Update, 10/28: Just a few more days to take advantage of this great offer!
Lie-Flat 3 cabin first class seats between JFK and LAX for under $600 round-trip or to Hawaii for under $800 is a bargain for luxury travel!
I was instantly able to pass 50K miles back and forth between my wife and I, effectively buying 100,000 miles for $1,135.
Originally posted on 10/03:
Get A 100% Mileage Bonus When You Share USAirways Miles
USAirways Award Chart
USAirways Partner/Star Alliance Award Chart
USAirways Award Fees
USAirways Star Alliance Partners
USAirways Non-Alliance Partners
Through 10/31 when you share up to 50,000 USAirways miles with a friend USAirways will double the transfer. The cost to share 50,000 miles is $567.50. So if you transfer 50,000 miles to a friend he will wind up with 100,000 miles instantly in his account and you will have effectively purchased 50,000 miles at a cost of $567.50 or 1.135 cents per mile.
Of course you can then share 50,000 miles right back to where they started or to another account where they will again turn into 100,000 miles for the same cost. However receiving accounts are limited to a maximum of 50,000 bonus miles during this promo period.
The transaction is processed by a 3rd party, so you will unfortunately not earn 5+ points per dollar for airline spending by using your Freedom card. Though you may be able to send a secure message to ask for Chase to honor that anyway…
Don’t have USAirways miles? You can transfer 40,000 Starwood Starpoints to anyone’s USAirways account and they’ll receive 50,000 miles and then be able to start generating miles for just 1.135 cents per mile. Starpoints can take anywhere from 2-9 days to transfer to USAirways.
Accounts need to be open for at least 12 days before they can share miles, but there’s plenty of time to open ac account and still get in on this promotion.
USAirways is a Star Alliance member, so you can book award travel across dozens of partner airlines. You need to call USAirways to book Star Alliance award travel as it can’t be booked online. You can search for saver availability on Star Alliance airlines with more robust websites like United.com and Aeroplan.com and then call USAirways to book flights.
USAirways allows 3 day holds on award flights (which can even be extended for another 3 days every time you make a small change) so you can first put a flight on hold and then purchase miles.
USAirways miles require activity every 18 months to keep them alive and this will count as activity of course to extend your miles.
Bear in mind that USAirways does charge a number of fees that you may not be used to if you use United miles, however they do not collect any fuel surcharges. Award fees include $150 to change dates (free with United 21 days in advance), a mandatory award ticketing fee of $25-$50 depending on your destination, and a $75 fee for booking award travel within 21 days.
USAirways also requires round-trip award travel whereas United allows for one-way award travel. USAirways does allow for a free stopover.
Even with the added restrictions though, buying miles for just 1.135 cents each is a great deal as there are plenty of redemption bargains:
-A First Class United PS flight with lie-flat seating from JFK-LAX or JFK-SFO is 50,000 USAirways miles, or $567.50. United charges 70,000 miles for domestic First Class on 3 class aircraft.
-A First Class United 777 flight with lie-flat seating from Houston-Honolulu (3 class service begins 11/04/12 and availability is excellent) is 70,000 USAirways miles, or $794.50 at 1.135 cents per mile. United charges 100,000 miles for First Class to Hawaii on 3 class aircraft.
-Award tickets to Israel are the same as with United, 80,000 in coach or 120,000 in business. Star Alliance nonstop options from North America include Air Canada from Toronto, United from Newark, and USAirways from Philadelphia. A coach ticket would be the equivalent of $908 and a business ticket would be the equivalent of $1,362 at 1.135 cents per mile.
-A business class ticket to Asia is 90,000 USAirways miles and a first class ticket is 120,000 USAirways miles. Compare that to 120,000 or 140,000 United miles that would be required for business or first. A business ticket would be the equivalent of $1,012.50 and a first class ticket would be the equivalent of $1,362 at 1.135 cents per mile.
