US Airways is leaving Star Alliance on March 30th, 2014, meaning your last chance to book on many Star Alliance carriers with US Airways Dividend Miles is this week.
There are several gems on the chart, but the most valuable to North American flyers is round-trip business class to North Asia (includes as far south as China/Hong Kong/Taiwan) for 90,000 miles. US Airways has very generous routing rules, allowing connections and even a stopover within Europe before continuing on to Asia.
I’ve booked some wild awards with US Airways and I am booking several more for clients (and myself) before the official exit from Star Alliance. We still don’t know what the award chart will look after March 30th, but I find it very hard to imagine that it would remain unchanged.
Currently, US Airways Dividend Miles can be used for American Airlines redemptions, but AA awards cannot be mixed with Star Alliance awards. Even after US Airways leaves Star Alliance, it will continue to partner with several Star carriers including:
- Aegean
- Air China
- Air New Zealand
- Avianca
- Ethiopian Airlines
- EVA
- Shenzhen Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airways
- TAM
- Turkish Airways
The carrier will join oneworld on March 31, 2014 as well, unlocking redemption options on carriers such as British Airways (how will US Airways handle fuel surcharges?), Qantas, Cathay Pacific, and JAL. I suspect that former Star partner awards will not be mixable with oneworld awards. But, this would be a policy choice—already you can book Hawaiian Airlines intra-island flights and Virgin Atlantic (economy only) awards with Dividend Miles on the same ticket as Star Alliance carriers. I even recently created an award reservation with both American and United, though a supervisor caught it before ticketing.
The point is, with much unknown and a very generous chart currently available, it makes sense in most cases to book now if you have a trip coming up in the next 11 months you want to redeem miles for. Tomorrow, I will offer a guide that will help you determine whether to book now or later.
Matthew: Can you route to NA to South Pacific via Europe 110K award?
I called USAir trying to book a routing and it seems that USAir has defacto partially exited Star Alliance when it comes to LH/AC/LX/OS/Brussels availability. Still trying. Also, agree about not mixing partner-OW flights. It was fun while it lasted.
Booked 110K award to AKL via NRT PVG on NH (on 787)and NZ (on their 777, avoid the 767s!). Didn’t route through europe or make a complicated itinerary. The DM booking went very smoothly. Problem with doing NA-Eur-Asia is lack of J seats from W. Coast.in late summer, and really nothing showing from europe back to W. Coast. Also, the window for trying some SA airlines is closing fast. Priced out my itinerary: $16K vs. $2K in points cost and taxes. Not a bad deal.
@Steve: Routing through Europe is possible–the key is overcoming LH/LX/NH blocking and keeping the segment number down. If you can do JFK-FRA-BKK-SYD, you’ll have no problem. If you want to do LAX-CLT-JFK-MUC-IST-BKK-MEL, you’re going to be shot down.