Here’s the best travel advice, tips and tricks, the highlights of View from the Wing out of 204 posts in January.

Last month I provided the best travel tips from December. Before that I collated the best travel tips from November.

Here’s where you can find the very best travel posts from October, here’s the best travel posts from September, and from August. In July I offered the most useful and interesting developments from June as well in the first of the series.

It turns out, surprisingly, that this feature is really popular, at least judging by the emails I get — people that don’t read the blog every day really appreciated the recap and not having to dig through all of the posts to find the most enduring ones.

These are some that were my favorites from January. I hope you were happy with some of the posts and got something out of them as well.

Rewards Credit Cards

• My Rewards Credit Card Strategy for 2015
  
• Chase Sapphire Preferred Remains the Best Rewards Card for 2015
  
• Short-term Opportunity as Competition Heats Up Between Banks Issuing American Airlines Credit Cards
  
• 70,000 Point Limited-Time Offer for the IHG Rewards Club MasterCard
  
• How to Get the Biggest Bonuses for Your Spending
  
• Citibank Offering Free FICO Scores to Cardmembers
  
• Citi Adds Virgin Atlantic as a ThankYou Points Transfer Partner
  
• I Just Pocketed $600 From American Express
  
• The Key Questions to Ask Before You Panic Over a Purchase of Airline Gift Cards With an Amex Fee Credit
  
• How and Why to Get Small Business Credit Cards
  
• How to Identify the Best Rewards Card for You
  
• How to Find Out if You’re Eligible for a 100,000 Point American Express Bonus
  
• Credit Karma Recommends the Most Lucrative Card in History
  
• Citibank’s Offer of 100,000 American Miles for 2 Card Signups
  
• British Airways 50,000 Point Bonus With $0 Fee the First Year Available Through March 31

Earning Miles

• Beginner’s Guide: 6 Simple Steps to Get Started With Miles and Points and Make Your Dream Travels Happen
  
• 100 Free American AAdvantage miles
  
• Earn Big Miles for Checking and Investment Accounts
  
• Club Carlson Has the Best Hotel Promotion This Quarter
  
• Hyatt’s New Promotion Details Finally Revealed, What Did You Get?
  
• Don’t Mess Up The New Hyatt Promo By Making This One Simple Mistake
  
• United Copies American This Time With Big Premium Cabin Mileage Bonuses as a Stopgap Until They Go Revenue-Based

Using Your Miles

• United’s Secret Award Discount Still Works: Save 25,000 Miles on US-Europe Business Class Partner Awards
  
• Fuel Surcharge Loophole: Begin Your Return from Asia in Manila
  
• Chase Points Transfer to Korean Air Skypass Again!
  
• Delta Eliminates Extra Award Availability for Elites and Co-Brand Credit Card Holders
  
• When Frequent Flyer Fraud Units Go Off the Rails
  
• Airline Transfer Partner Threatens to Shut Down Accounts for Transferring In Points
  
• American Express is Testing Buying You First and Business Class Tickets on United and American.. as though they were awards.
  
• Transatlantic Business Class Awards Were WIDE OPEN On US Airways
  
• 35% Bonus on American Express Transfers to Virgin America Through February 15

• Schedule Change Causes Fantastic American Airlines Premium Cabin Award Space to South America
  
• Delta Adds Two New Asian Partners to Online Award Booking Tool
  
• Who Has the Best Business Class to Europe for Using Miles?
  
• Transatlantic Economy Awards for 13,125 Miles Each Way
  
• Delta Changes Its Award Chart Just One Week Into the New Program
  
• Delta’s Award Pricing Really Is Broken: Charging Double and Triple for a Simple Domestic One-Way

Behind the Scenes of Miles and Points

• The State of the Hobby: Frequent Flyer Miles in 2015
  
• Huge British Airways Devaluation Coming April 28: How It Will (or Won’t) Affect You
  
• How Hyatt Hotels Decide Whether to Make Cash & Points Awards Available
  
• Frequent Flyer Programs Aren’t Really Rewarding Expensive Fare Customers More, They’re Just Hurting Them Less
  
• Inside Flyer Ceases Publication
  
• Is Citibank About to Start Sending Out 1099s for Credit Card Rewards?
  
