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

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Update: It’s painful to bump this after the wholesale changes AA/USAirways made last week without any prior warning. I no longer trust the program, but at the end of the day it’s still a bargain to purchase their miles at just 1.135 cents each. Note that the 90K business award to Asia is now 110K, though oddly the first class award is still just 120K round-trip.

This offer ends tonight.

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Originally posted 04/07:

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
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Get A 100% Mileage Bonus When You Share USAirways Miles

This promotion has been around several times over the past year and I’m happy to see it again now that USAirways has merged with American. It’s an excellent way to buy miles on the cheap.

Through 04/13 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.

Accounts need to be open for at least 12 days before they can share or receive miles, so unless you already have an account it’s too late to participate this time.

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. Even if you did this during the October and December 2013 promos you can receive another 50K now.

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 Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card® Card (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.

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.

If you transfer points now you should have them by Sunday in time for this promotion, though there’s no guarantee with Starwood transfers.

USAirways is now part of the OneWorld alliance. You need to call USAirways to book most partner award travel as it can’t be booked online. You can search for saver availability on OneWorld airline sites with more robust websites like Qantas.com, AA.com, and BA.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 lie-flat first class seat at American’s new A321T aircraft flying between JFK and Los Angeles or S. Francisco is just 50,000 miles round-trip with USAirways miles!  These are personal seats in a 1-1 configuration with nobody sitting next to you at all!  You would need 65K American miles or 75K BA miles for the same seat.  The cost of 50,000 miles with this promotion is just $567.50.
The cheapest paid coach ticket from 04/08-04/09 on American is $1,250, business is $5,000, and first is $6,700. Not a bad deal to pay $567 in first 😀

-A First Class TAM flight from JFK to South America is 125,000 USAirways miles, or $1,419 at 1.135 cents per mile. Availability in this intimate 4 person cabin is incredible, often with all 4 seats available for miles.

-Off-peak coach awards to the Caribbean 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. 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. 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. You can fly on world-class carrier Cathay Pacific, where a business class ticket can go for $10,000 and a first class ticket would set you back a whopping $27,000.

I’ve sat next to people on Cathay First who have paid that and been invited to join them on their yachts. They may not care about the $27K, but you can sit right next to them for $1,360 with promotions like this one.

Plus you can even stopover in Europe or even Israel 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. 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 has merged with American.  At some point their mileage programs will be combined though that date has yet to be announced.

-USAirways award charts can change at any time. Hopefully they won’t change until they merge their mileage program with American’s.

-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…

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

HT: MilesNpoints, via DDF