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

[Alanslegal]

The 100% promotion is NOW LIVE! Capped at 40K bonus, so its Buy 40K and get 40K free!

Have fun folks.


Now, first question, how do I sign up to US Dividend Miles?!

 

[casanovawa]

Its easy

https://membership.usairways.com/Create/AccountInformation.aspx

You do have to have opened your account for 12 days before you can buy miles though...

 

[Alanslegal]

I'm just kidding with the newbie questions!

 

[casanovawa]

Hmm, hard to know eh, i need to buy 15,000 or so to book my J class award, but whether to book more or not, i guess another offer should come around again so no real need to risk it, but where will the aussie dollar be with all these debts worries in Europe (we seem to plummet a bit on bad news and the news doesn't sound that promising)??? There is also the GS next year hopefully to add more miles, but can't see me getting many through that, maybe 20k miles max or a bit more...

The buy the ticket, get the x3 bonus and then cancelling the ticket still sounds like the best and cheapest way...

 

[shane2603]

Glad i dont have AA points, these little cash injections hould hopefully keep US in the black

 

[Shanye2233]

Hmm, hard to know eh, i need to buy 15,000 or so to book my J class award, but whether to book more or not, i guess another offer should come around again so no real need to risk it, but where will the aussie dollar be with all these debts worries in Europe (we seem to plummet a bit on bad news and the news doesn't sound that promising)??? There is also the GS next year hopefully to add more miles, but can't see me getting many through that, maybe 20k miles max or a bit more...

The buy the ticket, get the x3 bonus and then cancelling the ticket still sounds like the best and cheapest way...

Are you going to buy the ticket and then cancel it or just thinking about it.

Mel-Traveller what do you mean you can buy a ticket $50 cheaper and then use that $50 on a hotel? I have brought my tickets and now on the hunt for cheap acc . The best deal so far I have done is the current raddisson promo bonus 50k with any stay at any raddisson hotels. If anyone needs info on a phantom stay let me know. It's $87US and you should end up with 52-54k club Carlson points

 

[JohnK]

Mel-Traveller what do you mean you can buy a ticket $50 cheaper and then use that $50 on a hotel? I have brought my tickets and now on the hunt for cheap acc .

I think he was being sarcastic.

 

[Masonic Phantom]

Are you going to buy the ticket and then cancel it or just thinking about it.

Mel-Traveller what do you mean you can buy a ticket $50 cheaper and then use that $50 on a hotel? I have brought my tickets and now on the hunt for cheap acc . The best deal so far I have done is the current raddisson promo bonus 50k with any stay at any raddisson hotels. If anyone needs info on a phantom stay let me know. It's $87US and you should end up with 52-54k club Carlson points

And away we GO!!Again!

M.P.

 

[bcworld]

I pulled the trigger.

Read a pretty bearish article about AUD so figured the eventual 1:1 rate I'll probably get after fees and conversion rates is good enough.

Hope AUD does spike higher for anyone that waits!

 

[Masonic Phantom]

I pulled the trigger.

Read a pretty bearish article about AUD so figured the eventual 1:1 rate I'll probably get after fees and conversion rates is good enough.

Hope AUD does spike higher for anyone that waits!

Yep...me to, got 25000 & 24000 + 2.

M.P.

 

[travelislife]

Yep I just bought 2 lots of 10,000 + 10,000 to take 2 accounts up to 120,000 miles for a trip to Europe return in J next year.

 

[Stephen65]

I'm probably going to buy 4 x 40,000 + 40,000 but am having an internal debate as to how to factor in possible AUD/USD movement over the next month.

 

[travelislife]

I'm probably going to buy 4 x 40,000 + 40,000 but am having an internal debate as to how to factor in possible AUD/USD movement over the next month.

Buy at least one lot now, maybe 2 whilst the dollar is definitely above parity, you could then hold on the others and you will have at least hedged half of your costs, if you buy at $1.02 and it drops to $.98 for the other two, you are still at parity.

I am happy with it as a good deal at parity or above, anything else is just a bonus.

 

[Stephen65]

Buy at least one lot now, maybe 2 whilst the dollar is definitely above parity, you could then hold on the others and you will have at least hedged half of your costs, if you buy at $1.02 and it drops to $.98 for the other two, you are still at parity.

I am happy with it as a good deal at parity or above, anything else is just a bonus.

Thanks, that is a good strategy and I think I will do it.

