It frankly shocks me that US Airways is still selling miles so cheap, but perhaps it should not—after all, Doug Parker is still running the show. I sense a steep devaluation coming, and coming soon, but until then US Airways Dividend Miles retain some incredibly great sweet spots on the award chart with generous routing rules. Today is the last day to take advantage of the following promotion:
- Buy 10,000 to 19,000 miles, get 50% bonus miles
- Buy 20,000 to 29,000 miles, get 75% bonus miles
- Buy 30,000 to 40,000 miles, get 100% bonus miles
What will 100,000 miles get you?
With the elimination of the 90K award between North American and Asia via Europe in business class, if you stick to 100K you will have enough points for a round-trip business class ticket to Europe. At $1880 for the 100,000 points, that is half the price of a typical discounted business class ticket and you are allowed a free stopover in a partner hub or US Airways gateway city. Altenatively, you can choose an open-jaw, flying into one city and out of another. Some agents will let you have both.
For an extra 10K miles in business or 20K miles in first (the best overall value), you can get Europe plus Asia on a single award with stops in two cities for more than 24 hours and several additional stops of under 24 hours if you so prefer. Sign up for the US Airways MasterCard from Barclays and you’ll earn a 40K mile sign-up bonus. Link for the card here.
I shared earlier this month about my upcoming US Airways Dividend Miles redemption in which I was able to avoid very pricey fuel surcharges on British Airways and it is still possible—since taxes are calculated manually for most awards there are still agents who neglect to include the fuel surcharge.
Compare AA miles to US miles. AA’s system imposes fuel surcharges on all BA flights which agents cannot override. AA also has no stopovers on awards and very strict routing rules, like no routing from North America to Asia via Europe or from North America to Africa via the Middle East or Central Asia. No problems on US Airways with these routings and even a chance to save on the fuel surcharge.
Should I buy if I don’t have a trip planned?
Though tempting, I would not. I meant what I said in my opening paragraph: I do sense a devaluation is imminent because US Airways has the best award chart and second-best routing rules (to United, though that seems to be changing). Good things don’t last, for consumers anyway.
But I do encourage you to sit down and plan out a trip, because if prefer to fly in a premium cabin these miles can potentially save you a lot of money with just nominal research on your part (or ours).
My bet is that we will see the 100% purchased miles bonus again, but I have a feeling the next promotion will be another shared miles promotion, which means that that your 100,000 miles may turn into 200,000 miles for even cheaper than this month’s purchase price.
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