Get Virgin Australia Status and Miles by Flying Delta Award Ticket?

I met the author of Don't Call the Airline (great blog name, right?), a Canadian frequent flyer miles blog, at the Chicago Seminars.

He came up to me and told me about how he had earned 20,000+ Virgin Australia Velocity miles and status by flying a Delta AWARD ticket.

What did DCTA do to "earn" the miles?
Is the process repeatable?

Trick
After booking his roundtrip in Virgin Australia Business Class with Delta miles, DCTA added his Virgin Australia Velocity number to the award ticket.

Virgin Australia mistakenly credited him for a full Business Class paid ticket, some 22

Reminder: You Can Still Book United Awards at Pre-Devaluation Prices

You can still pay United's award prices from January 2014 and before for premium cabin awards.

The catch is that you need to be changing an existing award that you booked February 2, 2014 or earlier.

My Second Best Travel Tip (Don’t Get Lost Abroad)

I actually haven't ranked my travel tips, but I love this one because it's super simple and saves me from getting lost all around the world.

But it's not my #1 travel tip, which would probably be "use miles" or "travel more" or "travel solo" or something like that.

It may not even be my #2 travel tip because you can save a lot of money with these two:

How I Pay Zero ATM Fees Worldwide
How to Get Free Texts and Cell Phone Data (Almost) Worldwide

Anyway, here's how I avoid getting lost worldwide when I don't have cell

I Changed a United Award to Lufthansa First Last Week at the Old Price

The 50k mile bonus offer is back on the Lufthansa card mentioned in this post until 6/30/14.

United Ends Free Holds Online, But You Can Still Use This Trick

Update 3/6/14: This post is outdated. See Master Thread: Holds on United Awards

In What You Need to Know about United Award Holds, I ran through the two ways to hold a United award online:

Any award that contains a partner segment can be held for free if your account does not have sufficient miles to ticket the award immediately.

Holiday Travel Tips from MileValue Featured on Forbes

The card offer in this post has expired so its links have been removed. Click here for the top current credit card sign up bonuses.

I was featured in a recent Forbes article called "20 Holiday Travel Secrets from Industry Insiders" about tips for cheaper and more comfortable holiday travel.

How You Can Be Better at Award Searching than United.com

United.com has one glaring flaw in the way that it was programmed that you can correct to become a better award searcher than united.com.

This is the ultimate trick when united.com tells you there is no Saver Award Availability on the route you want on the date you want.

How can you be better at award searching than united.com?

United.com's award searching program is just that, a computer program.

How You Can Be Better at Award Searching than United.com

United.com has one glaring flaw in the way that it was programmed that you can correct to become a better award searcher than united.com.

This is the ultimate trick when united.com tells you there is no Saver Award Availability on the route you want on the date you want.

How can you be better at award searching than united.com?

United.com's award searching program is just that, a computer program.

Free Oneways on United Awards within the USA

Reader Christopher emailed me an exciting tip the other day: free oneways are possible on United awards within the continental USA and Canada. I already knew free oneways were possible on international United awards and awards to Hawaii, but this was news.

He sent me some screenshots, and I was able to replicate his findings and add some more of my own. I learned four things:

Christopher's tip: You can get a free oneway on roundtrip Standard economy awards within the US and Canada. That means three oneway Standard awards for 50k United miles.

Save 15,000 Miles with the Hidden City Trick on Your Next Award

United, US Airways, American, and Delta among others rely on award charts to determine the price of your award.