US Airways has extended, perhaps for one final time, its 100% bonus on purchased miles. It appears this sale will mark the end of US Airway’s role a consolidator for premium award tickets, as word is there will never be a sale like this again. So is it time to stock up? The answer is still no.
First, make sure you get the US Airways Dividend Miles MasterCard from Barclays if you do not have one. It comes with a 40,000 miles sign-up bonus and with an annual fee of $89, those points are much cheaper than anything available through this sale.
Second, US Airways still remains a tremendous source to book fuel-surcharge free travel in the premium cabins of Cathay Pacific, JAL, and Malaysia Airlines. If you are looking at a romantic getaway, family vacation, or business trip between now and next September and want to use points for it, chances are you can book an award ticket with US Airways for much cheaper than buying a revenue ticket and with a far superior cancellation policy as well. While discounted business class tickets tend to be non-refundable, dates and routings can be changed on a US Airways Dividend Miles ticket for $150 or the whole trip can be cancelled and miles re-deposited for that same $150.
US Airways allows complimentary 72-hours holds on award tickets and sufficient miles do not have to be in the account in order to hold. Purchased miles post in 12-48 hours (sometimes instantly) so that means that you can take all the risk out of buying miles by holding a reservation with your preferred flights before you even purchase miles.
Although this deal ostensibly will not be back, I still caution against stocking up on US Airways miles. We saw a slight devaluation in the spring with no notice provided (business class awards between North American and North Asia went from 90K to 110K overnight) and I believe sometime in the next several months we will see a massive devalauiton even before AA Advantage and US Airways Dividend Miles merge into a single loyalty program. Consequently, I will not be stocking up on miles, and in fact, I have close to zero US Airways miles left.
There’s a sense of remorse, as cheap Dividend Miles have been the source of so many inexpensive trips in premium cabins in recent years, but imbalances are always corrected at some point and these points, even with their gradual rise in price over the last year, are likely still too inexpensive to offer on an indenfite bi-monthly basis.
If you need help constructing an award before this deal ends on October 12, 2014, consider contacting Award Expert.
The other issue with DM awards is the unavailability of J/F saver awards for both USAir and AA international. Six months you could see saver awards but, except for a few odds days, the 100k Js just are not there. Air China is an exception. Another problem: USAir’s search tool only provides USAir and AA flights, and not OWorld or other partners, so you have to use alternate airline search engines or call USAir. Bottomline, IMHO, the devaluation has already happened with regards to flying USAir and AA J/F. With 300K miles and will try to burn those up ASAP for J or F JAL, CP, Qatar, Finnair, Air Berlin as it seems saver J availability somewhat better depending on the route and time of year.