EDIT: done: 2 x 40,000 + 40,000 bought

 

[casanovawa]

I am still thinking about the buy ticket, get x3 miles then cancel... I would need to find more information on exactly how it is done, what sort of ticket to buy that allows mw to cancel and how to work out what the final price will be in cents/mile...

The best deal so far I have done is the current raddisson promo bonus 50k with any stay at any raddisson hotels. If anyone needs info on a phantom stay let me know. It's $87US and you should end up with 52-54k club Carlson points

And so what does 50k miles/points or whatever you get with deal get you??? And how long does the promotion last??

I am wanting to buy some miles but i was hoping i would have received my Citi debit card from the account i opened up a few weeks ago which would allow me to buy this and probably avoid about $50 in foreign conversion fees i imagine, but although the accounts been approved the friggin card hasn't turned up yet!!! But yes i was going to buy 15k but having the same internal debate and will probably end up going for 80k or 90k...

I need the miles quick as my routes to Europe in May are probably disappearing as i wait...

 

[bcworld]

I am still thinking about the buy ticket, get x3 miles then cancel... I would need to find more information on exactly how it is done, what sort of ticket to buy that allows mw to cancel and how to work out what the final price will be in cents/mile...

All of that is very easy to figure out.

What's more complicated and what you need to consider is what the final cpm will be once you've been stung for credit card charges and exchange rate losses.

Let's say as per my other example that you got about 49k miles for $599...for a US credit card, that would be about 1.2cpm.

However, if using an Aus credit card and you had to buy a $6000 flexible J class airfare you might get stung:

Ex rate on the day you bought the ticket 1:1 - let's say you get a rate of 0.98 = AUD6120

Credit Card Fee of 2% = $122

Then you refund the ticket and the rate has changed to AUD1:1.05...the credit card company uses a rate of AUD1:1.07

Your $6000 refund comes through at AUD5600 = $520 lost

Plus they charge you another 2% = $112

So now your USD599 has to have AUD122 + AUD520 + AUD112 added.

Because I can't be bothered doing more sums lets just assume that the rate is 1:1 - so total of AUD1350
Suddenly your cpm = 2.75 - that's much worse than the current promo!

I think this could work really well if you have a USD credit card...otherwise, dangerous!

 

[casanovawa]

What if you have a Citi Visa Debit card that doesn't seem to attract foreign currency conversion fees and you had the cash in the bank to buy the ticket outright negating any credit card fees??? Then the only issue would be the exchange rate shifting wouldn't it (as the actual foreign currency rate that Visa charge of maybe a cent or two less than actual exchange rate would still have to be paid even if we buy the points via these offers??)

And when does the offer come through for the x3 miles, was it a couple of weeks before, in which case if you bought a ticket a month before you were ready to fly, waited a week or two for the x3 offer then cancelled flight the chance of wild currency swings would be limited wouldn't it???

Is this about right??? Like i said i need more info before i made the jump, although I do have a sister in the US and maybe i might be able to get her to use her card???

 

[bcworld]

And when does the offer come through for the x3 miles, was it a couple of weeks before, in which case if you bought a ticket a month before you were ready to fly, waited a week or two for the x3 offer then cancelled flight the chance of wild currency swings would be limited wouldn't it???

You can only buy miles multipler at the same time as you purchase the ticket...there is no 2nd chance later.

Clearly if you use a no fee card (like 28 degrees) you don't get charged a formal fee...you still lose on currency exchange and potentially also currency fluctuation.

Edit: just noticed I got my sums wrong...the currency loss in my example should be more like A$500 than A$400 so even more cpm.

 

[casanovawa]

Well when we buy these 100% bonus points at 3.5 cents/2 x 7.5% tax we don't factor in the currency exchange loss either do we... Simply anyone in Oz buying anyting off US Air will have to wear the currency exchange loss so hardly worth taking that into consideration is it?

Which just leaves currency fluctuation... I guess except that we have a currncy exchange going two ways, once A$ into $US and then the refund US$ into $A...

Anyway, not wedded to the idea, just a thought...

 

[bcworld]

Well when we buy these 100% bonus points at 3.5 cents/2 x 7.5% tax we don't factor in the currency exchange loss either do we... Simply anyone in Oz buying anyting off US Air will have to wear the currency exchange loss so hardly worth taking that into consideration is it?

Which just leaves currency fluctuation... I guess except that we have a currncy exchange going two ways, once A$ into $US and then the refund US$ into $A...

Anyway, not wedded to the idea, just a thought...

The difference is you aren't putting multi $1000's on your card then getting it charged back again. It adds $100s that's why it's important.