MileValue is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
Note: Some of the offers mentioned below may have changed or are no longer be available. You can view current offers here.
US Airways offers some of the best off peak awards in the world. During select dates each year, you can fly:
- Between the United States and Europe for 35,000 miles roundtrip in economy
- Between the United States and the Caribbean for 25,000 miles roundtrip in economy and 50,000 in business
Plus, US Airways® Premier World MasterCard® cardholders get an extra 5,000 mile discount on off peak awards, so they can fly to Europe for 30,000 miles roundtrip or the Caribbean for 20,000 miles roundtrip. Since the card comes with 40,000 bonus miles after first purchase, the sign up bonus is big enough for two roundtrip tickets to anywhere in the Caribbean that US Airways flies.
Until recently, you could also book:
- Between the United States and Brazil for 35,000 miles roundtrip in economy and 60,000 miles in business
That deal has come to a sudden and unannounced end. US Airways and American Airlines merged in December, and it doesn’t make much sense for US Airways to fly two flights to Brazil from Charlotte when American Airlines serves 10 destinations in Brazil from Miami.
- How do US Airways off peak awards work?
- What’s the evidence that off peak awards to Brazil are finished?
- What off peak awards remain with US Airways miles?
US Airways Off Peak Awards
US Airways off peak awards must be flown:
- entirely on US Airways planes (not on any partners, including American Airlines)
- during select dates (you can fly one way during off peak and one way during normal dates and pay half way between the two prices)
- to select regions
Comply with those rules and you pay ridiculously low miles prices.
Since US Airways® Premier World MasterCard® cardholders get 5,000 miles off any award that is flown entirely on US Airways planes, and off peak awards have to be flown entirely on US Airways planes, US Airways® Premier World MasterCard® cardholders get 5,000 miles off the already discounted off peak awards.
The Demise of Off Peak to South America
I checked US Airways’ award chart for its own flights yesterday and noticed that no off peak dates were listed for travel to South America.
The off peak prices are still listed on the chart itself, so I investigated further.
I went to the wikipedia page for Charlotte airport and found that both US Airways flights to Brazil–US Airways’ only flights to South America–end by January 10, 2015. Unfortunately that’s before the usual off peak dates to Brazil, which were March and May.
It looks like American Airlines/US Airways decided that flying some daily flight from Charlotte to Rio and Sao Paulo didn’t make sense since American Airlines serves 10 destinations in Brazil from Miami.
That makes plenty of sense to me.
Unfortunately if US Airways planes don’t fly to Brazil, there are no more US Airways off peak awards to Brazil for 30,000 miles roundtrip for people with the US Airways® Premier World MasterCard®.
The 2015 off peak awards to Europe and the Caribbean might be our last chance ever to book US Airways off peak awards. I’m not sure the brand will last until 2016, or even if it does, whether off peak awards will last, since US Airways/American Airlines haven’t been shy about making changes to their loyalty programs lately.
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.
Not a realistic opportunity anyway … I have booked my share of trips using points, but find the USAir off-peak international awards to be like the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker— people talk about them, but you’ll not likely ever see one.
Ugh! This just sucks! I just got everyone in my family to sign up for this card so that we could go to Brazil taking advantage of low season awards. All 7 of us. I guess now we’re going to have to fly American or United to Brazil and find something else to do with the US Airways miles. I’ll get over it but right now, I’m really bummed out.
Yeah that was pretty obviously going to happen. July 31st, AA announced cancellations on US Air routes ex-CLT. I tried mightily to get a 30k August booking in (less the 5k from having the US card), but just couldn’t get off work. I did pickup a November flight in C using the Europe-S.Am trick before they killed booking ex-CLT. That seems to be gone now, although from what I can tell the schedule hasn’t actually ended September 30th as stated in the July 31st announcement. Anyway, this is a downer, but 40k RT ain’t so bad either, nor is flying in a higher class if that’s what it takes.
[…] I wrote about the unannounced demise of US Airways off peak awards to South America. On a happier note, US Airways off peak awards are still alive to Europe for only 30,000 to 35,000 […]