Anatomy of an Award: Last Minute United Award from Los Angeles to Phuket with a Later Free Oneway

Yesterday I booked an award with United miles from Los Angeles to Phuket, Thailand with a later free oneway from Los Angeles to Newark.

The award illustrates last-second award searching, problem solving with error messages, free oneways, and free changes to awards within 24 hours.

How and Where

How can you book a similar award?

To convince my friend in Los Angeles to meet me in Phuket next week, I offered to book his ticket with miles.

Free Giveaway Friday: Pair of United Club Passes

The contest is over. There were 209 comments and 107 retweets. Congrats to Mike Faust (twitter retweet) on winning! Check back every Friday for potential MileValue giveaways.

Longtime reader Jeff is generously donating two United Club passes that expire 2/28/15 to one lucky winner. There are two ways to win: a comment or a retweet.

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.

You Don’t Need to Be a Hub Captive When Collecting Miles

I think it's a big mistake to be a hub-captive. There's no reason that the credit cards you open have to be related to the dominant carrier at your airport.

Your life will be better if you instead open up the best card for the trip you want regardless of the airline that dominates your home airport.

Why should you ignore your hubby?

Imagine someone in Atlanta who wants to visit Buenos Aires.

Delta is the dominant carrier at ATL, and the only one with a direct flight to Buenos Aires.

You Don’t Need to Be a Hub Captive When Collecting Miles

I think it's a big mistake to be a hub-captive. There's no reason that the credit cards you open have to be related to the dominant carrier at your airport.

Your life will be better if you instead open up the best card for the trip you want regardless of the airline that dominates your home airport.

Why should you ignore your hubby?

Imagine someone in Atlanta who wants to visit Buenos Aires.

Delta is the dominant carrier at ATL, and the only one with a direct flight to Buenos Aires.

Free First Class Next Month 4.0: Using United.com to Search for Awards with United or US Airways Miles

This is the fifteenth post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go. Previously Airline Partners and Hubs.

This is the first of several posts that will talk about the basics of award bookings.

Summer 2014 Award Space Picture to Europe Right Now

Early planners are looking to book their summer trips to Europe

American Miles are Best for Ultra-Luxury, United Miles are Best for Premium

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.

You can increase the value of all your miles by using them for their highest-value uses. You can get more out of this hobby by collecting the right miles for your goal trip.

The first truism is why I started the MileValue Award Booking Service. The second is why I offer Free Credit Card Consultations.

United Gets US Airways Award Space Before US Airways Does

Award seats are bookable when airlines load their schedules. And there are two relevant airlines that need to load their schedules: the operating carrier of the flight and the airline whose miles you want to use.

You can't book a flight until both of the relevant airlines are ready.

For instance, American Airlines allows its miles to be used to book flights 331 days before their departure. Qantas loads its flights' award space space 355 days before departure.

The Best Award Space to Europe this August

I've already written about last second award space to Europe and to Asia this summer. The gist is that some airlines release unsold seats as award seats in the last few days or weeks before travel.

TAP Portugal does a bit of that on its three routes to the US, but it also has award space available in August to Europe in economy and business class, which is very scarce at the moment.

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.