Until tonight you can get a 100% bonus when buying USAirways miles.
A purchase of 100,000 miles (a 50K purchase+50K bonus) will set you back $1,881.25 with tax.
Links for your reference:
USAirways Award Chart
USAirways OneWorld Award Chart
USAirways Other Partner Award Chart
USAirways Award Fees
USAirways OneWorld and Non-Alliance Partners
Of course there are far cheaper way of generating miles via credit card signups and manufactured spend, but if you have a specific award in mind and you’re not an expert at generating miles on the cheap, this can make sense.
For example a first class ticket on Cathay Pacific to Asia with no fuel surcharges normally costs $28,000. It can also be had for just 120K USAirways miles.
Plus with USAirways miles you’ll also get a free stopover. People have booked tickets to Hong Kong with a stopover in Asia in first class for 120K miles.
Or you can try booking a 40K award to Israel and South Africa like this (and other) DD readers have done. Or fly in first class to South America for 60K like DDF member jaywhy…
Otherwise a business class ticket to Israel can be had for 120K miles. USAirways flies nonstop to Israel from Philadelphia (and you can tag on a flight from anywhere in the US for the same rate). Plus odds are that American will start nonstop service from JFK and/or Miami to Tel Aviv in the near future.
Off-peak coach awards to the Caribbean are just 25K miles (20K for cardholders) and to Europe are just 35K miles (30K for cardholders) round-trip if you fly on USAirways. Off peak First Class/Envoy awards to the Caribbean are just 50K miles (45K for cardholders) if you fly on USAirways.
A business class ticket to Australia or New Zealand is 110,000 USAirways miles and a first class ticket is 140,000 USAirways miles. Plus you can stopover pretty much anywhere in the world on the way there for as long as you want.
Of course the USAirways mileage program will be merged into American’s program in 2015. The odds are that before that happens you’ll be able to transfer miles back and forth between American and USAirways. At some point in 2015 the American and USAirways award charts will likely change for the worse.
But American charges more money for their miles than USAirways does, so if you do want to lock in a trip now for travel over the next year, this can be a decent redemption. And it seems that it may not come back again.
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It’s worth noting that the Barclaycard US Airways Premier World MasterCard will seemingly be discontinued this year as well. Even if you have gotten the bonus on that card in the past you can still get the bonus again and best of all, you just need to spend $1 on it to pickup 40,000 miles.
It’s also worth noting that you can transfer Starpoints from anyone’s account to anyone’s USAirways account. American only accepts transfers if the name matches. So if you do want to transfer points to someone else, do that sooner rather than later.
That itinerary to Israel and South Africa is something I’m interested in doing around mid December-early January. What’s the best and cheapest mileage options to get there? US, United, Singapore, BA, Korean?
@Dan: How much time do you have to cancel the card and still get your $89. back?
Hey all, I’m a newbie at all of this, and something confused me. Re: the Barclays card with the 40 k bonus….is this still worth doing if the annual fee is $89.??
@confused: if you’re referring to the US Airways companion fare ticket you get with the Barclays US Airways card–that only can be used on flights within the US and Canada–you have to spend at least $250 cash on a ticket and then you still pay the taxes plus $99. There’s a great deal–NOT!
hey dan with regard to the us crdit card and the 40,000 miles what the best use for them?? can i sell them?? approx how much shud i ask? can i fly btwn jfk and tlv for 40k the signup bonus and buy the companion for my wife.. or shud i wait for them to become american.. thanx for everything
@me: u definitely don’t understand! Lol
If I transfer starwood points to USAIR will that reset the expiration date on my US Air miles?
The link for how to fly US Airways with only 40K points to Tel Aviv and Joberg is outdated. It assumes US Airways is part of the Star Alliance, flying on AC, TA, and SAA. You can’t do that anymore!
can one transfer aa miles to us miles?
not sure i understand. how do i get these us millage? if i need around 45k. do i buy them, or is this by using a specific credit card?
IIRC South America off peak awards are not available anymore, because US is stopping to serve GIG and GRU.
@Dan: Got it!
Thanks for your response.
@Hidy:
If you don’t cancel the card you would be on the hook for the $89.
Hi Dan, Unless I misunderstood, don’t you have to pay the $89 and a purchase to get the 40k?
Gut Mo’ed
@Anonymous:
From where?
There are lots of possible options.
@Dan: thanks do you know another way to fly to hong Kong direct, business class using mr points?
@AB:
USAirways only has roundtrip awards.
@Anonymous:
No
Does amex membership rewards transfer to us airways
Is that for a round trip ticket or one way