Weekend Blitz

McCown and I are working on researching a trip to Myanmar for sometime in 2015 and have been scouring the internet trying to learn all that we can about how to get there, what to see, where to stay, etc… We’ll have a few points related to our Myanmar trip planning over the next few weeks, but, first of all: What’s the best way to get to Myanmar using miles or points from North America? 

Map of Myanmar/Burma. Yangon = home of the main international airport for the country. Mandalay, Bagan and Inle Lake are popular tourist destinations within the country.

There are essentially 3 major international [...]

As reported here, American Express is running a 40% bonus on transfers to British Airways Avios for the next ~6 weeks.

The Deal

For a limited time, all transfers from American Express Membership Rewards points to British Airways Avios will receive a 40% transfer bonus. It is reported that this deal will last until 1/31/2015, but it is always possible that it could end sooner– so, I would suggest jumping on it ASAP. The transfer is hard coded on the AMEX website at a rate of: 1,000 Membership Rewards® Points = 1,400 Avios.

You can use British Airways Avios miles to book oneworld alliance partner flights, including those on: American Airlines, US [...]

Ever since US Airways and American Airlines announced their merger, I’ve been excited about the prospect of having many more options of using British Airways Avios for award flights within the US. This thought became reality on March 31, 2014 when US Airways offically joined the Oneworld Alliance and thus, overnight, travelers in the US had many more options to maximize Avios redemptions.

This opens up lots of opportunities for maximizing short, non-stop flights out of or to American Airlines’ and US Airways’ hub cities:

As I wrote about here (How-to: Book US Airways Flights With British Airways Avios), US Airways officially joined the Oneworld Alliance a few months ago. Joining the ranks of American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, LAN, etc., US Airways is now eligible for bookings with Avios. This opens up lots of opportunities for maximizing short, non-stop flights out of US Airways’ hub cities: Charlotte-CLT, Philadelphia-PHL, Washington-Reagan-DCA and Phoenix-PHX.

First in this series was Charlotte, North Carolina-CLT, then Philadelphia-PHL and Washington-DCA. Now, we’ll look at Phoenix, Arizona. It turns out that just short of the Washington-Reagan hub, [...]

As I wrote about here (How-to: Book US Airways Flights With British Airways Avios), US Airways officially joined the Oneworld Alliance a few months ago. Joining the ranks of American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, LAN, etc., US Airways is now eligible for bookings with Avios. This opens up lots of opportunities for maximizing short, non-stop flights out of US Airways’ hub cities: Charlotte-CLT, Philadelphia-PHL, Phoenix-PHX and Washington-Reagan-DCA.

First in this series was Charlotte, North Carolina-CLT, then Philadelphia-PHL and now we’ll look at Washington, D.C. It turns out that the Washington-Reagan hub has the fewest international [...]

As I wrote about here (How-to: Book US Airways Flights With British Airways Avios), US Airways officially joined the Oneworld Alliance about a month ago. Joining the ranks of American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, LAN etc…, US Airways is now eligible for bookings with Avios. This opens up lots of opportunities for maximizing short, non-stop flights out of US Airways’ hub cities: Charlotte-CLT, Philadelphia-PHL, Phoenix-PHX and Washington-Reagan-DCA.

First in this series was Charlotte, North Carolina-CLT, and now we have flights out of Philadelphia-PHL. There are easily 60+ million people that can reach Philadelphia International Airport in less [...]

As I wrote about here (How-to: Book US Airways Flights With British Airways Avios), US Airways officially joined the Oneworld Alliance about a month ago. Joining the ranks of American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, LAN etc…, US Airways is now eligible for bookings with Avios. This opens up lots of opportunities for maximizing short, non-stop flights out of US Airways’ hub cities: Charlotte-CLT, Philadelphia-PHL, Phoenix-PHX and Washington-Reagan-DCA.

First in this series is Charlotte, North Carolina-CLT. From my research, appx 30 million people live within a 5-hour drive of the city, making it relatively easy for them to drive and take take [...]

Starting on March 31, 2014, US Airways officially joined the Oneworld Alliance as part of its merger with American Airlines. The biggest news and best part about this change is that you can now use British Airways Avios to book award flights on US Airways.

British Airways/Iberia Avios miles are [glossy term=”distance based awards”]:  on the surface, it seems like you’re getting a bad deal on award redemptions. But, as with anything involving miles, it opens up possibilities to find great values on non-stop short distance flights.

Here’s the British Airways Avios award chart:

British Airways flies a surprisingly large number of routes within the Caribbean–this can save hundreds of dollars if you’re interested in doing some island hopping and really opens up your vacation possibilities. Here are the destinations served:

Legend: Red = British Airways operated flights (confirmed bookable with Avios)Green = Codeshare American Airlines, operated by Seaborne Airlines (confirmed bookable with AA miles, not positive about Avios)

As stated in the caption, any flight in Red on the map or with a designation of BA in the [...]