14 Days Only: US Airways 100% Bonus on Shared Miles!

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Via View From the Wing, you can get up to a 100% bonus when you share US Airways miles through June 30, 2014.  But there’s a catch, unlike previous US Airways 100% bonus promotions, you have to split the 100% bonus.

14 Days Only: US Airways 100% Bonus On Shared Miles!
Sharing Is Caring: Get up to a 100% Share Miles Bonus When You Transfer Miles to Friends or Family

US Airways Share Miles Promotion

Link:   US Airways Share Miles Promotion

You can transfer up to 50,000 US Airways miles to a friend or family member.  If you transfer the maximum amount, you and your family member or friend can split the 100% bonus of 50,000 miles..  So you get 25,000 miles and your friend or family member gets an additional 25,000.

You can share up to 50,000 miles with someone.  And they get a 50% US Airways miles bonus.

Transfers cost 1.5 cents per mile, plus a $30 transfer fee and 7.5% tax.  If you transfer the maximum amount, you’ll pay ~$836, and the recipient will receive 75,000 US Airways miles!

US Airways usually sells miles for 3.5 cents a mile, but in this case you’re getting them for ~1.67 cents per mile (~$836 cost to share 50,000 US Airways miles / 50,000 US Airways miles = ~1.67 cents per mile).

Because US Airways miles transfers are processed through Points.com, sharing miles doesn’t count as a travel purchase.  So you won’t get extra points if you use the Chase Sapphire Preferred or US Airways Mastercard.

And it won’t count as a travel expense if you want to redeem Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard points (although, you get 2X points per $1 you spend as with any purchase).

Using the Miles

Link:   US Airways Award Chart

Link:   US Airways oneworld Partner Award Chart 

You could use 75,000 US Airways miles to get a lot of Big Travel with Small Money!  You could get 2 round-trip off-peak coach award tickets to Europe and have 5,000 US Airways miles left over.

But we like to use US Airways miles to book award flights on their partner airlines.  You can redeem US Airways miles for travel on any of the oneworld alliance airlines.

There are 15 airlines in the oneworld alliance, including Cathay Pacific, British Airways, Japan Airlines, Qantas, and TAM.

14 Days Only: US Airways 100% Bonus On Shared Miles!
You Could Fly Cathay Pacific Business Class Using US Airways Miles

Why This Isn’t That Great a Deal

US Airways runs buy miles promotions frequently.  This is the 2nd US Airways buy miles promotion since US Airways joined the oneworld alliance on March 31, 2014, as part of its merger with American Airlines.

However, this promotion is different because the 50,000 bonus US Airways miles are split between you and your friend or family member.

Under the old promotions you could transfer 50,000 US Airways miles to your friend or family member and would get a bonus of 50,000 US Airways miles for a cost of ~$568.  Your friend or family member could then transfer 50,000 US Airways miles to you for ~$568 and you’d get an extra 50,000 US Airways miles.

So you’d buy 100,000 US Airways miles for ~$1,136, to use for a Business Class round-trip award ticket to Europe or North Asia.

14 Days Only: US Airways 100% Bonus On Shared Miles!
Almost $5,000 for a Business Class Ticket to Korea

Because cheap Business Class fares could cost $4,940, sharing US Airways miles used to be a great value!  But the value isn’t as great now.

How to Make the Most of the Bonus

However, now you’re paying ~$836 to transfer 50,000 US Airways miles and your friend or family member gets a bonus of 25,000 US Airways miles and you get 25,000 US Airways miles.

If they transfer 50,000 US Airways miles to you for ~$836, you get an extra 25,000 US Airways miles and they get 25,000 US Airways miles.

To get the most from this promotion, let’s say I send 50,000 US Airways miles to Emily.  This costs me ~$836.  Now Emily has 75,000 miles (50,000 shared miles and 25,000 as a bonus( in her account because of the bonus.  And I have 25,000 miles in my account.

So if you and your partner transfer 50,000 miles to each other, you’re now paying ~$1,672 to buy 100,000 US Airways miles.  This is still cheaper than buying a Business Class ticket.

14 Days Only: US Airways 100% Bonus On Shared Miles!
Paying $1,672 to Share US Airways Miles Is Still Cheaper Than Buying a Business Class Ticket to Paris

Drawbacks and Limitations

Buying miles to share isn’t a good deal for domestic coach travel because you’d pay ~$375 for 25,000 miles (25,000 miles X ~1.5 cents) which is usually around what a domestic round-trip ticket costs.  But for expensive routes or last-minute travel, it could be worth it.

You can’t transfer more than 50,000 miles into an individual account.  And the account must have been open for at least 12 days.

US Airways seems to run deals like this every few months, so if you can’t do a miles transfer now, you might be able to get a bonus in the future.  Other airlines, like Avianca (a Star Alliance member), also have frequent mile transfer promotions.

The US Airways award chart will change again, so you shouldn’t buy miles unless you have a trip you’re booking soon.  Although, US Airways miles will eventually become American Airlines miles.  So this could be a good way to buy American Airlines miles cheaply.

But award seats may not be there when you go to search for awards.

Bottom Line

US Airways has a share miles promotion from today until June 30, 2014.  You can transfer up to 50,000 US Airways miles to a friend or family member, and you each get up to a 50% bonus US Airways miles.

It costs ~$836 if you transfer 50,000 miles, your friend gets 75,000 US Airways miles and you get 25,000 US Airways miles.

What do you think of this new US Air promotion?

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