[Vicious]

Would you like to go from The US or Canada to anywhere in Europe, South America or North Asia? All in business class for the paltry price of $1375?

No I'm not affiliated with US Airways. But among travel hackers the US Airways Buy miles 100% bonus promotions are among the most well know and appreciated promos to be found. Usually business class tickets from the US to North Asia will set you back $2500 so if you want to travel in style this is one of the best offers out there.

Quote:

Special offer: get up to a 100% Bonus
Buy miles between August 8 and September 15, 2011 and get 10,000 bonus miles for every 10,000 miles purchased.

For example:
Buy 10,000 - 19,000 miles = 10,000 bonus
Buy 20,000 - 29,000 miles = 20,000 bonus
Buy 30,000 - 39,000 miles = 30,000 bonus
Buy 40,000 - 49,000 miles = 40,000 bonus
Buy 50,000 miles = 50,000 bonus

http://www.usairways.com/en-US/dividendm...miles.html

Check their partner award chart to see where you can go for the top value buy (50000 + 50000).

Along with the actual business class seats comes priority check-in, lounge access and other perks that makes the value of these miles insane. You can specify a stop-over and a destination that doesn't even need to be within the same country as long they are in the same region. I'm using this myself for a 3 week stay this coming winter in Bali and Thailand.

[mondo]

Looks like you can also use that to purchase a roundtrip from North America/Hawaii to South America for $550 if you can travel during the selected dates and don't mind flying economy.

[Vacancier Permanent]

This is awesome Vicious! US Airways is also part of Star Alliance which is a big bonus too. I wonder if I could buy those miles and use them at a later date or only during the dates specified? If the former, then it'd be a wonderful deal to be able to fly first class to Asia for 1375 which is the cheapest economy fare; if the latter, then that'd not as attractive. After reading the finer prints, there's a limit of 50k miles that can be purchased (+50K bonus or a total of 100K) which is enough for an economy flight but for a first class to South East Asia, it requires 160K points. Too bad about this limit because if miles can be used anytime and there was no limit on the amount of miles, I would gladly buy 200 or 300K miles to use for my frequent flights to Asia. Btw, Vicious, have you bought these miles? have you or anyone flown wiht US Airways internationally (either to SA or Asia)?

[Vicious]

(08-08-2011 04:46 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  

This is awesome Vicious! US Airways is also part of Star Alliance which is a big bonus too. I wonder if I could buy those miles and use them at a later date or only during the dates specified? If the former, then it'd be a wonderful deal to be able to fly first class to Asia for 1375 which is the cheapest economy fare; if the latter, then that'd not as attractive. After reading the finer prints, there's a limit of 50k miles that can be purchased (+50K bonus or a total of 100K) which is enough for an economy flight but for a first class to South East Asia, it requires 160K points. Too bad about this limit because if miles can be used anytime and there was no limit on the amount of miles, I would gladly buy 200 or 300K miles to use for my frequent flights to Asia. Btw, Vicious, have you bought these miles? have you or anyone flown wiht US Airways internationally (either to SA or Asia)?

Dates specified? You can only buy these miles during the promotion time (until Sep 15) but keep them in your account for as long as you like. During my lifetime I've purchased a total of 400K miles from US Airways, they've run this kind of promo something like half a dozen times the last 4 years.

Right now I've bought 100K miles and I've registering a fake account under another name to which I will purchase another 100K miles. It will cost you to transfer miles from one account to another however but it's still a good deal. Just remember that you can't purchase miles unless your account is at least 12 days old.

I have never flown a single foot on US Airways. I just use their miles to book award flight on their partners (preferably Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and Thai) you don't need to use them to fly on their own metal. If you really want that first class award, just buy 100K now and let it sit in your account until the next time the promo comes along.

[FretDancer]

Just came from this thread. Is this promo still available?

[Vicious]

They run it 2-3 times a year. They had one going for the month of January.

[Aliblahba]

@vicious- What do you think about the current promotion where you get a bunch of bonus miles for joining points.com?

https://www.usairways.com/en-US/dividend...miles.html

[Vicious]

It's basically the same promotion (with the addition of the Points.com membership demand) so the cents per mile price is the same as above. I'm flying First Class to Thailand in April because of the last promo.

The only real trick with this promotion however is one line in the fine print: "The additional 50% bonus will be awarded before June 5, 2012."
This might pose a problem if you intend to use the miles soon (which might be a problem anyhow since you usually have to book award travel a couple of months ahead or at last minute). But if you don't need the full amount of miles this second then this is still a very good deal.

[canucktraveller]

It is showing the price for 50,000 miles is $1,750 for me, is that the same for everyone else?

