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Here’s some lingo you should know when booking an award flight using points or miles. These 25 booking terms can help you sort through the jargon like a pro.

Milan was just named the number one place to go in 2015 by the New York Times. This year the city will host the 2015 World Expo from May 1 until October 31, so if you’re savvy enough with your booking dates you can explore the over 60 pavilions from more than 130 countries for the bargain price of an off-peak award ticket. You’ll have to fly in early May or late October, but you’ll save 20,000 miles.

Starwood Preferred Guest is unlike other hotel reward programs because even though Starwood has a co-branded credit card with American Express, the hotel chain runs its own points transfer program. Members can transfer Starpoints they accrue through credit card spending or hotel stays directly to airlines at an extremely advantageous rate.

For North American flyers, its easy to be confused by all the luxurious Middle Eastern carriers and their provenance.

Who Is the Citi^® / AAdvantage^® Platinum Select^® World Elite Mastercard^® Good For?

If you’re looking for a co-branded American Airlines card that’s relatively low on fees and high on perks, the Platinum Select card is probably a great fit for you.
For just $99 a year, you’ll receive a decent sign-up bonus of at least 50,000 miles, earn a $125 American Airlines Flight Discount and save up to 7,500 miles on select flights with American’s Reduced Mileage awards. You’ll also get a free checked bag, preferred boarding and in-flight discounts on American flights.

If you often fly on American, this could be the right card for you.

AIRLINE TRANSFER PARTNER	American Airlines
ANNUAL FEE	$99 (waived for the first 12 months)
RECOMMENDED CREDIT SCORE	750+
TYPE OF CARD	Mastercard
ISSUER	Citi

Sign-Up Bonuses:

This card’s standard bonus is for 30,000 miles, but a 50,000-mile offer usually comes up more than once a year for several months at a time. Occasionally American will throw in a couple Admirals Club passes, too.
The spend required to earn the bonus miles can vary significantly, with the 30,000-mile offer typically requiring only a $1,000 spend and the 50,000-mile offer between $2,000 and $3,000. You usually have three months to reach the minimum spend.

Points Earned:

• 2 miles per dollar spent on American Airlines
• 1 mile per dollar on everything else
• plus, 2x miles in other categories like restaurants or gas stations, that may change from time to time.

What Do Your Miles Get You?

American Airlines miles can easily be redeemed online for flights on American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Qantas Airways and other oneworld alliance members and partner airlines.

Though American charges a late booking fee and relatively hefty change fees, it has pretty reliable availability booking in advance or close-in (except for big holiday seasons like Christmas) and incredibly low off-peak award rates internationally, so your American Airlines miles can be more valuable than those of other domestic carriers.

Usage Perks:

• First checked bag is free on domestic American Airlines flights for the cardholder and up to four companions on the same reservation
• Preferred boarding on American Airlines-operated flights for the cardholder and up to four companions on the same reservation
• 25 percent off in-flight food and beverage purchases on American Airlines
• Access to a monthly selection of awards discounted at 3,750 miles each way

Usage Quirks:

• Miles expire in 24 months, which is standard for many programs. However, primary AAdvantage® credit cardmembers will not be subject to the 24-month qualifying activity period for as long as their card account is open.

How Far Do Your Points Dollars Go?

When you use off-peak awards to destinations in Eastern Asia, such as Japan, you’ll pay starting from 70,000 miles roundtrip. If you bought that same flight in cash, you’d pay somewhere from $1,328.

You can get even better value if you use miles for high-end cabins on award-winning partner airlines, such as Cathay Pacific which regularly comes in right behind Singapore Airlines’ famous suites in lists of the top first class cabins. For just 160,000 miles roundtrip, you can get nearly 40 hours in the lap of luxury on a flight that typically costs $18,835 roundtrip. That’s a 14 cents per mile value for your AAdvantage miles.

With monthly special awards at 7,500 miles off per roundtrip you can get to select U.S. destinations for 17,500 miles rather than 25,000. At that rate, a $425 round-trip flight from Detroit to San Francisco would get you a 2.4 cents per mile value.

