Alaska Airlines has finished the acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines and are now joining forces to create a powerful alliance with over 90 years of history each, while keeping both brands intact. Here’s a quick breakdown of what this means for travelers and award flight enthusiasts:

We’re thrilled to announce a major expansion to AwardFares—we now support GOL Smiles! That’s right, you can now search award flights on GOL, Brazil’s largest airline, using your hard-earned Smiles miles directly through our platform. In addition, GOL is not part of any major airline alliance but has over 57 global airline partners, making Smiles an incredibly rich program full of sweet spots and redemption opportunities.

SAS is on fire this month, and just announced a massive route expansion from Copenhagen in its summer 2025 schedule. The move aims to establish Copenhagen as the airline’s global customer point, with 15 new routes taking flight, including a long-haul route to Seattle, a domestic route to Billund, and 13 exciting European destinations.

Right in the middle of joining SkyTeam’s celebrations, Scandinavian Airlines announced they will be reintroducing direct flights between Copenhagen and Seattle starting in May 2025. This move follows the growing travel demand to the U.S. and customer requests. The new route strengthens ties between Scandinavia and the Pacific Northwest, a region with a strong Scandinavian heritage.

September is loaded with news, right after the switch to SkyTeam. SAS has just released new discounted tickets for EuroBonus members: 30% discount on award flights to/from the USA. The offer applies to one-way and return journeys in SAS Go Bonus, SAS Plus Bonus and SAS Business Bonus, for travel during November. And as usual, children 2-11 years old get 50% of the point price, even on the already discounted price.

On a recent journey back from Japan, I was excited to fly with All Nippon Airways (ANA) for the first time. Although I didn’t manage to try The Room, I was looking forward to experiencing ANA’s hospitality and particularly comparing it to my recent flight with JAL in the A350-1000. When I arrived at the gate, I found that my 787-9 had a special Star Wars livery, which made the trip extra special. Here’s a recap of my flight.

A few weeks ago, Turkish Airlines officially announced a new direct route connecting Istanbul to Santiago, Chile. The first flight will be on December 18th, 2024, and the tickets are now on sale! This marks a significant addition to Turkish Airlines’ expanding network, becoming the airline’s ninth destination in Latin America, along with Buenos Aires (Argentina), São Paulo (Brasil), Bogota (Colombia), La Habana (Cuba), Ciudad de México y Cancún (Mexico), Panama City (Panama), and Caracas (Venezuela).

Identifying sweet spots in any frequent flyer program is what we do for a living. Now that AwardFares supports Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles with a region-based award chart, let’s look into how to hack the it and unlock significant value, particularly when flying Turkish Airlines. Some of the most notable sweet spots include:

American Airlines is expanding its trans-Atlantic network with five new routes, resuming flights to Edinburgh, Scotland (EDI), for the first time since 2019! The airline is also introducing new connections to Athens (ATH), Madrid (MAD), Milan (MXP), and Rome (FCO).

Now that SAS is officially part of SkyTeam, you can earn EuroBonus points when flying SkyTeam Airlines. However, the number of points you earn depend on the fare/booking class and distance flown. Plus, not all SkyTeam partners yield EuroBonus points yet. Here’s a recap of the situation.

SAS is now officially part of SkyTeam, leaving behind many years in Star Alliance. With the transition, it’s now possible to book flights on SkyTeam Airlines with EuroBonus points. Let’s have a look at the full list of partners.

On a recent trip out of Tokyo Haneda (HND) airport, I had a chance to visit the Delta Sky Club for the first time. Their lounge in Tokyo is actually the only international location offered by Delta, and it might be one of the best Delta Sky Club lounges I’ve visited.