Plus you can even stopover in Europe on the way to Asia for free for as long as you want, or you can even stopover in multiple cities as long as you are in the additional stopover cities for less than 24 hours.
-A business class ticket to Australia or New Zealand is 110,000 USAirways miles and a first class ticket is 140,000 USAirways miles. Compare that to 135,000 or 160,000 United miles that would be required for business or first. A business ticket would be the equivalent of $1,248.50 and a first class ticket would be the equivalent of $1,589 at 1.135 cents per mile.
Plus you can even stopover in Europe or Asia on the way down under for free for as long as you want, or you can even stopover in multiple cities as long as you are in the additional stopover cities for less than 24 hours.
Note that:
-USAirways award charts can change at any time.
-USAirways agents are fairly incompetent, so it may take a few phone calls to book what you want.
-USAirways is seeking to merge with AA and if that does wind up happening they will leave the Star Alliance and join OneWorld.
Will you be buying miles this way? Find any other great uses? Post a comment!
What if I don’t have any us airways miles at all? If I open a cc will the points post fast enough to score this deal?
Just wondering, you keep on talking about “5+ points” for the freedom bonus categories. Does that mean that instead of 5% you can ask them for points?
USAirways Partner/Star Alliance Award Chart
the link doesn’t work
How much is it to go to JRO from the states in business class and how can I book that?
can you trade less than 50,000 miles? how do they charge?
If I have 40k now how exactly can I take advantage of this deal what do I do I’m a little confused on this one how I can take advantage
@hi: NO.
@Yitzi: You can share your 4ok with wife , friend etc or open another us airways account under a family members name and share 40k , the other account will receive 80k, then transfer back to you
what do u mean by transferring back for the same cost?
Dan, you forgot to write how much i pay after the mileage redemption, for example, a flight to Israel for $908, is this true? or i will have to add another $150 which will result in $1058?
Anyone have 50K in their account and looking to swap back and forth? pleasespamdaniel [at] yahoo [dot] com
@Daniel: You can create another account for yourself and swap with yourself
@pilot so its that simple all i have to do is transfer it to family account then send it back and i get 80k?
when does this deal expire ?
@Dan: I only have several thousand in my account. I don’t think it would make sense to swap with myself, because I would be paying the $30 transaction fee too many times. I.e. the best value from this deal is if you have 50K to transfer, which I, alas, do not have.
Also looking for a swapper:
mendishke … #at gmail
Does anyone know if it is instant?
I have about 55,000 AMEX Gold points. Does this pay to transfer to a US Airways account in order to share with a family member?
Does anyone want to do this with me (i do not have any miles) and i will swap my miles with you so you can get the bonus and i’ll pay for the fee’s on both ends (yours and mine)? my email is spiegel187[at]aol[dot]com
I have 76k, might be Interested in some arrangement. Email ac6mpo@gmail.com
@Dan S.
Only the receiver get the bonus, the fee for the transfer is of 50K is $567.50, if you pay 1st for a transfer in and then a transfer out you will be paying $1135.00 for 50K Miles.
Costing you 2.2 per mile, not the best price unless you really need them, only way to make that really worth while is on first class long haul flights
@Avi: If I will be getting 50k from a friend, can I pay the transfer me with my cc?
If I will be getting gifted, can I pay for the transfer with my cc?
@Avi:
No, you’re missing the bonus. Let’s say you take two accounts (A and B), account A had 50k, B had 0. A transfers 50k to B, B gets that plus a 50k bonus–ending with 100k. B transfers 50k back to A, A get’s that plus the bonus–ending with 100k for A and 50k for B. That’s 100k miles that previously did not exist for a total cost of about $1000 — or .01/mile. A pretty good deal even for UselessAir miles.
Keep in mind that while their award availability is horrible, you can use 40k + $300 to upgrade a one-way US to middle east ticket, and their envoy class isn’t bad.
Question.
I am hearing people are able to rinse/repeat more then once, even though it appears form the terms up to 50K bonus per account, can anyone verify?
