US Dividend Miles Buy/Gift Miles 100% bonus - Cheap way for F/J *A Awards

[spudwa]

As mel_traveller said, because there is so much availability on TG...typically you can get J or F seats on anyday you try between Aus and Europe.

I'm off to London in F (ex SYD) in August for about $2700 thanks to my US stash!

I'm pleased and a bit surprised at the 100% bonus on offer. I thought we'd seen the last of such offers. How do you feel?

 

[bcworld]

I'm pleased and a bit surprised at the 100% bonus on offer. I thought we'd seen the last of such offers. How do you feel?

Yes I am surprised too. I had been reading elsewhere that US's financial situation was much improved, better results etc and I always figured these promos were a cash grab for them.

I am in 2 minds as to whether to add to my stockpile...wary of mileage devaluation or program changes. :?:

 

[spudwa]

Yes I am surprised too. I had been reading elsewhere that US's financial situation was much improved, better results etc and I always figured these promos were a cash grab for them.

I am in 2 minds as to whether to add to my stockpile...wary of mileage devaluation or program changes. :?:

If you don't want the miles I'd be interested in buying points from you. If thats the done thing?

 

[bcworld]

If you don't want the miles I'd be interested in buying points from you. If thats the done thing?

Tsk, tsk!

No, I want them...just a teeny bit uneasy about holding them.

 

[kpc]

Its back:

[FONT=&quot]Get a 100% bonus* – that’s twice the miles![/FONT][FONT=&quot]

Get closer to award travel or upgrade your next flight. Either way, you have just one month to buy miles and get a 100% bonus. Simply buy miles June 6 - 30 and you’ll automatically earn twice the miles – up to 50,000 miles for free.


[/FONT]

Interesting....have been following this thread for a little while

Hurrah! And at US$1.07 exchange rate too. I estimate the cost for business class to UK / Europe at about $2350-$2400 all in. (Buying 50+50k, 20k) Thank god for TG! :mrgreen:

Can you buy more than 50K miles in a calender year? My reading is that you can buy an extra 20K but won't get the 100% bonus.

I assume you want to buy 120K miles as this is the amount required to get from Australia to most places in J (eg Europe, Sth America etc). My understanding is that to buy 120K miles with this promo would cost around AUD$2K. Is that right? So I guess with taxes / surcharges etc a return J ticket from Australia to Europe will cost aound AUD$2.5 K? Not bad at all if you are planning to go....

http://www.usairways.com/pv_obj_cac...402184B1B0100/filename/partnerawardtravel.pdf

I am in 2 minds as to whether to add to my stockpile...wary of mileage devaluation or program changes. :?:

This concerns me as well as I don't have immediate plans to go to Europe etc (read no leave available). Also, do US miles expire after a certain time?

 

[bcworld]

Interesting....have been following this thread for a little while

Can you buy more than 50K miles in a calender year? My reading is that you can buy an extra 20K but won't get the 100% bonus.

I assume you want to buy 120K miles as this is the amount required to get from Australia to most places in J (eg Europe, Sth America etc)

http://www.usairways.com/pv_obj_cac...402184B1B0100/filename/partnerawardtravel.pdf

This concerns me as well as I don't have immediate plans to go to Europe etc (read no leave available). Also, do US miles expire after a certain time?

Yes you can buy as many as you like per year. For this promo the bonus applies only to the first 50k purchased. So yes, buy 50+50 then 20 for UK/Europe.

They expire, but not on a rolling basis...no activity for 18 months and they will go. However if you were close to that scenario you could simply buy another 1k miles ($30) to keep your account active, or credit a hotel stay, car hire etc. If you forget and they do expire they can be reinstated for a fee.

 

[Alanslegal]

Can you buy more than 50K miles in a calender year? My reading is that you can buy an extra 20K but won't get the 100% bonus.

There is no limit to how many points one buys per calender year, however with this new June promo the bonus points is limited to 50K.

