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

[bobcat123]

Hi,
A quick question.
Are you able to upgrade on partner Star alliance airlines using US airway miles, if you have booked the ticket thru a normal travel agent (assuming the fare class is upgradable, and not flying US airways metal)?

(or #2 is it the case, you can only upgrade if you had booked that itinerary via us airways)

thanks

 

[bcworld]

Hi,
A quick question.
Are you able to upgrade on partner Star alliance airlines using US airway miles, if you have booked the ticket thru a normal travel agent (assuming the fare class is upgradable, and not flying US airways metal)?

(or #2 is it the case, you can only upgrade if you had booked that itinerary via us airways)

thanks

Yes you can upgrade a star ticket but only those originally booked in very expensive flexible economy fare buckets (Y & B) - the cost of these means that typically - if a promo is running - its much cheaper just to buy miles outright and book a business award.

 

[Shanye2233]

I have 4 tickets already paid for in a routing I'm
More then happy and even more happier for the price I paid .

Which I will inform and write a TR when I return .

I'm now on the hunt for the inlaws to come jut waiting for a sale. The GS is finished I ended up with 25 hits just waiting for the next sweep

 

[shane2603]

Well done Shayne, I think I got 27, missed the 28th by that much Looking forward to another promo asap!

 

[bcworld]

Looking forward to another promo asap!

It's all gone a bit quiet.

GS aside, the only times when there has been no bonus promo (buy, share or gift or some combo of them) running since Nov 09 (that I am aware of) is:

• Jan 2010
• Dec 2010/Jan 2011
• And now this current gap of 2 months

Based on those dates I'm not hopeful of anything starting up until after Jan 2012...if at all.

Has anyone looked into the miles multiplier / cancelling flexible tickets route to accumulating miles? It seems almost fraudulent...but is it?

 

[Shanye2233]

Shane that's excellent . Did you just have one account or multiple family accounts . I would be super angry falling one short for an extra 15k. I had three other family account all I think either 12 or 16 hits.

Bcworld what do you mean miles multipler and canceling tickets to get extra miles. Ever since the miles went up in price I had a feeling there isn't going to be another promo bonus for a long time. They needed cash and they got it. I think everyone who brought miles for 1.4 cent last time will never get that again

 

[bcworld]

Bcworld what do you mean miles multipler and canceling tickets to get extra miles. Ever since the miles went up in price I had a feeling there isn't going to be another promo bonus for a long time. They needed cash and they got it. I think everyone who brought miles for 1.4 cent last time will never get that again

Now I don't want you getting any ideas....BUT...

If you make a revenue booking on US (bizarre concept I know) they have an option where you can pay money to get more miles...it's called miles multiplier. So you can pay extra $$$ to get 2x or 3x the normal miles. The interesting thins is that the bonus miles post immediately AND if you cancel your booking you keep the miles and US keeps the fee it charged you to multiply the miles.

So you need a stash of cash but here is an example I saved a while back - the numbers might be a little different now.

Refundable J class ticket on US from SFO to Tel Aviv = $4855. Earns 24856 miles.

When you get toward the tail end of booking you are offered the 3x miles multipler option for $599. Total miles = 74568 miles.

Hence for $599 you get 49712 miles. And remember these post as soon as you book, NOT when you fly. The $599 is non refundable but you also don't have to give the miles back.

So assuming you can cancel at no penalty that's 1.2 cents per mile - you'd want to factor in credit card fees etc - these would be high on such a large $ figure so use something like 28degrees Mastercard which doesn't charge trans fee - you'd still lose some on the ex rate, although you could actually make money if you were lucky!

US Airways | Fly with US

Question is...is it legit to do this...are you setting yourself up to be auditted!?

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Refundable J class ticket on US from SFO to Tel Aviv

Question is...is it legit to do this...are you setting yourself up to be auditted!?

Legit? Yes, it's refundable.
Setting yourself up to be audited? Depends on frequency at a guess.

It is a refundable ticket for a reason and you usually pay a premium for it. People have business meetings/schedules, family issues that 'throw a spanner' into the works all the time.

Keeping the miles when you refund the ticket does seem odd to me though? That's a new one and looks like a massive loophole if l ever saw one. People could just buy a refundable J and keep cycling it (say monthly) forever.

For a more extreme example, people on Flyertalk have purchased refundable tickets to get into lounges (e.g. CCR), then cancel when boarding call goes out.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Legit? Yes, it's refundable.
Setting yourself up to be audited? Depends on frequency at a guess.

It is a refundable ticket for a reason and you usually pay a premium for it. People have business meetings/schedules, family issues that 'throw a spanner' into the works all the time.

Keeping the miles when you refund the ticket does seem odd to me though? That's a new one and looks like a massive loophole if l ever saw one. People could just buy a refundable J and keep cycling it (say monthly) forever.

