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

[MEL_Traveller]

shanye... they're not going to double them... but even if they did, first class for $5600 (before the federal excise tax!) is a bargain... same as business class on some of the cheaper carriers, and well below business class on carriers such as Cathay, Singapore or qantas.

if looking at business class... the cost of doubled miles would come to about $4200... then I would take Garuda...full fltat beds, great service and a stop over in Bali (all for their current advertised $3700).

choice of class is not really an option for me... so it just comes down to getting the cheapest I can. US still comes out way in front!

 

[bcworld]

They Released the info about the up and coming promo to find out what we would do with the 40k capped . What work arounds we can come up with.

The workarounds would be no different from a 100% promo with a 50k cap. So US will have plenty of evidence of already about what people might try.

 

[JohnK]

shanye... they're not going to double them... but even if they did, first class for $5600 (before the federal excise tax!) is a bargain... same as business class on some of the cheaper carriers, and well below business class on carriers such as Cathay, Singapore or qantas.

It is only a bargain if you are prepared to spend that much on flights alone. You may but most people do not. Will not. My comfort for a day of travel there and a day of travel back is worth the time I spend researching possibilities but is not that important to spend more than I am prepared to spend.

Currently I need another 50,000 miles to be able to go First Class to Europe and all up they would have cost me ~$2,300 and with taxes this should reach ~$2,500. This is about the maximum I would spend for flights on a trip regardless of class.

But I do not see major increases in award redemptions although the cost of miles will go up slightly. Still should be able to get to Asia in business for <$2,000 which in my opinion is decent value but not spectacular.

We are all different and I am one of those who looks for value first and then comfort.

 

[bcworld]

Currently I need another 50,000 miles to be able to go First Class to Europe and all up they would have cost me ~$2,300 and with taxes this should reach ~$2,500. This is about the maximum I would spend for flights on a trip regardless of class.

But I do not see major increases in award redemptions although the cost of miles will go up slightly.

I don't see increases in the cost of miles in the near future - they have risen 40% since this time 2 years ago - I would like to think US has got that out of its system for the forseeable!

 

[Shanye2233]

For me I was happy going to the gold coast every year until I discovered this deal. Going in F for the same or similar costs of a Y ticket got me hooked. It's 10k I wouldn't have spent that's for four tickets. But now with the increase price the dollar not holding strong and I'm seeing a lot of price decrease in fares it's not such a fantastic deal It was 6 months ago. Like John said it's still good but not amazing.

Although I went to Harvey world travel and asked for a price on the same routing I'm going same dates and gave me a quote of $18k per person so if you look at it this way it's WOW. But who would spend 18k on a ticket I didn't want to spend $1800. Im at the bottom end of the scale when it comes to money earning but rate myself at the top end of finding great deals , and so far to date this one is my trophy .

 

[MEL_Traveller]

But who would spend 18k on a ticket I didn't want to spend $1800.

Plenty of people... just look at the size of First and business class cabins on CX, KE (all upper deck), SQ (all upper deck A380 and A345), LH with 80 business class seats and the list goes on. Some are paid by business... some leisure. Several people I know fly for personal (not paid by company) from Asutralia to Europe each month on SQ F (and sometimes J).

A bargain is a bargain... I've saved in the region of 30K with this deal in the last two years. Those are actual savings... (based on lowest alternative F fares, or J for intra-Asia/intra-Europe)

 

[Alanslegal]

Although I went to Harvey world travel and asked for a price on the same routing I'm going same dates and gave me a quote of $18k per person so if you look at it this way it's WOW. But who would spend 18k on a ticket I didn't want to spend $1800. Im at the bottom end of the scale when it comes to money earning but rate myself at the top end of finding great deals , and so far to date this one is my trophy .

"My" time is pretty valuable and running around getting quotes for fares (with no intention of buying them) is a waste of time. At the end of the day you can't compare the cost of an award ticket versus revenue tickets as they are different things (even though you can potentially get onto the same flight).

Here's your example, you have booked onto a certain award routing first, then finding the equal routing revenue flight and comparing. Ok, its easy to say you go onto the flight for say $2,500 on points, than $18,000 if you had paid for in cash.

Let's reverse that, you want X date, let's get a revenue ticket first. You pay $18,000 cash and you get onto the flight. Then let's go run to US to book an award ticket, you might get no seat availability. Now from where I'm sitting that $18,000 looks much better value than no seats.