US DM expires at 18 months. So buying today will give it an expiry of around December 2012 .... and you could book a flight for say November 2013 (assuming you left it to the last minute).

 

[anat0l]

Well if you can't beat 'em, join 'em (pun intended)*....

Damn well hard to walk away from such a promotion, and with good redemption rates.... might set up two accounts so can redeem tix for two people (although can I shoulder $2,600++ is another thing; might just buy for myself...)

Anyone find the routing rules for US? From what I can see, there are some restrictions (e.g. between Europe and Asia/South Pacific, cannot travel via Americas), and choice of either open jaw or stopover (but not both, and only one stopover overall if you choose it) (I wonder if you can have the open jaw at the destination side rather than the origin side, e.g. SYD-BKK-ZRH // LHR-ICN-SYD, with no stops at BKK or ICN).

BD is still OK because of cash+miles makes some awards low and accessible, as well as one-way awards, but much, much higher cash components (both fuel surcharges and miles+cash cash component), not to mention it seems you can almost take US for a ride on routing as long as you don't exceed 23h 59min at any certain location (within some reason), whereas BD is clamping down on such round-about routings and charging more for indirects and even some select "only choice" routings (e.g. an itinerary going to KTM).

I don't know how US keep doing this (although making miles from sales is something), plus it puts quite a bit of pressure on the *A burning arena. I'm sure that my first US award is going to garner some annoyed faces from the other *A partners at check-in!

* Yes this is a concession on an earlier position

 

[spudwa]

Interesting....have been following this thread for a little while


http://www.usairways.com/pv_obj_cac...402184B1B0100/filename/partnerawardtravel.pdf

Thanks for the PDF, I've never seen it before. As we paid 150,000 for our recent return to London from Perth I assumed getting to the US would be more but it actually looks less. I'm looking at the south Pacific column!!

 

[Timba-Jet]

Great news! I took up the 75% bonus offer earlier this year, and have been waiting in hope for this next offer to top up my points for a J ticket to Europe or Asia.

Now the hard decison, when do i take my holiday

 

[Alanslegal]

Anyone find the routing rules for US?

maybe via BKK/ICN then to LAX/JFK etc

(I wonder if you can have the open jaw at the destination side rather than the origin side, e.g. SYD-BKK-ZRH // LHR-ICN-SYD, with no stops at BKK or ICN).

I thought any open jaw was possible as long as the mileage for the open jaw, does not exceed the outbound or inbound mileage. So in your example, SYD-BKK-ZRH//LHR-ICN-SYD is allowed because the open jaw ZRH-LHR mileage does not exceed either the inbound or outbound.

Secondly, FWIW, I have booked for SYD-BKK-IST//FCO-BKK-SYD so does that look similar to your example?

 

[anat0l]

maybe via BKK/ICN then to LAX/JFK etc

Sorry should've been more specific - I mean are there consolidated US Airways Award Routing Rules? (Not routing rules specific to travel to the United States of America).

The ones I quoted were only off the top of my head.

 

[kpc]

Probably should read these US Dividend Miles rules carefully, esp.about partner awards when reedeeming US Dividend Miles :idea:
US Airways | Dividend Miles membership guide

 

[anat0l]

Probably should read these US Dividend Miles rules carefully, esp.about partner awards when reedeeming US Dividend Miles :idea:
US Airways | Dividend Miles membership guide

There's a "crafty" escape clause in that section which insists that US can unilaterally insist on a direct itinerary, so you can't do this 23h 59min and try a zillion F or J cabins. To what extent is this enforced is a different thing.

Also, cancelling a partner award looks like a bad, bad idea. Like the current Velocity model, cancelling a partner award will give you nothing back.

 

[kpc]

Also, cancelling a partner award looks like a bad, bad idea. Like the current Velocity model, cancelling a partner award will give you nothing back.

You can change a partner award but can't cancel without losing all your miles:

An award itinerary, or a portion thereof may be cancelled at any time without penalty; cancellation, however, will not result in the re-deposit of miles or the refund of any fees paid.

