Category Archives: US Airways

A Quick Reminder on Why US Airways Dividend Miles Can Be a Great Deal

Posted by on April 2, 2012 3 comments

I’ve been really happy lately with US Airways Dividend Miles because of their redemption values, so I thought I’d spend 3 minutes reminding everyone of why the program can be great.

I’ve recently gotten the US Airways Premier Mastercard (not an affiliate link) for the wife and I because it offers 40,000 US Airways Dividend Miles after your first purchase — no fee, no minimum spend. (A business credit card is also available, but the bonus is only 25k miles with a $79 annual fee not waived). I also transferred Starwood points in to Dividend Miles 2 weeks ago when they offered an 87% transfer bonus. Why?

US Airways has a handful of bargain redemptions (at least compared to other Star Alliance Airlines):

- Off-peak business class awards to Europe, South America or Hawaii on US Airways are 55,000 miles (well, 60,000 but it’s 5,000 fewer miles if you have their credit card). Coach is just 30,000 miles.

- North Asia is 60,000 miles in coach or 90,000 miles in business class on a Star Alliance airline (you don’t get the 5,000 mile credit card bonus unless you fly US Airways, which you won’t be doing to Asia).

- Business class to Australia is 110,000 miles.

- Trips to Africa are 70k in coach and 110k in business.

It’s not too late to buy US Airways miles for about 1.87 cents per mile, which is a good rate to top off with. This deal is good through April 15.

A year ago View from the Wing pulled together a useful overview of the details of the program (helpful for those of you who like to 3-hop through Europe to go to Asia).

Earn 15,000 Bonus US Airways Dividend Miles When You Spend $3,750 On Their Credit Card in 3 Months (TARGETED)

Posted by on March 22, 2012 7 comments

I just received an email from US Airways offering this great deal: Put $1,250 on their credit card in April, May and June and they’ll give me 15,000 bonus miles. It appears to be a targeted offer, but I wanted to put it out there so you can check your own email to see if you qualify.

US Airways Expands Wi-Fi and “GoGo Vision” Across 90% of Fleet

Posted by on March 22, 2012 No comments

US Airways is expanding its wi-fi presence by adding in-flight Internet to its A320 family (A319s and A320s) and Embraer 170 and 175s. Installation will begin this summer and be wrapped up by early next year.

When complete, 90% of the US Airways fleet will have in-flight Internet.

In addition, they will roll out GoGo Vision, a video-on-demand platform that is primarily cool because whatever you download on the plane will still be viewable on your device 72 hours after you land. This is especially handy considering that most Embraer 170 flights aren’t much longer than the length of a film (if that).

You may be noting that they still do not have in-flight power on their planes, which I think isn’t a huge deal for their domestic fleet since battery life has improve on most devices, and US Airways has very few domestic flights over 4 hours. This is a bigger deal on the international fleet, which also do not have in-flight power — that decision is pretty much inexcusable.

100% Bonus on Purchasing US Airways Miles – 100,000 Miles for $1870

Posted by on March 16, 2012 4 comments

Between now and April 15th, US Airways is offering a deal where you get a 50% bonus when you buy miles (miles normally cost $35 per 1,000 miles, plus some taxes). Then, if you register with points.com, you’ll get another 50% bonus. You can purchase a maximum of 50,000 miles (which will earn you 100,000 miles total) per person.

I’m not one to purchase miles in advance, but lots of people like the idea of getting a business class ticket to Europe for $1870.

If you haven’t yet gotten the US Airways Premier World Mastercard, you should — you’ll get 40,000 miles after your first purchase, with the first year fee waived. Seems like a no brainer in combo with the above offer if you have no miles with US Airways and you’re planning a trip (a co-worker is considering a trip to South Africa this fall, and I will recommend getting the credit card and purchasing the other 30,000 miles she’ll need for an award ticket. She’ll get to South Africa for under $300 — or she could go in business class for about $650). US Airways has generous redemption levels for Africa (70k/110k coach/biz), Australia (80k/110k coach/biz), and North Asia (60k/90k coach/biz).

50% Bonus (Up to 87% Bonus) When You Transfer Starwood Points to US Airways – Some GREAT Opportunities Here

Posted by on March 11, 2012 9 comments

Through March 31st, US Airways is giving a 50% bonus when you transfer miles from a hotel program partner into Dividend Miles. They have a bunch of hotel partners, but the only one worth considering here is Starwood.

You’ll get 37,500 Dividend Miles when you transfer 20,000 Starwood points into the program (an 87% bonus). Keep in mind that US Airways has a few award redemptions that are bargains. For example, 35k/60k (coach/biz) for off-peak travel from the US to Hawaii, Europe and South America. That means coach tickets to those places are now just 20,000 SPG miles during off-peak times. Crazy. Africa is typically 70k/110k; with this promo it’s 40k/60k SPG points.

I rarely proactively transfer points, even with a bonus, unless I have a specific trip in mind. I did do it in 2008 with the just silly 150% transfer bonus from SPG to Delta (I’m still sitting on the 300,000 Skymiles from that one). This isn’t quite that good (in fact, it’s roughly half that good), but if you generally use your SPG points for air travel (rather than hotel redemption), you should seriously consider this (I’m considering taking 79,999k SPG and turning it into 142,500 US Airways miles). I would do more, but you’re only eligible for one bonus and you can only transfer up to 79,999 SPG points at a time. I was thinking of combining my wife’s account with mine (since you can have household accounts) and then transferring into our respective Dividend Miles accounts, but the name on the SPG account must match the Dividend Miles account, so I don’t think that will work.

