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There are currently four stackable promotions related to US Airways miles. Combine them to get two roundtrip tickets to Europe for $568.90 all in–only $284.45 per person.
- The 100% Share Miles promotion through October 15 that allows you to buy US Airways miles for 1.13 cents each.
- The up to 50% rebate on awards that select US Airways Premier World MasterCard holders have been offered.
- The standard 5,000 mile discount per person that all US Airways Premier World MasterCard holders get on US Airways awards that are entirely operated by US Airways.
- US Airways off peak awards to Europe.
How can you turn those four promotions into two tickets to Europe for $568.90–less than $290 per person!? What kind of deal can you get if you weren’t offered the 50% rebate?
I’ve written about all four promotions separately, but never together. Here are the steps to turn $568.90 into two award tickets to Europe.
- Start with two US Airways accounts. The first one must have at least 30k miles in it. The second one must be the account of a US Airways Premier World MasterCard holder who was targeted for a 50% rebate on awards.
- Send 30k miles from account one to account two–the account of the person who has the US Airways MasterCard and 50% rebate–for a cost of $355.50. Account two will receive 60k miles.
- Redeem two off peak awards to Europe from account two. This will cost the same 60k US Airways miles + $100 in booking fees + government taxes.
- Three to four weeks after the trip, 30k miles will be rebated to account two.
The final accounting is that account one has 30k fewer miles than it did before step 1, but account two has 30k more miles than it did. The miles are a wash. This costs none of your existing miles because the 30k mile net cost equals the 30k bonus miles from sharing.
The total cash cost is $455.50 plus government taxes on the award. On an award I just priced from Philadelphia to Madrid, taxes were $113.40 for two people, so the total out of pocket cost would be $568.90 and no miles for two people to get a roundtrip to Madrid.
I don’t live in Philly, and I don’t want to go to Madrid. What other options are there?
You can start the award anywhere in the US for the same price as long as you find low price economy award space to Philadelphia or Charlotte on US Airways flights.
You can go anywhere in Europe that US Airways flies between January 15 and February 28 at these prices. (May I suggest Southern Europe.) Most US Airways flights to Europe leave from Philadelphia. Some leave from Charlotte.
There are also off peak dates to Brazil in February and March, but I didn’t find outbound award space at the off peak price for two people on any of the listed dates. There is return space at the off peak price.
Why not just share 50k from account one to account two and send 50k back like you suggested in your post about the Share Miles deal?
I do think you should max out the sharing promotion by receiving 50k bonus miles in all the US Airways accounts you control–1.13 cents is too good of a price to miss. My example above didn’t max out the Share Miles promotion just to make it easier to follow.
I didn’t get the 50% rebate. How good of a deal is this with a lower percentage?
This is quite a bit worse with a lower percentage, but can still be a great deal. Let’s imagine you got the 25% rebate offer. In that case, two tickets from Philly to Madrid would still be $569 out of pocket following all the same steps, but you’d end up having spent a net of 15k miles also. I value 15k miles at almost $300.
That means you are getting two tickets to Madrid for a shade under $900 in value. Still great, but not as great.
What other things do I need to know?
I left quite a bit of detail out of this post because I’ve already written about the component parts of the deal before. Read these articles to fully understand:
- The 100% Share Miles promotion through October 15 that allows you to buy US Airways miles for 1.13 cents each.
- The up to 50% rebate on awards that select US Airways Premier World MasterCard holders have been offered.
- The standard 5,000 mile discount per person that all US Airways Premier World MasterCard holders get on US Airways awards and off peak awards.
US Airways Premier World MasterCard® with 30,000 US Airways miles after first purchase
- Earn up to 40,000 bonus miles on qualifying transactions
- EXCLUSIVE: Redeem flights for 5,000 fewer miles
- Zone 2 boarding on every flight
- Enjoy 2 miles per $1 spent on US Airways purchases
- Earn 1 mile per $1 spent everywhere else
- Annual companion certificate good for round-trip travel for up to 2 companions at $99 each, plus taxes and fees
- First Class check-in
- Please see terms and conditions for complete details
Application Link: Barclay’s US Airways Premier World MasterCard
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The main problem I find with redemption of US Airways miles, is the fact that they are only useful when we cannot really fly. Most of EU is still rather cold on February, we would not be able to take days off at this time plus the kids do not have any school-break either. Anyway, anybody’s situation may vary (ASMV) 🙂
They are definitely useful year round even if you can’t take advantage of off peak pricing.