I have been contacted by several people re transfers. If you are still interested, i now have 187K please email me.
ac6mpo@gmail.com
Please note, in addition to the fee (charged for by usair) and tax, i will be looking for a small profit. 🙂
@Bay
I was talking about someone paying for the transfers both ways.
Person A transfers 50K Person B
Person B, received 100K. – Transfer Cost $560
Person B sends 50K to Person A (leaving him with 50)
Person A Receives 100K – Transfer Cost $560.
If Person B pays for both way transfers Cost $1120 he still only has 50K in his account.
dan check out my comment on your october 5th post about the hyatt/chase card
@Dan
Confused, what am I gaining by doing the transfer? I checked US Airways flights and its anywhere between 80k and 120k miles to Israel. This whole transfer for 100k miles will cost me over 1000 dollars, which may even be more than a ticket (depending on the month)
So what do I gain?
In your case not much, unless
1. you want to upgrade to Envoy, make different stops
Hi All:
I’m still looking for someone to swap points. I have 40k in my account.
Thanks. k.e.vengchen+points@gmail.com
Anyone successfully get Chase to credit 5x points for Freedom?
i now have 2 accts. one with only 45k and one with 124k. i want to transfer 4k from lower acct to higher, giving me 41k and 132k and then transfer back 17k from higher to lower ending up with 75k and 115k. usair gives 5000 off when booking to israel so my 75k and 115k is realy like 80k and 120k. total cost under is $300 but i will have 2 accts with free israel tickets. does this sound right?
@sammy:
How do you get them to give you 5K off?
I’m wondering – If I book a United ticket with US Airways miles and want to change dates on the return (normally free in advance of 21 days on United and normally $150 on US Airways) are there any fees involved if done more than 21 days in advance? Can I change it through United or does it have to be done through US Airways? Thanks!
It says “Accounts need to be open for at least 12 days before they can share miles,”
Do both accounts need to be opened at least 12 days or perhaps just the account with the original miles?
I have an existing account with 150k miles but I want to open one for my wife today , then transfer 50k to her ?
@David:
Must be done through USAirways at their policies.
@mitzeahnow:
Just the senders account needs to be 12 days old.
Looking for someone with US airways miles to share back and forth. I have no miles but my account is more then 12 days old. Please email me at valuefinder001 at gmail dot com if interested
@dan so if it takes 12 days and deal is over on the 31st . It’s not possible for me to do this, correct??
Do the points and bonus transfer immediately or is there a waiting period for posting? IOW can i do multiple transfers on the 31st?
Transfer works on the 12th day or only on the 13th day of account being open?
@Yehuda:
Find someone who has an account open for more than 12 days.
@Easy:
Instant.
An account can only get 50,000 total bonus miles.
@Easy:
Try it and let us know.
“USAirways also requires round-trip award travel whereas United allows for one-way award travel.”
is that true for using dividend miles for flights on star alliance ie United as well.
@mitzeahnow:
Yes.
IE United miles can book one-way on USAir but USAir miles require round-trip even on United.
anyone wana help me out to get the miles??
Yehuda– You already have miles or are you at 0 like me. If you have the 50k then we can transfer between us
Does the round trip have to be on the same airline? Or can it be mixed with star alliance partners? Can it be one way us air and one way a partner?
@Nw:
It can be mixed.
Anyone able to confirm transferring more than 50k INTO an account
@chaim: chaim i have miles. can i transfer amex gold too??
@chaim: do you hvae two accounts?? i wana do it twice
Yehuda
I do have two account! email me at valuefinder001 at gmail.com
Extended until Nov 30!
@Nitantnel:
No, it’s not.
I am confused about the Asia business class ticket you talked about. If I would like to book a r/t CLT-BKK flight on US Air. Are you saying I can stop off in FRA going and coming for as long as I want? Would this be possible CLT-FRA-BKK-FRA-CLT? How long would I have to complete my itinerary?