Fly from Salt Lake City to Minneapolis for $201 round-trip, nonstop, including all taxes, on Delta Airlines.

This fare is valid for travel Monday through Thursday, as well as Saturday, between August 23 and November 16. Labor Day holiday travel, even! Tickets require an advance purchase of 14-days. Seats are limited.

For booking info, see our fare details.

Fly from New York to Martha's Vineyard for$147 round-trip, nonstop, including all taxes, on Deta Airlines. Also available from JetBlue.

This fare is valid for Tuesday/Wednesday travel through September 7. Tickets require a 14-day advance purchase. No minimum stay.

Seats are limited. For booking info, please see our fare details.

By David Landsel

Special to Airfarewatchdog.com

FEEL like going to London, but don't want to pay the tab for airfare? Easy – sign up for a credit card. Recently, we've seen several offers for up to 100,000 bonus miles from the likes of British Airways and American Airlines (as of "going to press" the best AA deal with Citibank is 50,000 miles but that could change).  As airlines look for more ways to make money, they are partnering up with credit card companies and other service providers, who then use miles as enticements to sell their product. Let's take a look at some of the more interesting ways to bulk up your balance without getting on a plane.

GET THE CARD. Which one's right for you? Well, for starters, pick an airline you're going to use, or, if it's a non-specific card, that it benefits you on an airline you plan to use in the future. Also make sure that the card makes every penny you spend – on land, sea or up in the air – pay off in points. I've signed up for the Virgin Atlantic/American Express/Bank of America card which gives me 1.5 miles (rather than the usual 1 mile) for every dollar charged, plus bonus miles. The BA card is great because if you spend enough each year you get a "free" companion frequent flyer ticket (spend however many miles for one frequent flyer seat, and you get a second seat, paying "only" for the taxes and fuel surcharges, which although hefty are still far less than you'd pay for a first or business class seat if you paid cash). Check out this useful advice from Conde Nast Traveler's Wendy Perrin.

SHOP RIGHT. It's amazing how many frequent travelers still don't know how much of their shopping can be done through their favorite airline – United, for example, has an entire online mall – MileagePlusShopping.com—where every purchase is worth points. Buying a new iPad? Don't just shop the Apple Store. Shop it through United's site, and make that pricey iPad pay its way a little. If you're a member of United's Mileage Plus program, the site is really one of the very few shopping bookmarks you'll need on your browser.

BUY A HOUSE. No, really – whether buying or selling real estate, register with Miles4RealEstate.com and get 10,000 free miles from your choice of 15 different airlines for every $100,000 spent or earned. This works great if you're in New York maybe less so if you are buying a house in, say, Detroit. Getting a mortgage? Chances are good there are some miles in it for you – for example, Wells Fargo will give you 1,000 AAdvantage miles for every $10,000 financed on a new purchase.

GET A QUOTE In the market for some new insurance? Hate how they'll always take every speck of your personal information before they'll even give you any information you can use? Make them pay – a little, anyway. Delta Skymiles members, for example, get 1,500 miles when they contact Sentry Insurance for a quote. In addition, the agency is currently running a promotion to award 250,000 Skymiles to a lucky qualifying entrant. All this, without having to buy any insurance?

There are worse things.

JUST SIGN UP It might seem a little obvious, but how about just signing up for an airline's frequent flyer program directly? Sign up for Alaska Airlines' Mileage Plan for example, and get 500 free miles as a thank you. There are other deals for linking your Twitter account to a frequent flyer program, checking in with FourSquare, and other painless activities. The miles do add up! And sometimes it actually makes sense to buy miles, as when there's a 100% bonus offer (buy a mile, get one free).

 MAKE YOUR OTHER TRAVEL PAY. Every time a smart traveler checks into their hotel, they make sure they're triple-dipping. Are you? One, you should be using your pennies-for-points airline credit card. Two, you should be staying somewhere that benefits your hotel rewards program – for example, Hilton Honors and Marriott Rewards are easy-to-manage programs to join and participate in. Three, ensure that a frequent flier number is on your reservation, in case that bumps up your balance as well. All of the above goes for rental cars too.

USEFUL SITES

We're just scratching the surface here. To really get down and dirty with miles and points, check out these specialist sites:

Freefrequentflyermiles.com

Thepointsguy.com

FrugralTravelGuy

OneMileAtATime

By GEORGE HOBICA
Airfarewatchdog.com

You've probably read that the "Miracle on the Hudson" plane flown by Captain Chesley Sullenberger is finding a new home in Charlotte at the Carolina Aviation Museum. But Sully's feat in saving the lives of all onboard isn't the only hero pilot story in aviation history.

You also  know that flying is still the safest way to get from A to B – it's just that when things go wrong in midair, they go very, very wrong. Or do they? Not every major malfunction results in mass fatalities; here are six amazing instances where pilots were able to avoid loss of life in the face of major adversity.