Having said that a Syd-Icn-Jfk with a stopover in Icn in OZ J class for ~$2.5 K is pretty good value. The bigger picture (for me) is that for the 2 of us, this will cost us $5000 in airfares, and I still need to add hotel / airport tranfers etc so it will still end up a pretty expensive holiday even if I had the leave available...:shock:

How accurate is the ANA tool in finding *Alliance award availability in your experience?

 

[Alanslegal]

Having said that a Syd-Icn-Jfk with a stopover in Icn in OZ J class for ~$2.5 K is pretty good value. The bigger picture (for me) is that for the 2 of us, this will cost us $5000 in airfares, and I still need to add hotel / airport tranfers etc so it will still end up a pretty expensive holiday even if I had the leave available...:shock:

How'd you get $2.5K Kevin? It's more like $1.9K

An Australia to USA award is 110K in C class; so you would need 50K + 50K bonus, plus 10K = $1,375 + $275 = $1,650. Then add 7.5% tax = US$1,773.75. Factor in an exchange rate of say $1.065 (assuming using a 28 degrees card) = AU$1,665.50.

Add taxes at booking, say $200, and service fee $50 and the total cost = $1,915

 

[MEL_Traveller]

regarding the devaluation - yes that is a possibility... but how much will they devalue by? Was reading somewhere the new delata sky miles redemtion tables... they have increased a biz class reward to asia by 50k miles (up from 120k).

So - even if US does that - I'm thinking it is better to 'proof' my account now with a 100% miles bonue - so the real cost of the program change (if it happens) will only be 25k. Not such a lot in the grand scheme of things.

As for the cancellation of partner awards... they centainly have been cancellable in the past, and my last ticket issued came with the warning that cancellation would result in a USD150 charge for the redeposit of miles... so I'm a bit confused about that....

 

[kpc]

How'd you get $2.5K Kevin? It's more like $1.9K

I think your maths is better than mine Alan. I had 120K miles in mind when I did that quick calculation in my head. I already have an US airways account but I might go and sign up my +1 now in case I want to buy 2 lots of 100K miles in 12 days time

 

[anat0l]

How accurate is the ANA tool in finding *Alliance award availability in your experience?

It's served me fairly well, although I am redeeming with BD. A few 'quirks', though (not nice ones necessarily):

• OZ availability is messed up. When it's far away from the time of travel, it usually gives "RQ", which means you would need to call ANA (remember, the tool is kind of assuming you are redeeming as an ANA FFP member) to request or inquire about this seat. Closer to the date it gives you the availability, but when I call BD at times they tell me that the seat is free but it is blocked. Not sure what this means, or just a hopeless ICC. I haven't researched to find out what's going on.
  From what I hear, US agents, as long as they're switched on, tend to be more aggressive in getting seats, so you will usually get what you want provided the seat is there in the tool. Most of the time.
• Naturally, SQ new J, new F, 345 J and Suites are unavailable for award redemption. ANA knows this as well, and show (non)availability accordingly.
• In some isolated cases, for reasons I cannot comprehend, ANA may show that you can redeem a seat, but I call BD and they tell me they have nothing. Sometimes I speak to different agents on different days and / or times, and get different results! In very, very rare cases, a seat which shows no availability on ANA has been flagged by the ICC as available!

In saying that, I'd say ANA is a fairly reliable source of finding availability, if not it is fairly easy to use and a good first pass. Some say they also use Aeroplan (AC) to find award seats. The most advanced use Expert Flyer or KVS.

 

[bcworld]

As for the cancellation of partner awards... they centainly have been cancellable in the past, and my last ticket issued came with the warning that cancellation would result in a USD150 charge for the redeposit of miles... so I'm a bit confused about that....

That is my understanding too.

The statements in the About Dividend Miles section of the website seem ambiguous, but I think what they mean is:

• Cancellation is at no charge but does not result in getting miles back
• (then) Pay $150 redeposit fee to get the miles back

...which is infinitely better than the Velocity situation.