Author Archives: Andy Shuman

5 Best First Class Deals and Cabins in the World and How to Get Them Without Refinancing Your House

Posted on August 6, 2019 by Andy Shuman • 12 Comments

My Best First Class Deals report is tilted toward flights from/to the U.S. You won’t find anything on Garuda Indonesia, Oman Air, or Thai; sorry. My focus is on values. Some might say I’m obsessed with values. I don’t care if your First Class seat is beyond amazing — if it costs a million… Continue Reading

Filed Under: Bargains, Cheap Travel, Miles and Points

Fly to Europe for 25,000 Miles in Business Class, Plus Award Space Update, and More!

Posted on August 5, 2019 by Andy Shuman • 7 Comments

The 40% Amex Iberia transfer bonus is here again. Amex also extends the same bonus to British Airways and Aer Lingus, but the best Unicorn-like way to use this bonus is flying Business Class on Iberia. Flights between the U.S. and Madrid start at 72,000 Avios per round trip. That’s already quite generous, and… Continue Reading

Filed Under: Bargains, Cheap Travel, Credit Cards, Miles and Points

UPDATED 8.3.2019: (Book by Phone) Lie-Flat Seats on United in the U.S./North America for 12,500/15,000 Points

Posted on August 3, 2019 by Andy Shuman • 9 Comments

IMPORTANT UPDATE: You can now redeem Turkish partners’ awards over the phone. This is yet another game changer because the Turkish award chart has some amazing and very unique sweet spots. HT Nick @Frequent Miler and VFTW. Recently Nick Reyes from Frequent Flyer shared an amazing find: some time ago, the Turkish Miles and… Continue Reading

Filed Under: Bargains, Credit Cards, Miles and Points

Are Spirit Miles Worth More Than Magazine Subscriptions? I’ll Help You Decide!

Posted on July 22, 2019 by Andy Shuman • 14 Comments

This post has been born out of my most recent screw-up. A couple of months ago I canceled my Netflix subscription. Why was that a screw-up, you might ask. Well, here is the timeline. I cancel my Netflix subscription starting June 1. It fell off my BoA Spirit credit card automatic payments. Since I… Continue Reading

Filed Under: Bargains, Cheap Travel, Credit Cards, Miles and Points

HURRY UP: Good to Excellent JAL Business/First Class Availability Bookable on AA.com!

Posted on July 13, 2019 by Andy Shuman • 0 Comments

American AAdvantage Sweet Spots That Are Still With Us I thought I’d covered all American sweet spots in my previous installment — well, I was wrong. As I was reading this Frequent Miler’s post about the new AA website functionality (you can now search JAL awards on the AA web site) it kind of… Continue Reading

Filed Under: Miles and Points

American AAdvantage Sweet Spots That Are Still With Us

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Andy Shuman • 17 Comments

At first, I wanted to update this post from August 2015. I wrote it when I was madly in love with the then awesome AAdvantage program. I decided against it for 2 reasons. First, a LOT of things have changed. It would’ve been an exercise in striking whole paragraphs. And second, I thought it… Continue Reading

Filed Under: Bargains, Cheap Travel, Miles and Points

The New Citi 48 Month Rule Now Covers All Citi AAdvantage Cards INCLUDING Business Cards and No, It Isn’t Good!!

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Andy Shuman • 8 Comments

The new Citi 48-month rule changing their AAdvantage cards eligibility language from 24 to 48 months has mostly been met with a stamp of approval from the blogosphere. I respectfully disagree. As a reminder, here are the old restrictions: You can’t get a sign-up bonus for the card from the same “family” if you’ve… Continue Reading

Filed Under: Cheap Travel, Miles and Points

UPDATED! New Delta Award Sale: Europe in Premium Select and Economy (Mostly Paris or Amsterdam) From 35,000 and 62,000 Miles per ROUND TRIP!

Posted on July 1, 2019 by Andy Shuman • 0 Comments

This Delta Award Sale to Europe is focusing on a Premium Select cabin, although deals in Economy are available too. The savings are real, and the price is really good. I’ve never flown Premium Select, but reviews tend to be glowing, and some compare it favorably to domestic First Class. With 68,000 SkyMiles you would… Continue Reading

Filed Under: Bargains, Cheap Travel, Miles and Points

Avios: Iberia vs British Airways: Which Avios to Use to Fly Iberia in Spain?

Posted on June 28, 2019 by Andy Shuman • 5 Comments

Avios is the common currency for all 3 airlines, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Iberia, which might give you a false idea that all these programs are the same or similar. Nothing can be further from the truth. They have very different programs, separate peak and off-peak calendars, and, most importantly, different fuel surcharge… Continue Reading

Filed Under: Bargains, Cheap Travel, Miles and Points

Deals and Unicorns in the New Citi 25% Bonus to Flying Blue — Part 2: USA to Europe and South America

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Andy Shuman • 0 Comments

Previous post: Deals and Unicorns in the New 25% Citi Transfer Bonus to Flying Blue — Part 1: USA to Israel UPDATE 6.2019: This article was posted 3 months ago when Amex had the same 25% transfer bonus to Flying Blue. I’ve completely rewritten it by looking for new deals (and duds) in the Citi… Continue Reading

Filed Under: Bargains, Cheap Travel, Miles and Points

Author Archives: Andy Shuman

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