JUST FEEL YOUR WAY AROUND Airbus, Boeing, Tupolev. Which one of these is not like the others? For decades, none of them. Tupolev, a Russian aerospace and defense company, was long the wind beneath the wings of the Soviet Union and its pals, supplying passenger jets to everyone from the Chinese to the Cubans. Times change; fast forward to the present and you have an Aeroflot that prefers the company of Airbus and Boeing, leaving Tupolev's stock to competitors such as domestic flyer Alrosa Mirny Air. On a simple run from the diamond mining town of Udachny back to Moscow's Domodedovo Airport, pilots Andrei Lomanov and Evgeny Novoselov sat shocked, watching as the plane's electrical supply suffered a total meltdown, leaving them at 10,000 feet with no navigation equipment in a low visibility situation. With no other way to land than by sight, the pilots brought the plane down as close as possible to the ground, eventually locating the shuttered Izhma Airport, where they successfully landed on the too-short runway, before skidding into the forest. The plane was totaled; all 72 passengers and 9 crew members escaped unharmed. President DImitry Medvedev called the pilots national heroes.

HARD LANDING What do you call an airplane without engines? Er, a hang glider? We would also have accepted as the correct answer "Cathay Pacific Airways Flight 780," on April 13, 2010. On that day, a perfectly boring flight from the city of Surabaya, Indonesia to Hong Kong turned into a thrill ride from hell after both engines on the Airbus A330-300 went kaput. This left the pilots high and dry on their approach into Hong Kong's bustling airport, where air traffic control was able to clear a path for the bat-out-of-hell plane, which touched the ground at a speed of more than 250 mph, more than 100 miles per hour faster than the plane should have been able to manage. And it barely did; the landing gear basically blew up as the aircraft came down. There were multiple injuries, but all 322 people on board survived. Investigators later discovered that bad practices at the airport in Surabaya had caused fuel contamination, resulting in engine problems.

SHORT STOP It was a frosty January day in 2008 at London's Heathrow Airport, and British Airways Flight 38 from Beijing's Capital International Airport was just one of many coming in for a landing, gliding over the bustling Hatton's Cross intersection toward its assigned runway. Three seconds before touching down, the control tower received alarming news – the pilots of Flight 38 were declaring an emergency. Having narrowly missed crashing into the middle of the A30 highway, the Boeing 777 bellyflopped into an open field, skidding to a stop at the foot of the runway. The plane was totaled – miraculously, everyone on board was pretty much fine. In fact, passengers later reported, they had no idea as to the serious danger they were in – one told London's Daily Telegraph that while the landing was rough, he'd experienced his share of touchy landings; this one was "so unsurprising that it was insufficient to stop me working on my Sudoku puzzle." Now that's what you call great service.   

SHOOT OUT! The act of getting a plane up into the air carries with it a certain number of risks; imagine trying to take off in the middle of a war zone. In November of 2003, the three-man crew of a DHL cargo plane faced the ultimate test. Seconds after liftoff from Baghdad International Airport, their Airbus A300 was struck on its left wing by a surface-to-air missile, fired by militants loyal to Saddam Hussein. The strike destroyed an engine and disabled the plane's hydraulics, forcing the crew to resort to risky experimental maneuvers to get the craft back to the ground, which they managed successfully just ten minutes later. Without hundreds of passengers on board, the pilots never received much notoriety.

AND OF COURSE THERE'S FLIGHT 1549  Perhaps no near-miss in modern history is quite as celebrated as the one involving US Airways Flight 1549. The Airbus 320 lifted off from New York's LaGuardia Airport on a chilly winter morning in 2009, only to tangle with a flock of geese as the plane ascended above The Bronx. The result: Loss of both engines so quickly and completely, the crew had no choice but to make an emergency landing in the first available spot. Barely clearing the George Washington Bridge, the plane touched down successfully in the Hudson River. All 155 people on board escaped with their lives, in part due to the location of the crash just off Manhattan's west side, mere meters from a busy commuter ferry stop. Widely regarded as one of the most successful water landings in history, the pilot, Chesley Sullenberger, achieved instant celebrity.  

Fly from Boston to San Juan, Puerto Rico for $244 round-trip, nonstop, including all taxes, on JetBlue.

This fare is valid for travel on select dates in late summer/fall, from August through October. Not available for travel on Fridays or Sundays. Tickets require a 21-day advance purchase.

For booking info, see our fare details.

Fly from Minneapolis to Reno for $200 round-trip, including all taxes, on American Airlines.

This fare is valid for travel Monday through Thursday, as well as Saturday, August through February. Be warned, seats are scarce in late summer. Tickets require a 21-day advance purchase. No minimum stay.

For booking info, see our Fare Details.

By George Hobica

Airfarewatchdog.com

Savvy traveler that you are, you've seen scores of offers to buy frequent flyer miles, which is almost always a bad idea. There is typically one exception, however: the US Airways Dividend Miles program, which occasionally runs promotions that offer major bonuses on the purchase of miles. The latest one expires June 30, 2011. Taking advantage of it wisely, you can fly to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Europe, South America, and more for about $1,000-$1400 in Business Class on Star Alliance partners.