For a more extreme example, people on Flyertalk have purchased refundable tickets to get into lounges (e.g. CCR), then cancel when boarding call goes out.

you only keep the multiplied miles, not the base miles I believe.

the other thing to bear in mind is that it can take 6-8 weeks or longer to get a refund of airline tickets. so you would need sufficient cash to cover that in order to avoid interest charges on your credit card.

 

[casanovawa]

Well if you had 55 days interest free on your card it should almost cover the 6-8 weeks.... And if i used the Visa Debit card attached to the Citi account that doesn't charge foreign currency fees (or whatever that fee is) that i have just applied for that would reduce the costs still...

Ok bcworld, how about you try it out and tell us if it works or not, i have several thousand bucks sitting around the place not doing much...

And yes, well done to the two Sha(y)ne's on there GS 11 achievements, I will have to get my act into gear next year and work out a few plans...

Shayne I think you were looking at trying to book those awards as real RTWs rather than flying Australia/Europe/US then having to back track, did u end up being able to do that???

 

[Shanye2233]

Yes I'm RTW total is 33000 miles on the global tracker.

I'm interested in this buying refundable tickets and going with the miles multiplier . From my understanding is I purchased a refundable ticket for say $2,000 add the extra $$ to multiple the miles
I earn for the trip. Then I cancel the ticket receive a refund but still keep the miles I paid for to earn 3x the amount. So if my ticket I purchased would earn 10k miles then I pay to multiply it 3x I earn 40k then cancel the ticket I paid for $2,000 and keep the 30k miles .

How much does it costs to multiply the miles tho . 1.2cpm is excellent cheaper than any half price sale .

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yes I'm RTW total is 33000 miles on the global tracker.

I'm interested in this buying refundable tickets and going with the miles multiplier . From my understanding is I purchased a refundable ticket for say $2,000 add the extra $$ to multiple the miles
I earn for the trip. Then I cancel the ticket receive a refund but still keep the miles I paid for to earn 3x the amount. So if my ticket I purchased would earn 10k miles then I pay to multiply it 3x I earn 40k then cancel the ticket I paid for $2,000 and keep the 30k miles .

How much does it costs to multiply the miles tho . 1.2cpm is excellent cheaper than any half price sale .

I believe it's only the multiplied miles, not the base miles that you keep.

So if the ticket would get 10K miles, and you purchase a x3 multiplyer, you get 30K credited instantly.

The 10K from actual flying you do not get.

And then wait for 6-8 weeks for a refund!

 

[bcworld]

So if the ticket would get 10K miles, and you purchase a x3 multiplyer, you get 30K credited instantly.

No, I think you'd get 20k credited instantly.

 

[Shanye2233]

No, I think you'd get 20k credited instantly.

So even tho you went for the 3x multiplier you only recieve 2x the amount. I understand the base miles you would get you lose but you should get 3x the miles still for the extra money you paid.

Has anyone had success with this or know anyone?

I think it might be a good idea to top up some accounts but not continuing doing it to say get 150k for a F to Europe.

 

[bcworld]

So even tho you went for the 3x multiplier you only recieve 2x the amount. I understand the base miles you would get you lose but you should get 3x the miles still for the extra money

Why?

You pay to multiply the TOTAL miles you would get by 3.

Last time I checked 10,000 x 3 = 30,000. (10,000 for flying + 20,000 bonus)

You're treating the multiplier as if the intention is to book & cancel when clearly it isn't.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

No, I think you'd get 20k credited instantly.

yes indeed - excuse my poor math

 

[shane2603]

Lol based on the last part of this thread I vote Mel buys the ticket we work out his multiplier and see if it all works and Mel lets us know

 

[casanovawa]

Well bcworld brought it up, but yes, happy for Mel to be the guinea pig as well...

 

[spudwa]

Well just made my second redemption since joining. We were hoping for First class but availability was just not there. I was also surprised about how hard it was getting over the Atlantic. Still very pleased especially as the extra miles cost -10,000 miles compared to our London trip at the beginning of the year. We even got an email confirmation this time

Cost per person: 110,000 miles + $178.73 taxes + $50 processing fee

05/23 Thai 482 Perth to Bangkok departing at 4:45PM and arriving at 10:45PM
05/24 Asiana 744 Bangkok to Seoul departing at 1:20AM and arriving at 8:30AM
05/24 Asiana 222 Seoul to New York departing at 10:00AM and arriving at 11:00AM
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06/14 Singapore 25 New York to Frankfurt departing at 9:25PM and arriving at 11:15AM (+1 day)
06/15 Thai 921 Frankfurt to Bangkok departing at 2:45PM and arriving at 6:25AM (+1 day)06/17 Thai 481 Bangkok to Perth departing at 7:50AM and arriving at 3:35PM

 

[casanovawa]

Ok, so you managed a RTW itin as well...

I thought flying to Europe would up the cost to 120,000 miles, but because your just transiting it was just the cost of North America it seems...

You should post in the successful initeraries thread Spudwa...

Can't wait to book mine...

Was that a stopover in Bangkok on the way back as it seems to be more than 24 hours, but only just or did you not take a stop over, just flight to New York and flight back home???