Many travelers have Australia on their bucket list. There really is something for everyone, from the snorkeling and diving at the Great Barrier Reef to wineries, cool cities and spectacular beaches. 

The competition for the very limited number of award seats to get there, however, is fierce. Airlines’ frequent miler programs certainly don’t make it easy and finding award space on the nonstop flights from the U.S. could be quite a challenge.

With its Giza pyramids, Sahara Desert and the Nile River, Egypt is known for many things and therefore is a popular travel destination. I must admit that this African country had been on my bucket list for an embarrassingly long amount of time, and I’m happy to share that I finally checked it off the list.

Egypt opened borders in July to travelers who can provide a negative PCR test for COVID-19. A visa is also required for U.S. citizens.

After the last round of offers for The Platinum Card® from American Express that came with a 100,000 Membership Rewards welcome offer (or more!), a lot of people will find themselves in possession of a huge number of Membership Rewards points.

If you’d like to maximize your latest haul of these extremely valuable points, read on, because we’ve got a fantastic idea for you that will allow you to stretch those points further than you ever imagined.

Japan’s largest airline All Nippon Airways (ANA) offers one of the absolutely best deals in the points and miles world.

Air Canada’s loyalty program, Aeroplan, has been involved in so much drama in the last few years, any telenovela would be jealous of the twists and the turns.

For about 25 years, Aimia Inc. operated Aeroplan independently of Air Canada. The Montreal-based carrier planned to launch a new program but eventually bought Aeroplan back from Aimia for 450 million Canadian dollars in 2018. Now that Aeroplan has returned to Air Canada, the program underwent many changes, and we have the final result.

The program has migrated to a new system, but luckily everyone’s miles are intact.

Colombian air carrier Avianca might not be on your radar, but its loyalty program, LifeMiles, should be. It’s got pretty solid award redemption rates (when you can find ’em) and no fuel surcharges on partner bookings.

The program is a transfer partner of several flexible reward programs, which means your account can be topped off at any time.

LifeMiles uses a region-based award chart, yet still offers opportunities to book awards at promotional rates.

Avianca Partners

Avianca is a Star Alliance member, the largest airline alliance in the world.

If you’re anything like us, nearly every moment of this pandemic has been spent dreaming of travel. Especially as we try to avoid nauseating headlines like “Corona” being on the rise for baby names. With U.S. residents barred from entering Europe for the foreseeable future, now is the time to focus on feasible travel.

In this three-part series, we are looking at the basics of the cheapest domestic awards.

Avianca has a co-branded credit card issued by Banco Popular called the Avianca Vuela Visa that comes with 40,000 Avianca LifeMiles after your first purchase on the card and a $149 annual fee.

Singapore Krisflyer, loyalty program of Singapore Airlines, increased the price of various partner award prices on April 16, 2019. These changes weren't without notice, as they announced in March the impending devaluation. Devaluations always suck but are inevitable.

Singapore devaluations sting in a special way as they are by far the easiest mile to earn. Every major transferrable point currency--Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Citi Thank You Points, Capital One miles and Marriott Rewards--transfer to Singapore Krisflyer, so they are the sweetheart of foreign loyalty programs.

Thankfully the changes weren't drastic.

The cheapest level of Business Class award space on United--that is also the only kind of award space bookable with partner miles--is pretty wide open in the early winter months of Australia's winter, which is early summer in the United States. May and June 2019 have the most days available, and with a few scattered seats open in April, July, and August. All beds are fully lie-flat.

This is news because it's not common to see this many Business Class award seats open to Australia, a notoriously hard destination to get to with miles.

In celebration of their 20th anniversary, the Star Alliance is giving 21 people one million miles (or the determined equivalent, depending on the frequent flyer program). One set will be given out from each loyalty program in the alliance.

This giveaway is a little different than sweepstakes past, as it's not technically a giveaway. You have to earn your prize.
Here's how to enter the Mileage Millionaire competition:

Upload a picture of yourself (preferably on a blank/white background), as well as a picture of a "unique cultural experience" on the official competition website.