For every mile you purchase from US Airways, they will give you a 100% bonus.  If you purchase 50,000 miles (the current maximum, which will cost you about $1400 with taxes), the airline will give you a 50,000 miles bonus. That is enough for a business class ticket to Europe, more than enough for a business class ticket to Japan or South Korea, and almost enough to go to Australia or New Zealand in business class. US Airways charges .0275 cents per mile you purchase, but this is a great way to purchase your travel since even economy tickets on many of these routes are priced similarly to the cost of your miles making this an instant upgrade to business class.

This is an amazing deal that provides value to both existing US Airways flyers, those who want to add to orphan accounts with just a few miles in them, or those who want to start new US Airways accounts (although the US Dividend Miles account must be open for 12 days in order to take advantage of this promotion so open one by June 18 if you don’t have one already).

Here are a few things to be aware of before purchasing. Take a look at the airline's excellent award chart to see where you want to go and how many points it will cost (PDF file).

Then, read our article on how to find the best US Airways award availability using the ANA chart. Once you know how many miles you need, register for the promotion and purchase the miles here.

Remember, this promotion for bonus miles expires at the end of June although you have as long as you like to redeem the miles as long as you keep your account active. To book most US Airways tickets on Star Alliance partners, you have to call the airline directly. Read our article on the ANA chart to learn how to piece together your flights so that you have the exact flights with availability ready for the agent before calling them.

But how much will you actually save by buying the miles rather than buying business class or other fares? A lot. For example, a New York to Sydney business class fare, when we last looked, cost $8,974 including tax, departing in July, 2011. Let's say you have a measly 10,000 US Airways miles in your account and you buy 50,000 more plus get a 50,000 mile bonus for a total cost of $1375. Business class seats can be had, subject to availability, for 110,000 miles on US Airways' Star Alliance partner United. Your potential savings: $7,599. We have outlined a few scenarios showing the actual cost of various flights compared to the cost of the miles if you purchased them via this promotion. Keep in mind that some travel dates will cost more in cash or miles than others, so your savings won't be as huge in every possible scenario.

*All flights were searched using sample travel dates of July 5-12, 2011. Keep in mind that award seats won't be available on all possible travel dates.

**Don't forget US Airways has special promotions for reduced mileage tickets between the US and Europe on US Airways flights only with business class tickets costing 60,000 Dividend Miles and economy class costing 35,000 Dividend Miles. It's 5,000 miles less if you have the US Airways-branded credit card. That promotion usually runs between Jan. 15 and Feb. 28 each year and adds tremendous value to buying miles now for use next winter.
***Canadian citizens must pay a 7.5% tax recovery charge on their purchases, but the value for a business or first class redemption is still there.

Here are some sample scenarios for spending US Airways miles you've bought with a 100% mileage bonus, on various flights, with a comparison of how much the fares would cost if you bought them in cash. Flights were researched in June 2011 for travel departing July 5 and returning July 12. Keep in mind that award seats won't be available on all flights, and on some travel dates you might need more miles than those stated here.

Spanair has been selling seats on US Airways to Barcelona and Madrid for fares as low as $396 round-trip including tax. Most of the deals are for travel beginning October 23, but we even found peak summer fares for the low $400’s including tax.
 
Oddly, some of the best peak summer deals are leaving from New Orleans. We have no idea why.
 
And the travel date restrictions vary not just depending on departure city, but they’ve been changing from hour to hour. And as with any unadvertised airfare sale, these fares could disappear or change at any moment.
 
If you’re planning on spending a month in Europe, the sweet spot this summer is, for some unknown reason, departing on July 18 and returning August 17. That’s when the lowest fares are available in general, for summer travel. Some of these fares are as low as $500 round-trip with tax. That's amazing for peak summer travel, but only specific dates are available. If you don't know how to do a flexible date search for airfare, start here.
 
But if you can wait to travel in the fall, fares are even lower, and in most cases the sweet spot is departing October 23-30, although on some routes you can travel between October 23 until the end of March 2012.
 
Another oddity: these fares seem to be easier to find on Travelocity and Expedia; some are not showing up on Orbitz or Kayak.
 
Even if you cannot find super cheap fares to Spain, there this Spanair/US Airways combination offers the lowest fares compared to other airlines from virtually every U.S. city served by US Airways. And for a bit more, you can visit other Spanish cities.
 
Here is a sampling of fares to Barcelona and to Madrid
 
If you don’t see fares from your city, be creative. Nothing from New York City? Philadelphia is just a Bolt Bus ride away. Nothing from Washington? Fly from Baltimore. But whatever you do, act fast because fares like these may not last long.

Fly from Boston to Madrid for $350 round-trip, including all taxes, with US Airways/Spanair. This fare is valid for Fall/Winter travel every day of the week except Fridays and Saturdays. Lot's of available dates.

Similarly low fares available to Barcelona.

For booking info, see our fare details page.