You can fly to most places in europe for $1000 in economy from Toronto, I'm not sure if the extra $750 is worth it for the upgrade.


Maybe I'm missing something, but it doesn't sound like the greatest deal flying out of the US/Canada (As usual).

[Menace]

This is great, thanks. If you apply for the Premium Rewards Card you get 30K miles (+possibly 10K more), then if you do this mile purchase you can get 100K, and that's enough for business class to Asia. I will then buy points with this CC, which earns double points.

canuck, $750 is definitely worth the upgrade to business! There is simply no comparison between economy and business.

[Aliblahba]

(03-21-2012 06:57 PM)canucktraveller Wrote:  

It is showing the price for 50,000 miles is $1,750 for me, is that the same for everyone else?

You can fly to most places in europe for $1000 in economy from Toronto, I'm not sure if the extra $750 is worth it for the upgrade.


Maybe I'm missing something, but it doesn't sound like the greatest deal flying out of the US/Canada (As usual).

50K +25k miles for $1750. The other $25K miles comes from joining points.com. So, 100K miles for $1750. I'm deciding if it's worth it too. Here's United interactive awards map.


http://pss.united.com/web/en-us/apps/mil....aspx?RW=1

This map made life so much easier. It shows the points for flights/upgrades, in correlation with the airline code. This will help as I traverse through Decoding Air Travel.

[pazzesco]

(03-21-2012 07:24 PM)Aliblahba Wrote:  

(03-21-2012 06:57 PM)canucktraveller Wrote:  

It is showing the price for 50,000 miles is $1,750 for me, is that the same for everyone else?

You can fly to most places in europe for $1000 in economy from Toronto, I'm not sure if the extra $750 is worth it for the upgrade.


Maybe I'm missing something, but it doesn't sound like the greatest deal flying out of the US/Canada (As usual).

50K +25k miles for $1750. The other $25K miles comes from joining points.com. So, 100K miles for $1750. I'm deciding if it's worth it too. Here's United interactive awards map.


http://pss.united.com/web/en-us/apps/mil....aspx?RW=1

This map made life so much easier. It shows the points for flights/upgrades, in correlation with the airline code. This will help as I traverse through Decoding Air Travel.

Flyertalk.com and blogs like pointsguy.com are awesome resources for frequent flyer related questions. There's a whole community of people who sign up for credit cards just for the frequent flyer mile bonuses and accumulate an ungodly amount of points. I was skeptical, but in the last year I've used some of their tactics and am hooked. I'll write up a datasheet if there is interest...flyertalk is overwhelming at first to say the least.

BTW, the promotion in this thread isn't that great.

[Aliblahba]

^^^ Yes, drop a data sheet please. I gotta lot of travel coming up this year and I'd like to optimize my expenditures.

[Vicious]

(03-21-2012 08:41 PM)pazzesco Wrote:  

(03-21-2012 07:24 PM)Aliblahba Wrote:  

(03-21-2012 06:57 PM)canucktraveller Wrote:  

It is showing the price for 50,000 miles is $1,750 for me, is that the same for everyone else?

You can fly to most places in europe for $1000 in economy from Toronto, I'm not sure if the extra $750 is worth it for the upgrade.


Maybe I'm missing something, but it doesn't sound like the greatest deal flying out of the US/Canada (As usual).

50K +25k miles for $1750. The other $25K miles comes from joining points.com. So, 100K miles for $1750. I'm deciding if it's worth it too. Here's United interactive awards map.


http://pss.united.com/web/en-us/apps/mil....aspx?RW=1

This map made life so much easier. It shows the points for flights/upgrades, in correlation with the airline code. This will help as I traverse through Decoding Air Travel.

Flyertalk.com and blogs like pointsguy.com are awesome resources for frequent flyer related questions. There's a whole community of people who sign up for credit cards just for the frequent flyer mile bonuses and accumulate an ungodly amount of points. I was skeptical, but in the last year I've used some of their tactics and am hooked. I'll write up a datasheet if there is interest...flyertalk is overwhelming at first to say the least.

BTW, the promotion in this thread isn't that great.

You claim to be down on FT while simultaneously claiming the most popular Buy Miles promotion on said board is not so good? I believe you need to read up some more before you put out any datasheet.

 

Canucktraveller:

Read the first post. You never redeem points for an economy seat, there’s no value in that. What you do is redeem points for premium seats (Business/First) since if you’d be paying in cash those seats would easily set you back $2500-$4000 on the long haul. So this is not a promo for finding cheap flights, it’s about flying in style.

