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

[anat0l]

Can we share to one account and then share back?

Not sure if confirmed but from FT:

You have 50,000 and mom has 50,000.

You share 50,000 to mom. You now have zero and mom has 150,000.

Mom shares 50,000 to you. You now have 100,000 and Mom has 100,000.

You are allowed to do the above scenario once.

You can also do A shares to B who shares to C who shares to A.

You can have a chain as long as you want. As long as each individual account only receives the bonus once.

Looks OK with me.

For those with a "dummy" account, it would usually go something like:

You have 50k and dummy has 0.

You share 50k to dummy. You now have 0 and the dummy has 100k.

The dummy shares 50k to you. You now have 100k and dummy has 50k.


The net result is that the dummy (or second) account will always get some miles from the master account; that said, you've doubled your balance at the cost of 50k in a collateral account. But this is great for couples.

I wonder if the economics are still pretty good (i.e. the net position) if you were to transfer the "residual" 50k from the dummy to your account at the prevailing Share Miles rate, even if the residual doesn't give you any bonus (but net result is that you now have the whole 100k that was made in the promo).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The BUY promotion for 100% is targeted. Pop-screen requires you to enter your account info (even though already logged in to US air account). I did that and just regular miles.

The SHARE promo is not targeted.

 

[Myrna]

We have been targeted! :mrgreen:

 

[deejo77]

I have the bonus buy offer............setting my mum up with an account as I feel like I should share with her......

 

[Alanslegal]

With the current promotion does anyone feel like 'too many' people are now on board with these deals? 18 months ago only a handful of us here were interested in these bookings, and now that some of us here have 'flown' and gone (and gone again), then passed on these deals to family and friends who not only have flown and gone (and gone again) but they then have also passed on these deals to others who have flown, bought points or planning to buy points. Hands up that I am guilty as I have passed on these deals, and have heard that some of those who have gone from my influence have passed them on as well. So to me, it feels like that everyone now know that these deals exists which will only make it harder for all of us to get seats in the future given the increase in demand, the possible reduction of award seats being released and any other changes to make it more restrictive. Personally (and maybe selfishly) I feel like its a bad thing that 'too many' people now know. I have only booked one award for myself to date, so when I embark on my next booking once the share bonus posts, I do hope that I am able to get the flights that I desire. Anyway just my thoughts for tonight.

 

[anat0l]

With the current promotion does anyone feel like 'too many' people are now on board with these deals?

That's how I looked at it ages ago. But since they kept on going, I went with the attitude, "well, I'm milking this for all its worth". I know, that's jumping on the bandwagon and bleeding the old man dry before he kicks the bucket - sad attitude - but I'll gladly be nailed for that attitude.

The *A redemption landscape has changed a wee bit since US DM started prostituting its miles. For one, it is a damn near challenge to get good premium seats on the Lufthansa group now, especially Trans-Atlantic at a good amount of time out.

I also notice that many here are usually preferring just J bookings rather than F bookings. Also, TG has been a big carrier of choice, only probably because it is the only F one can actually book from Australia (SQ F is near impossible to impossible), and finding its premium inventory is like choosing which pinata to break, rather than which haystack to search for needles.

Time will come that the dynamics of the landscape will drastically change, if these kinds of promos from US DM will dry up. For example, increase in redemption rates, even more restrictions on inventory or routing combinations. Until that time happens, everyone is at least cashing in. But needless to say anyone who thinks this kind of regime is the new normal is kidding themselves and setting up for a rude shock.


Oh, and finding premium award inventory was never, and never meant to, be so easy (at least on the good carriers). The "experts" (e.g. FT bloggers) make it look easy, but in reality it comes down to hard work and lots of guessing. (Needless to say, some people are prepared to pay such consultants in order to offload this burden).

 

[Timba-Jet]

With the current promotion does anyone feel like 'too many' people are now on board with these deals? 18 months ago only a handful of us here were interested in these bookings, and now that some of us here have 'flown' and gone (and gone again), then passed on these deals to family and friends who not only have flown and gone (and gone again) but they then have also passed on these deals to others who have flown, bought points or planning to buy points. Hands up that I am guilty as I have passed on these deals, and have heard that some of those who have gone from my influence have passed them on as well. So to me, it feels like that everyone now know that these deals exists which will only make it harder for all of us to get seats in the future given the increase in demand, the possible reduction of award seats being released and any other changes to make it more restrictive. Personally (and maybe selfishly) I feel like its a bad thing that 'too many' people now know. I have only booked one award for myself to date, so when I embark on my next booking once the share bonus posts, I do hope that I am able to get the flights that I desire. Anyway just my thoughts for tonight.