• What Date Will US Airways Dividend Miles Get Combined Into American AAdvantage?
  
• How Starwood Accounts Got Hacked
  
• American Airlines Suffers Data Hack
  
• Here’s How You Can Protect Your Frequent Flyer Accounts from Hackers
  
• The Sordid Tale That Led to Skymall’s Bankruptcy Filing
  
• If You’re Flying on Awards and Cheap Tickets, You’re Not Bad for the Environment
  
• Why Airline Frequent Flyer Programs Have Gotten Less Generous (It’s Not the Reason You Think!)
  
• Here’s How to Link Your American and US Airways Frequent Flyer Accounts

The Travel Experience

• American’s Fleet Plans for 2015: The Planes They’re Getting, and the Ones They’re Getting Rid Of
  
• The 10 Best Airport Lounges in the World
  
• The Solution to Sleeping on Short Overnight Flights
  
• Airline Upgrades Are Getting Harder to Come By — Here’s How You Can Still Get Them
  
• Hyatt Launches New Lifestyle Brand, HyattCentric
  
• I Saved 58% On The Rental Car I Had Already Reserved. Here’s How..
  
• 10 Great Ways to Save Money on Rental Cars
  
• American Replaced Their Unpopular First Class Cookie. Here’s Why That Actually Matters.
  
• Eight Ways to Save Money on Airfare
  
• Anthony Bourdain’s Hawker Center Set to Open Soon
  
• What’s the Best Airport in the United States?
  
• Did You Wonder What a Hotel Has to Actually Do For You If You’re Dissatisfied?
  
• United Strands a New Mexico Monk
  
• Which Airline Runs the Best Operation, According to the Numbers?
  
• Here’s the Last Thing an Airline Should Do When Its IT System Goes Down
  
• Accor Hotels Secret Loyalty Manual Uploaded Publicly to Google Play. Here’s What it Says..
  
• GREAT NEWS! Airlines Can’t Make The Flying Experience Worse Without Losing Customers
  
• United is Turning Customer Care Over to Their Lawyer (No, Really, They Are, I’m Not Even Kidding)

Elite Status

• The Truth Behind Hyatt’s New Diamond Status Challenge Offer
  
• United is Getting More Lenient With Corporate Status Matches
  
• United Waiving Minimum Spend Towards Status for Some Members
  
• Starwood Will Introduce New Choices for Platinums Frustrated With Suite Upgrade Awards
  
• Starwood Shares More About Their New Platinum Benefit Choices
  
• You Can Earn Top Tier Elite Status With Nothing But Credit Card Spend
  
• Hilton Has an Elite Status Level I Didn’t Even Know Existed
  
• United Top Tier Elites Flying First Class Now Get Lufthansa First Class Lounge Access!

Trip Reports

• American Airlines New Business Class, Paris – New York JFK
  
• Shopping – and Eating – in Paris Neighborhoods
  
• Where to Find the Best Macarons in the World
  
• Best Places to Eat near the Eiffel Tower and the Picasso Museum
  
• Battle House Renaissance, Mobile, Alabama
  
• Hacking My Way Into an Airport Lounge for Free
  
• Park Hyatt Vendome Executive Suite
  
• American First Class Lounge Chicago O’Hare and Business Class, Chicago – Paris
  
• Paris for the Holidays, Saying Goodbye to American’s Old Business Class, and a Suite at the Park Hyatt Vendome
  
• American Flagship First Class Lounge, Los Angeles
  
• Qantas A380 First Class, Sydney – Los Angeles
  
• Qantas First Class Lounge, Sydney
  
• Quay Restaurant Overlooking the Sydney Opera House
  
• Eating and Drinking in Sydney
  
• Park Hyatt Sydney
  
• Singapore Airlines A380 Suites, Singapore – Sydney
  
• Singapore Airlines “The Private Room,” Singapore
  
• Eating and Entertainment in Singapore
  
• Grand Hyatt Singapore
  
• Cathay Pacific Business Class Bangkok – Singapore and Louis Tavern CIP Lounge
  
• Eating The Best Local Thai Dishes in the Bang Rak District of Bangkok

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