A couple of weeks ago I booked two 30k off peak tickets to Europe. I am targeted for the 50% offer. Do you think it makes sense to cancel and rebook? From what I can tell it would cost $300 to redeposit so I would be buying 30k miles (the rebate) for $300. However, the terms make it seem like redepositing cancelled flights is not immediate. Any insight is appreciated. Thanks.
That’s like buying miles for 1 cent each, which I would do. But there are other factors like whether space would disappear if cancelled. Another consideration is that your max rebate is 30k. If there is any other travel you’d consider before the end of next spring, book that with a 50% miles discount even if it’s not as good of a value as two off peak tickets would have been.
How can I find out what mile rebate I was offered?
Check your email inbox for an email with the subject line that I listed in the post about rebates.
It appears to me from the terms and conditions that if you use your US Airways miles to book on a Star Alliance partner, you still get the (up to) 50% miles rebate – is that your understanding as well, Scott? I am thinking that might be a better route for me as I can find significantly more availability on United than on US Air.
Yes, on all US Airways awards you get the rebate.
@Natalie Just remember you won’t get the 5K discount if you don’t book a route entirely on USAir planes.
I received none of these promos, but would just like to chime in on the ‘traveling to Europe in the winter’ comment. I visited Paris last January during one of their heaviest snows, and it was absolutely delightful! There were no crowds in the museums, in public areas, on transport… mostly only local people. Contrast that with the two days I spent there a couple of weeks ago and I would choose a January trip anytime! Europe in the offseason is a bargain!
This is an extremely useless post. How about showing a deal that everyone got and can use. Why don’t you put a post out like “how to fly in emirates first class for free” – by getting Alaska credit card and taping into your millionaire uncle.. Read more for details!!!
I thought everyone knew about the “taping your uncle trick.” The lesser known one is that if you don’t have tape on hand, you can just get the Alaska card and glue your uncle.
I just snorted out loud reading this. Wish I had an uncle worth taping instead of just ones I’d like to smack with a stapler.
Off peak awards on US Air are 17.5k to Europe and 20k on American
Hi, this is my first post on milevalue.com. I am truly inspired by the trip reports I read here. I have a goal of earning enough miles for my wife and I to take an EU trip in business class. So, these US Airways deals sound great! I have one question though… I signed up for the Barclay Arrival Card a couple months ago, but I am interested in the Barclay US Airways Dividend Miles card offer. However, the rules state, “This offer is available to new Cardmembers only.” Am I still able to take advantage of the Barclay US Airways Dividend Miles card offer despite already having the Barclay Arrival card?
You can definitely get both cards and both bonuses at once. Here’s my tip for Barclay’s: wait 6 months between your first Barclaycard and second. During that six months, put continuous spending on the first card. They are the only bank I know that checks for spending on one card before giving you a second.
Is there some trick to finding a 20k point fare to Paris from NY in February?
Who offers 20k point fares?
US Air ?
Off peak awards to Europe are 17.5k on US Air and 20k on American
We have gotten our US Air credit cards and I took advantage of the sharing miles and now both my husband and I have 100,000 miles on US air. We live in Sarasota FL and are planning a cruise May 8th that leaves out of Barcelona and ends in Venice Italy. Can we use US Air for this trip, and if so what airport would we need to go out of in order to get a free one way possibly to Hawaii?
If you do an open jaw like that–Sarasota to BCN, VCE to Sarasota–you can’t get a free oneway because US Airways only allows one stopover OR one open jaw. You’ve used the open jaw and a free oneway requires a stopover.
Would I be better off waiting until the merger goes through with AA to get 2 one ways to get the free oneway or just bit the bullet and book the flight using US air miles?
[…] economy tickets from the US to Europe for $284 each (by combining several current US Airways promotions that are open to US Airways Premier World MasterCard […]
Hello,
This is very interesting but what about Aeroplan? I live in Canada and I try to use my aeroplan points to fly but you don’t have any tricks for that. I find taxes are also way more expensive… That first timer who went all around the world only paid $140 in taxes but a flight to Turkey cost me $650 in taxes.. I don’t even feel like using my points anymore. For $600 more I could just get the flight cash. Instead of wasting a bunch of 75000 points… Can you help me out to figure out the system?
Thanks
Those aren’t taxes. Those are fuel surcharges. Aeroplan (like most foreign programs) levies massive fuel surcharges on its awards on almost all partners. The exception is that no fuel surcharges are levied on Aeroplan awards on US Airways or United flights. So search united.com or aeroplan.com for United/US Airways flights with Saver availability and book only those.
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