Some good points raised here. In the end, despite wanting to have the best chances of snagging my desired flights in desired airline etc. At the end of the day, I think it is fair game for anyone willing to do the research and hop on board.

What I don't understand is how can US Airways make any money from these offers, and why other *A members have not cracked the shiitakes yet (more than what LH and LX have done by blocking F)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

With the current promotion does anyone feel like 'too many' people are now on board with these deals?

AFF is a drop in the ocean compared to FT and all the other blogs out there and compared to the millions and millions of miles (across all FF programs worldwide) that are given out by people using credit cards, car hire, hotel rooms, dining (and 700 other things you can earn miles on). This deal will come to an end one day but there are plenty of other options out there.

Yes First class is becoming more difficult, only a few carriers where it is 'easy' to score F seats right now - UA/TG/OZ, but there are plenty of business class options. And the good news is that plenty of those business classes are being upgraded... TK - flat beds, MS flat beds, AC, flat beds even TG and LH will eventually have flat beds. If sleep is the most valuable commodity on a plane then the options are opening up. Once you've finished with those options (and the US deal eventually ends) then you have a whole other raft of cheap deals... fares ex Asia are cheap, even garuda from AU is only 3080 for a flat bed and good service.

So outlook overall is positive.

 

[kamchatsky]

Some good points raised here. In the end, despite wanting to have the best chances of snagging my desired flights in desired airline etc. At the end of the day, I think it is fair game for anyone willing to do the research and hop on board.

What I don't understand is how can US Airways make any money from these offers, and why other *A members have not cracked the shiitakes yet (more than what LH and LX have done by blocking F)

That's also why whilst initially I want to change the first post of this thread to be much more informative, I decided against it as it is better for people to do their own research.

 

[anat0l]

What I don't understand is how can US Airways make any money from these offers, and why other *A members have not cracked the shiitakes yet (more than what LH and LX have done by blocking F)

You ever messed with the passengers and frequent flyer members of an airline situated in the United States of America before:?:

Whilst I'd like the rest of *A to be a bit more firm, fact is that the USA airlines in the system have the largest volume (apart from possibly the Lufthansa contingent), and they are also the most vocal. Definitely the USA airlines have the amongst the easiest in terms of levels for redemptions. I believe they (the airlines) leverage a lot of that pressure when it comes to negotiating for award seats with other airlines, but at least the more notable ones are being rather firm.

That said, the airlines who are putting a foot down on trying to protect their inventory (i.e. by making it scarce, or unavailable at all) actually have some members at home interested in premium redemptions as well. Ask anyone in the USA *A FFPs what they think of such inventory being effectively withheld from them and they will give you a piece of their mind.

Then again (keeping in mind that there are no Middle Eastern airlines in *A, let alone the alliances, and SK is a notable exception), the USA FFPs do not charge YQ for redemptions (with rare exceptions, e.g. AA redemptions on BA operated flights); again, another vocal product of the passengers in the USA (and also enshrined into legislation).

The Lufthansa group has openly complained before that some programs (not often said, but obviously the USA based FFPs) are "unfairly" taking premium inventory from their reserves that their own frequent flyer members (viz. Senators and HON Circles) cannot seem to find (with some sort of ease). SQ, of course, have adopted a very firm approach, but to not much popularity (and to which USA members are very proud to jump on when and if SQ slip up).

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Somebody mentioned to me that US Airways need-s(ed) cash and buy selling miles, they are getting cash straight up vs redemptions which could be a lot later down the track...l'm not 100% on that, but sounded feasible.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Somebody mentioned to me that US Airways need-s(ed) cash and buy selling miles, they are getting cash straight up vs redemptions which could be a lot later down the track...l'm not 100% on that, but sounded feasible.

they do need the cash. And selling to customers is much more profitable than selling to the banks (credit card ops). I believe the going rate for selling to a credit card is about 1c per mile? (I think AA sold about $1 billion worth of miles to citibank a cent each??) Selling to the passenger is 1.75c - so huge difference.