See, you can't compare them as they are totally different types of tickets.

 

[Shanye2233]

I won't agrue but like you said everyone has different opinions . For me going to HWT and finding out the fare is $18k makes me feel good and appreciate my hard work that I have done.

 

[neon_crossing]

Well spotted whoever found that accidental leak of a potential December promo.

If it is on again and the dollar spikes above the USD again I might stock up on an extra 80k of points for a smidge under $1500, good deal nonetheless.

I am still currently brainstorming my next USA trip (got some points in the bank already) and I am going to try to use my points to full efficiency from Adelaide.

Might go:
Depart:
ADL > AKL (wh-Y only avail on NZ) then straight onto
AKL > LAX (J on NZ hopefully on the lovely 773 for an overnight 17hr stopover)
LAX > DFW (F on US and attempt a 17hr 50 min stopover to check out the 6th floor museum / Dealey Plaza
DFW > DCA (F on US/United try to have about a 10hr layover to whip into town to see lincoln monument, white house etc etc)
DCA > EWR (F on US/United) Make this my 'destination' will spend some time in new york but also pay for some short flights to niagra falls, chicago etc then back to NYC to catch my 'return trip'
Return:
EWR > DFW (F on US, 18hr overnight layover, just to stop to check out a rodeo, not enough time on way up)
Stopover
DFW > LAX (F on US/United, use this as my 'Stopover' to spend some time in LA and pay for some flights around the west coast Vegas, SFO etc)
LAX > HNL (F on Continental/US/United, because I want to book this trip 3 months out when the NZ business award flights become available, and because my trip will be about 7-8 weeks long my return flights in J LAX > AKL will not be avail so I have to go via HNL in domestic F then get a J flight on the old 767's Air NZ HNL to AKL which seem to be avail about 11 months out) have a 12hr stopover maybe get a day rate at a hotel to freshen up / sit on the beach with a beer
HNL > AKL (J on NZ) then straight onto:
AKL > ADL (wh-Y on NZ)

The above itinerary should work right? as long as my little flights are < 18 hours apart and I only have the one 'stopover' and only 5 connections each way?
When I have booked before thats all the agents on the other end of the phone really care about.

I know trying to see Washington DC and a bit of Dallas in a day each is ambitious but I think worth it when effectively the domestic F class flights are 'free'.

Also does anyone know a good credit card you can get in australia that will earn (or be able to be transferred) points for US Airways? I have been stockpiling a shltload of Velocity points on CC's over the years but compared to US Airways the redemptions don't look that great (especially for J rewards, and VA's class of J doesnt look too flashy for a 777-300 compared to AirNZ). I have close to 250k velocity points, I am kind of just hanging out incase they become Star Alliance anytime soon.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Might go:
Depart:
ADL > AKL (wh-Y only avail on NZ) then straight onto
AKL > LAX (J on NZ hopefully on the lovely 773 for an overnight 17hr stopover)
LAX > DFW (F on US and attempt a 17hr 50 min stopover to check out the 6th floor museum / Dealey Plaza
DFW > DCA (F on US/United try to have about a 10hr layover to whip into town to see lincoln monument, white house etc etc)
DCA > EWR (F on US/United) Make this my 'destination' will spend some time in new york but also pay for some short flights to niagra falls, chicago etc then back to NYC to catch my 'return trip'
Return:
EWR > DFW (F on US, 18hr overnight layover, just to stop to check out a rodeo, not enough time on way up)
Stopover
DFW > LAX (F on US/United, use this as my 'Stopover' to spend some time in LA and pay for some flights around the west coast Vegas, SFO etc)
LAX > HNL (F on Continental/US/United, because I want to book this trip 3 months out when the NZ business award flights become available, and because my trip will be about 7-8 weeks long my return flights in J LAX > AKL will not be avail so I have to go via HNL in domestic F then get a J flight on the old 767's Air NZ HNL to AKL which seem to be avail about 11 months out) have a 12hr stopover maybe get a day rate at a hotel to freshen up / sit on the beach with a beer
HNL > AKL (J on NZ) then straight onto:
AKL > ADL (wh-Y on NZ)

The above itinerary should work right? as long as my little flights are < 18 hours apart and I only have the one 'stopover' and only 5 connections each way?
When I have booked before thats all the agents on the other end of the phone really care about.

Nope... unfortunately not...

stopovers within the USA are considered anything over FOUR hours. So LAX/DFW/DCA on the outbound will all have to pretty much be immediate conenctions... same for HNL on the way back...