[mikeymike]

this is great stuff, I fly biz and 1st for work but on my own dime its been economy and that once youve gotten used to biz+ is no way to travel. Keep these kinda offers posted cause im jumping in.

[pazzesco]

(03-22-2012 06:59 AM)Vicious Wrote:  

(03-21-2012 08:41 PM)pazzesco Wrote:  

(03-21-2012 07:24 PM)Aliblahba Wrote:  

(03-21-2012 06:57 PM)canucktraveller Wrote:  

It is showing the price for 50,000 miles is $1,750 for me, is that the same for everyone else?

You can fly to most places in europe for $1000 in economy from Toronto, I'm not sure if the extra $750 is worth it for the upgrade.


Maybe I'm missing something, but it doesn't sound like the greatest deal flying out of the US/Canada (As usual).

50K +25k miles for $1750. The other $25K miles comes from joining points.com. So, 100K miles for $1750. I'm deciding if it's worth it too. Here's United interactive awards map.


http://pss.united.com/web/en-us/apps/mil....aspx?RW=1

This map made life so much easier. It shows the points for flights/upgrades, in correlation with the airline code. This will help as I traverse through Decoding Air Travel.

Flyertalk.com and blogs like pointsguy.com are awesome resources for frequent flyer related questions. There's a whole community of people who sign up for credit cards just for the frequent flyer mile bonuses and accumulate an ungodly amount of points. I was skeptical, but in the last year I've used some of their tactics and am hooked. I'll write up a datasheet if there is interest...flyertalk is overwhelming at first to say the least.

BTW, the promotion in this thread isn't that great.

You claim to be down on FT while simultaneously claiming the most popular Buy Miles promotion on said board is not so good? I believe you need to read up some more before you put out any datasheet.

 

Canucktraveller:

Read the first post. You never redeem points for an economy seat, there’s no value in that. What you do is redeem points for premium seats (Business/First) since if you’d be paying in cash those seats would easily set you back $2500-$4000 on the long haul. So this is not a promo for finding cheap flights, it’s about flying in style.

whoa, just said its not that great of a deal. and its not. not a bad deal, but there have been better ones.

for more info on this promo:
http://thepointsguy.com/2012/03/us-airwa...sed-miles/

ill put out a datasheet on credit cards/ff miles when i get a chance next week.

[Vicious]

(03-22-2012 09:23 PM)pazzesco Wrote:  

whoa, just said its not that great of a deal. and its not. not a bad deal, but there have been better ones.

Didn't mean to come through as harsh as I did now that I read my reply again. However, through what other means can you acquire what is essentially a business class ticket for $1750 in a couple of clicks?

Yes you could churn credit cards, optimize miles intake when flying other legs or find good deals on specific lines but these all take time, knowledge and are more outside of your control.

[Aliblahba]

Well, it took me a month to part with the money, but I bought the miles. The way I figure it, for $1885 (100K mi.), I got a round trip ticket to Sao Paulo, and a one way ride back to the ME. Not bad, considering that would be around $3K paying cash on the barrel head.

I definitely owe you a cold beer vicious.

[Aliblahba]

United offered 30K miles for $600 when I checked in online. @ .02 per mile it seemed worth buying. On a sidenote, does anyone use the airlines shopping? In some stores you get like 3 miles for every dollar spent. Most of the stores is where I shop online anyway. I'm starting to realize how quickly you can add them up.

Got about 165K on Star Alliance, and 15K on my credit card. Now I just figured out how to use them efficiently. Bought that airline book, but got bored after the 4th chapter.

[Vicious]

Are those star alliance miles all in the same airline? 165k will get you a first class return trip anywhere in the world.

Pm me the details and I can check your options and award seat availability.

And yes, the Kralev book IS dense. Which effectively keeps the info and rewards to a select few without watering down the pay offs.

[Menace]

Vicious,

I've also bought the max miles for a biz class ticket to Asia. Is it possible to go around the world, like for example DC->Phils->India->DC, or will it only work for round trip?

[Vicious]

You are allowed one destination and one stopover (30 days max) with Us airways. So yes that itinerary is possible. The destination has to be the farthest though. Using a stopover like this is the kind of move that give there buy miles promos incredible value.

[Vicious]

This offer is available again for the month of June. Looks like I'm travelling in style to Florida.

[Aliblahba]

Just got an email that stated U.S. Airways and AA were merging. Is it still going to be Star Alliance, or are the miles going to get split up?

[Vicious]

It will transfer to One World. I advice you to spend the miles before that if you have them as US has A significantly better spending chart. PM if you need to find award seats anywhere I have access to the Amadeus booking system back end.