Anyone see a reason not to take advantage of this offer?

(Thx to this Milepoint thread for the heads up).

Buy or Gift US Airways Miles for Half Price

Posted by on February 3, 2012 4 comments

US Airways credit card holders can purchase or gift Dividend Miles for half price through February 29th.

Miles are normally $35 for 1,000 miles, so it’ll now cost you (do the math) $17.50 for 1,000 miles. Not amazing, but not bad either, especially if you’re just a few thousand miles short of an award. I’ve read enough people suggesting that they might buy 100,000 miles for $1750 or so and consider it a bargain, since they can buy a $5,000 business class ticket to Europe with it. I’m not that kinda guy – but to each his own.

You must have a Dividend Miles account open for at least 12 days to qualify.

US Airways Premier World Mastercard: 40k Miles with No Spend + $99 Companion Certs and More

Posted by on January 3, 2012 17 comments

I mentioned the US Airways Premier World Mastercard the other day, noting how there is now an offer for 40,000 miles after the first purchase with the first year’s $89 fee waived. That’s a pretty good offer right there. Plus, this card is apparently churnable (people who have had it before say they have been approved again). I got the card today, and I’ll report back in 91 days if that’s the case.

I wanted to bring up the card again because I missed 3 pretty solid additional benefits:

- The card comes with a $99 companion certificate good for 2 additional passengers (ie, for each regular fare, you get 1 $99 fare, for up to 2 people). Although not quite as generous as the Alaska Airlines companion certificates (which can be used on first class fares to Hawaii), they are still helpful. The US Airways certs can be used on coach flights within the lower 48 and Canada, provided the first fare is more than $250. Is that a giant benefit? No. But can it save you a few hundred dollars? Sure.

- As long as you have the card, you get a 5,000 point discount on award bookings when travel is on US Airways metal. US Airways has some pretty generous deals during off-peak times (25k miles to the Caribbean; 35k/60k to South America; 35k/60k to Hawaii or Europe.) Take off 5k and you’re looking at a 55k business class round trip ticket to Europe in January or February. That’s pretty amazing (even more amazing if you get those Dividend Miles by transferring from Starwood, where you get the 5k bonus for a 20k transfer, meaning you can get a roundtrip business class ticket to Europe for just 45,000 SPG points.) That’s pretty nuts.

- If you spend $25k a year on the card (not necessarily recommended considering how generous other programs can be — I’m talking to you Starwood), they waive award processing fees. Plus, 10,000 miles will convert from regular miles to Elite miles, putting you that much closer to getting that status you want.

Throw in a lounge pass and priority boarding, and I think this is one of our more underrated cards. And I’ll let you know in April how churnable this really is.

With the annual fee waived, and 40k bonus miles after the first purchase (plus, it’s not another Chase card), I see little reason NOT to get this card.

Apply here.

(No, I don’t get an affiliate payout for this card)

Get 2,000 Bonus Dividend Miles When You Stay at a Marriott

Posted by on October 24, 2011 No comments

Stay at a Marriott, JW Marriott or Renaissance Hotel between now and December 26th, and you’ll earn 2,000 bonus miles per stay from US Airways. Hotel must be booked by October 31st, and you can earn a maximum of 10,000 miles with this promotion.

Register here.

Pants on the Ground: Football Player Removed from Plane Because His Pants Were Too Low

Posted by on June 17, 2011 5 comments

A University of New Mexico football player was arrested at San Francisco International Airport after he refused to pull up his pants when he boarded a flight. Deshon Marmon was asked by US Airways gate agents to pull up his pants, which were sagging somewhere between his butt and his knees, before he boarded the plane. He did not. When he sat in his seat (with his pants, as the song goes, on the ground – or at least near the ground) he was asked by staff to leave the plane. He refused.

After 15 minutes he finally left, upon which he was arrested for trespassing and held on $11,000 bail.

Marmon’s mother said her son was a bit of an emotional mess because he had just attended the funeral of a friend.

US Airways: Someone, Please Merge with Us

Posted by on June 2, 2010 No comments

It’s not going to happen tomorrow, but US Airways now appears resigned to bidding a fond adieu to its brand and merging with a larger airline.  US Airways President Scott Kirby told a group of pilots that in all likelihood the airline would end up merged with either United, Delta or American.  He sees basically no option for merging with a smaller airline (Alaska’s costs are too high; Hawaiian is too leisure focused; Southwest learned from its failed merger with Frontier not to mess with pilot seniority, etc).  He stressed that US Airways is in pretty decent financial shape, so it’s not as if they’ll close up tomorrow.

But (and I’m hardly the first to point this out), many industries exist or have existed with 3 major players (Pepsi/Coke/7Up; Ford/Chrysler/GM; Yahoo/Google/MSN, etc) and it looks like the airline industry will be comprised of Delta, United and American with about 70% of the market, with the rest splintered between Southwest, jetBlue, Alaska and a handful of other small players.  Three major airlines allows for actual competition, plus space for niche carriers to compete on price or product.  This has basically already happened, with jetBlue and Virgin America leading on product, and Allegiant Spirit leading on price.  Until the recent spate of mergers, there were simply too many network carriers serving the same routes.  With their consolidation, there is room for everyone to make money.

Well, until new entrants start up when the economy gets better, and then you end up with the same downward pricing pressure we’ve seen over the past 10 years.  And as Kirby says in that article, jetBlue would be in the red if it had the cost structure of US Airways.  Staff seniority makes a massive difference in cost.  In 5 years we’ll see the 3 major airline scenario, but then the startups will be nipping at their heels.  Ah, the spiral.