Here are the best travel tips and tricks, the highlights of View from the Wing posts from September.

Last month I summarized the very best travel posts from September and the previous month, from August. In July the most useful and interesting developments from June.

I also wrote a post with the most useful advice I’ve given, overall.

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 October. I hope you were happy with some of the posts and got something out of them as well.

Award Redemption

• The trick to getting Qantas first class award availability
  
• The best American Express Membership Rewards points transfers based on where you want to fly
  
• Air Canada’s Star Alliance frequent flyer program Aeroplan was pricing most international business and first class awards at the price of a domestic roundtrip
  
• Aeroplan Gets More Restrictive in What Awards They Will Let You Book
  
• Delta expected to eliminate stopovers on awards in January
  
• Throwaway ticketing can reduce fuel surcharges on your award tickets
  
• Lufthansa first class award space wide open on one U.S. route
  
• How to combine Lufthansa first class awards with first class award space on Asiana and Thai
  
• There’s great business class award space to Europe using Delta miles — but you have to ignore their award calendar to find it
  
• Why you shouldn’t take advantage of American Express transfer bonuses

Trip Reports

• American Airlines Flagship First Class Lounge, New York JFK
  
• One last hurrah in American’s Flagship First Class Suite
  
• Park Hyatt Buenos Aires

Credit Cards

• Chase has changed its bonus rules: you can sign up and get the same bonus you’ve had before!
  
• The 5 best credit cards overall
  
• British Airways Visa Drops Its First Year Fee — 50,000 Point Offer, and How to Leverage Avios
  
• American Express Adds A Year of Amazon Prime When You Sign Up for Two of Their Best Cards
  
• How to get 90,000 American Airlines miles for $89 – and what you can do with them
  
• Barclays gets really aggressive as the window shuts to get the US Airways credit card
  
• Signing up for credit cards and your credit score — how it all works
  
• The business deals behind your loyalty program credit card
  
• Credit card roadside assistance: the benefit you didn’t realize you had
  
• Why President Obama’s credit card was declined
  
• How to get your credit card company to cover your costs when your flight is delayed or cancelled
  
• Are airlines loosening their ties with bank partners?

Elite status

• My elite status update and why I choose each travel program
  
• How I Got My Hilton HHonors Diamond Status
  
• Air Canada guts its elite program
  
• Air Canada gives the most blunt explanation for devaluing its elite program I have ever seen
  
• United elites (and premium credit card holders) will get Hertz status and more miles
  
• Delta increasing the spend requirement for elite status by 20%
  
• Delta eliminating domestic upgrades on their cheapest fares

Travel Advice

• Frequent Traveler University is coming! December 5-7 in DC… and everyone who buys a ticket gets elite status.
  
• How to handle things when flight schedules melt down
  
• One mistake that can cost you your Global Entry privileges
  
• Why weekends aren’t a cheaper time to buy airline tickets, regardless of what the data says
  
• Europe flights for ~ $100 each way
  
• Why airfares are rising when fuel prices are falling
  
• 5 things to ask every time you check into a hotel
  
• Why international first class is disappearing
  
• The most effective way to manage foreign currency for a trip
  
• The Congressman who wants to regulate frequent flyer programs
  
• Why airlines and hotel programs won’t let you sell your points

American Airlines – US Airways Merger

• American announced their 2015 program – and the news is really good
  
• Which members win – and which ones lose – when the programs are combined?
  
• Act now if you want to take advantage of a US Airways elite status challenge
  
• Why unlimited complimentary upgrades are bad for frequent flyers
  
• American responds to complaints by bringing back some meals and improving snacks
  
• US Airways eliminated the ability to buy miles and segments towards status

The Very Best in Food

• What keeps a restaurant really good over time
  
• Four restaurants you should try in Buenos Aires
  
• Thai government cracking down on bad Thai food around the world

Earning miles and points

• American launches new partnership with Cadillac
  
• American offered 7500 miles for test driving a Cadillac
  
• American pulled its test drive promotion early.
  
• IHG Rewards Club is going to honor the too-generous offer it didn’t intend to make

---

You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!