 

[anat0l]

Somebody mentioned to me that US Airways need-s(ed) cash and buy selling miles, they are getting cash straight up vs redemptions which could be a lot later down the track...l'm not 100% on that, but sounded feasible.

This makes sense as, yes, AFF and FT (the savvy ones) make up a small portion of the US DM membership.

Most of the members are not savvy enough to blow their points on decent premium seats, and will probably burn them on Y awards, or domestic ones on US at that, and some of them may not at all (but then they may not be buying miles either). So selling miles gives them immediate income which doesn't necessarily have to be discharged at that point. It's pretty much the same business view taken by, say, QFF (who are trying to generate lots of miles in the system, which equates to profit whilst they don't have to discharge rewards).

If it so happened that everyone in US DM cashed in their miles tomorrow (it won't work, but just imagine), US would necessarily be in huge trouble. But like I said, it won't happen, and they are relying overall on a slow enough rate of burn to take advantage of the 'upfront' investment of money through mileage sales.

That said, there's enough AFF and FT pax out there that obviously there's at least some sort of registered impact on the award availability pool. Of course, there's a funny irony that no one is really redeeming seats on the host carrier, US (now, who the hell would do that? Even other *A carriers FFPs aren't really redeeming US seats either )

 

[deejo77]

I know I should have paid more attention but.....I don't need these points yet.......but if I am less then 50,000 points but buy points now that put me over when do they credit to my account? I know one of the other bonus points I had to wait for awhile until the bonus ones posted. thanks heaps in advance

 

[Shanye2233]

With the current promotion does anyone feel like 'too many' people are now on board with these deals? t.

I said this 10 months ago and everyone jumped on me. Im struggling to find two seats in F syd-bkk-cdg-syd . And impossible to find 4 seats on the one plane. Last year i didnt have a problem on 13 segments .

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I said this 10 months ago and everyone jumped on me. Im struggling to find two seats in F syd-bkk-cdg-syd . And impossible to find 4 seats on the one plane. Last year i didnt have a problem on 13 segments .

I am having no problems at all booking flights with Thai in first class, and 2 seats at a time. doubt you can get 4 at the same time, but booking two in biz class and two in first is easy.

just make sure the cabin you intend to book permits children!!

 

[Alanslegal]

I said this 10 months ago and everyone jumped on me. Im struggling to find two seats in F syd-bkk-cdg-syd . And impossible to find 4 seats on the one plane. Last year i didnt have a problem on 13 segments .

I can't recall anyone jumping on you and I do follow your posts with interests. Maybe it was the way you said it? Or maybe what you said was unreasonable? However I don't know and am just extrapolating this train of thought from some of your other posts especially the one where you tried to barge your way into the QP because of your AA EXP when flying JQ, and that because the JQ call centre staff didn't know the correct rules and you were going to "use" that information to get your way in. Or that time when your family got kicked out of the TG F 77W flight because of those planes have no bassinet seats and thus aren't allowed to carry children - and you refused to accept any urgent assistance from some of the more learned fliers on this forum. Anyway, pushing 13 segments? No wonder why some people get flamed!!

 

[Shanye2233]

I got 400k in ROP miles for that stuff up thanks for your concern .

 

[wafliron]

Has it been established for certain whether you can take advantage of both the buy and share promos this month?

i.e. two accounts starting from nil balance, buy 50k miles each - plus 50k bonus - and then share 50k miles each - plus another 50k bonus - for a total of 150k points in each account for a net outlay of $2448.75 USD?

The closest the T&Cs of both offers come to disallowing the use of both promos in the same month is:

- "Offer cannot be combined with any other offer" in both T&Cs - but I don't think you could consider using both separately in the same month "combining" them.

- "The maximum number of Buy or Gift miles that can be purchased through this offer is 50,000 miles" for the Buy offer and "Members may receive a maximum of 50,000 bonus miles during the offer period" for the Share offer - the former explicitly says it's a limitation for buying / gifting, but the latter is far less clear - you could read it either way.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I got 400k in ROP miles for that stuff up thanks for your concern .

I think the ball was in your court to tell people you had reached a resolution on that issue. You came to this board with a problem, people worked overtime to find you a solution so you didn't lose your whole holiday, and as far as we knew, you were still trying to resolve it with Thai. I think it is a bit unfair to blame us for not having concern! We did everything we could to make sure you still got to travel.