you need to conserve your United award's free stopover.

Why? Because you need to take that free stopover at your home airport.

I've talked before about the American Express Platinum personal card with its current sign up bonus worth $1,025, a rebate of 102.5% of the minimum spending requirement.  Click here for the top current credit card sign up bonuses.

One of the benefits that makes the Mercedes-Benz branded version of this card the current third biggest sign up bonus is that you can get $400 worth of airline fees reimbursed by American Express in your first year of being a cardholder.

That's because the $200 annual airline fee reimbursement is a calendar-year benefit.

For instance, I got my AMEX Platinum

About six months ago, I earned United Silver Status, my first ever airline status. And two months ago, the status finally showed up in my account. (Why the delay? See: "A Quixotic Quest to United Silver Status")

My first United flight since earning the status was Labor Day, September 3. I had booked a oneway economy award on United's direct Pittsburgh to LAX flight for 12,500 miles.

I was happy to get the only direct flight for 12,500 miles when it was selling for $600.