Get A 100% Mileage Bonus When You Share USAirways Miles!

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Update: Today is the last day to open a new USAirways mileage account for it to be 12 days old by the 10/15 scheduled end date of this promotion in order to get miles for just 1.135 cents each.

Also if you are a USAirways cardholder (30K signup offer with landing page describing the offer, 35K offer without a landing page) be sure to check your email inbox for a targeted offer for a mileage rebate on an award redemption. I got an offer on 10/01 for 50% of my miles back (up to a 30,000 mile refund). Others got 10% and 25% targeted offers as well.

Coupled with the 5,000 mile cardholder discount when flying USAirways that means I can fly round-trip coach within the US48 for 10,000 miles (25K-5K discount-50% rebate) or $113.50 or to Europe or South America off-peak for 15,000 miles (35K-5K discount -50% rebate) or $170.25.  Business class round-trip to South America off-peak would be 27,500 miles (60K-5K discount-50% rebate) or $312.13.

Or I can fly business class to Hong Kong with a stopover in Israel along the way for just 60,000 miles (90K-30K max rebate) or $681.
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Originally posted on 09/30:

Get A 100% Mileage Bonus When You Share USAirways Miles

For your reference:

USAirways Award Chart

USAirways Partner/Star Alliance Award Chart

USAirways Award Fees

USAirways Star Alliance Partners

USAirways Non-Alliance Partners

Through 10/15 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.

This promotion is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to “buy” miles.  It last came around 12 months ago.

I have already tested it out and it’s instantly giving the bonus 50,000 miles.

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 bonus travel points on cards like the American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card or the Chase Sapphire Preferred (though you can always ask for ’em afterwards).

Don’t have USAirways miles? Find a friend that does or you can always 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 1-9 days to transfer to USAirways.

In other words “David” can transfer 40K Starpoints into 50K USAirways miles.  He can then transfer those 50K miles to his wife for $567.50 and she’ll have 100,000 USAirways miles.  If they want more miles his wife can then transfer 50K miles back to David for $567.50 and she’ll be left with 50K miles while he will have 100,000 miles.

Accounts need to be open for at least 12 days before they can share miles, but there’s still time to open an account and 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, ANA, 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 for making 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 though they do not collect any fuel surcharges. Award fees include $150 to change dates, an award ticketing fee of $25-$50 depending on your destination, and a $75 fee for booking award travel within 21 days.

USAirways requires round-trip award travel. They do allow a free stopover.  If you book travel on partner airlines you can’t change anything once your trip has begun.

There are plenty of redemption bargains:

-A First Class United 777 flight with lie-flat seating from Houston-Honolulu is 80,000 USAirways miles, or $908 at 1.135 cents per mile. United charges 100,000 miles for First Class to Hawaii on 3 class aircraft.  A paid ticket would run you about $6,000.

-Off-peak coach awards to the Carribean are just 25,000 miles and to Europe or South America are just 35,000 miles round-trip if you fly on USAirways.  Off peak First Class/Envoy awards to the Carribean are just 50,000 miles and to South America are just 60,000 miles round-trip if you fly on USAirways.

-Award tickets to Israel are 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. Then again I’ve seen several people book travel from the US to South Africa with a stopover in Israel for a total of 40,000 miles round-trip, so incompetency works both ways…

-USAirways is planning on merging with American.  The US government is suing to block that and the case will be heard in November. If that does wind up happening your miles will convert over at a 1:1 ratio and they will leave the Star Alliance and join OneWorld.  Generally speaking American’s miles are considered more valuable than USAirways miles.

Will you be buying miles this way? Find any other great uses? Post a comment!

HT: sky121, via DDF