Using off-peak awards with American Airlines is one of the best ways to make your AAdvantage miles go further. If you don’t mind traveling off-season, they offer exceptional savings on flights to Europe and South America.

As you talk with travelers who are hard-core frequent flyer fans, you’ll often hear recurring themes when it comes to vacation destinations. That’s because miles allow you to visit exotic places that you might never visit if you had to pay for the airline ticket out of pocket. Once you’ve unlocked the secret value of frequent flyer miles, you suddenly see new possibilities when planning trips. Here are a few places that most frequent flyer gurus have visited using their miles.

In the world of travel credit card transfer programs, Chase Ultimate Rewards is still a relatively new kid on the block. Its made a name for itself, though, by offering key perks that travelers crave: extremely valuable partners, instant transfers, and an ability to use your points on any flight at any time even when award seats aren’t available.

If you’ve heard the buzz about the three-room apartment in the sky complete with personal butler The Residence you’ve gotten a little taste of how Etihad is pushing the limits of what travelers expect from their airline. That difference also extends to its reward program, Etihad Guest, which includes many of the familiar perks you enjoy in other programs, such as Miles+Cash awards and no blackout dates, along with some innovations, like the ability to cash out your miles directly into money if you so choose.

Who Is the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard Good For?

Though Barclays partners with quite a few hotel, airline and other reward programs for co-branded cards, its Barclaycard Arrival reward program, one of the newest on the travel reward scene, has made a name for itself fast even though it doesn’t actually have any travel transfer partners.

Most hotel loyalty programs allow you to convert hotel points to airline miles. But airline miles are normally more valuable than hotel points (with the notable exception of the SPG program), so transferring points to miles is usually a losing proposition. Your points will transfer with a very poor ratio, around 1,000 points will transfer to between 200 and 400 miles. However, using Marriott’s RewardsPlus Hotel program in conjunction with the United Mileage Plus Program can reap major benefits.

Lufthansa’s Miles and More is one of the best frequent flyer programs among European carriers. Despite some heavy fuel surcharges by Lufthansa and most of its European partners, the Miles and More program has enough sweet spots to make it very valuable, and award flights could be a true bargain under the right  circumstances.

A good way for North American frequent flyers to understand Emirates is to think of it as akin to Alaska Airlines. They are both hometown airlines that have slowly grown through strategic partnerships and smart market choices into major global forces. But they always put the expectations of local passengers first. In the case of Emirates, that means impeccable style and service.

Who Is the Amex EveryDay Preferred Credit Card Good For?

The Amex EveryDay Preferred card is designed to reward frequent spenders rather than the usual big spenders associated with American Express.

One of the most common gripes about frequent flyer programs is that the miles you earn are hard to redeem when you need them. It’s not that airlines want to upset you; it’s just that they don’t want to give away seats they hope to sell. They want to let go only those seats that according to their calculations are going to fly empty anyway. An airline is a commercial enterprise that would rather make money than fly us for free no matter how much we think we deserve it. But if you are flexible, you can make the most of your miles.

When you’re looking for a Caribbean vacation, set your sights on St. Thomas. It’s one of the U.S. Virgin Islands just 1,100 miles southeast of Miami so it’s a snap for Americans to visit. Since the U.S. Virgin Islands (St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix) are a U.S. territory, American citizens don’t need a passport if traveling from the mainland or Puerto Rico.

British Airways awards are an invaluable resource for frequent flyers, thanks to their distance-based award chart, great availability, and cheap, one-tier redemption system.

Named for the mythical silver bird depicted on Singapore Airlines livery, KrisFlyer is one of the most fascinating frequent flyer programs today.

Who Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Good For?

With its earning potential, perks and redemption possibilities, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card along with super-premium Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card is the preeminent travel card on the market.

One of the most exciting new benefits offered by American Express is access to its new line of airport lounges. Dubbed The Centurion Lounge, the company has opened three locations so far in Las Vegas, New York’s LaGuardia, and at Dallas/Fort Worth. These private lounges are an oasis in the middle of three very busy and sometimes chaotic airports.