10 segment tickets these days are generally limited to where tavel cannot be undertaken in 8 segments (the preferred max on awards).

Buying a cheap dom ticket to MEL might help cut down on the segements. Note that US also reserves the right to determine the most appropriate routing, they may well route you direct LAX-CLT-DCA (or similar) on the outbound...

 

[Stephen65]

Also does anyone know a good credit card you can get in australia that will earn (or be able to be transferred) points for US Airways? I have been stockpiling a shltload of Velocity points on CC's over the years but compared to US Airways the redemptions don't look that great (especially for J rewards, and VA's class of J doesnt look too flashy for a 777-300 compared to AirNZ). I have close to 250k velocity points, I am kind of just hanging out incase they become Star Alliance anytime soon.

When I last looked about 6 weeks ago the only way to earn dividend miles by CC spend was to redeem amex MR points for SPG points and then convert the SPG to DM. Unfortunately the conversion rates are not great and even using an amex plat charge only came out at about 0.61 DM per $ spent.

 

[neon_crossing]

Nope... unfortunately not...

stopovers within the USA are considered anything over FOUR hours. So LAX/DFW/DCA on the outbound will all have to pretty much be immediate conenctions... same for HNL on the way back...

10 segment tickets these days are generally limited to where tavel cannot be undertaken in 8 segments (the preferred max on awards).

Buying a cheap dom ticket to MEL might help cut down on the segements. Note that US also reserves the right to determine the most appropriate routing, they may well route you direct LAX-CLT-DCA (or similar) on the outbound...

Cheers, thanks for the tip.

Although this year I did book an open jaw trip and had a 16hr layover in Seattle and it was a non-issue.

I did suspect they might try to put me more direct, I didn't know about the 4hr rules.

It is irritating also that the J Class Air NZ flights AKL > SFO/LAX/YYZ flights aren't available until around 2 1/2 months out. Does anyone know when they get released or have booked any further out than that before?

 

[casanovawa]

In 2003 I did a RTW trip and on one leg flew from Phoenix to Orlando... I deliberately did a 6 hour transit at DFW and that was enough time to hire a car, drive into Dallas and park near the School Book Depository (called something else today) and both visit the 6th floor museum as well as inspect the grassy knoll and get photos taken on the road above the two crosses where the bullets hit home... A 4hr transit might be pushing it, but you never know, if the next flight was something like 5 hours i would probably still have a crack it, just know how to get back to the airport and drop everything off quickly... But it was good and would recommend it to people, always gives you a bit more sense of perspective and where it happened when u see doco's on JFK..

As for the rest of your itinerary, yeah you might struggle to get it but you can always ask, probably won't be able to do but if you don't ask you don't get...

 

[Foreigner]

My questions may have been discussed earlier however, I wanted to know, first, if *A bookings using Dividend Miles must be return bookings or can they be OW too?

For instance SYD to Asian destination appear to cost 90k miles. Is it possible to book OW for 45k miles?

Second, can return flights be changed once outbound journey has commenced? If so, do you pay in dividend miles or USD?

Third, can I use dividend miles in my account to book a family member, instead of transferring miles to his account?

 

[bcworld]

My questions may have been discussed earlier however, I wanted to know, first, if *A bookings using Dividend Miles must be return bookings or can they be OW too?

For instance SYD to Asian destination appear to cost 90k miles. Is it possible to book OW for 45k miles?

You can book one-way but they cost the same as returns...so still 90k in your example.

Second, can return flights be changed once outbound journey has commenced?

No, absolutely not.

Third, can I use dividend miles in my account to book a family member, instead of transferring miles to his account?

Yes, you can book for anyone you like.

 

[bcworld]

Dec 01...$1.03...could work out nicely!

 

[Timba-Jet]

Perfect timing with exchange rate bouncing back in our favour

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Dec 01...$1.03...could work out nicely!

nah... back down to 1.027 now... I can buy economy class to europe for $50 less. just not worth the extra. I'd rather spend it on a good hotel once I get there.

 

[bcworld]

nah... back down to 1.027 now... I can buy economy class to europe for $50 less. just not worth the extra. I'd rather spend it on a good hotel once I get there.

Agreed.

 

[burmans]

Perfect timing with exchange rate bouncing back in our favour

Yes, that's quite amazing, a few days ago I was wondering if I'd just wait for the next one.