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Come to Happy Hour with me today (2/17/14) in New York City!
US Airways has legally combined with American Airlines, but the airlines are still being run as two brands with two frequent flyer programs until some time in 2015.
Next month there are two key dates in the integration of the two airlines and specifically their AAdvantage and Dividend Miles programs.
- On March 30, 2014, US Airways will leave the Star Alliance. This is the last day to use US Airways miles to book award space on Star Alliance partners. (Actually see this update. US Airways will maintain about a dozen Star Alliance partners on March 31.)
- On March 31, 2014, US Airways will join the oneworld alliance. This is the first day to use US Airways miles to book award space on oneworld partners. (US Airways miles can already book American Airlines award space.)
This change only affects US Airways miles and does not affect American Airlines miles. It doesn’t mean that US Airways and American Airlines miles will be combined or freely combineable. All it means is that the award space you can book with your US Airways miles (or we can book for you) will change.
Which awards should you book by March 30, 2014 with your US Airways miles? Which awards should you book March 31, 2014 and later with your US Airways miles?
Star Alliance vs. oneworld
To refresh your memory of what airlines are in oneworld versus the Star Alliance, I’ll list the airlines in each alliance with their hubs.
Star Alliance
(UA) United Airlines (Newark, Houston-Intercontinental, Washington-Dulles, Chicago-O’Hare, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Cleveland, Tokyo-Narita, Guam)
(US) US Airways (Charlotte, Philadelphia, Phoenix) until March 30, 2014
(JP) Adria Airways (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
(A3) Aegean Airlines (Athens, Greece)
(AC) Air Canada (Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver)
(CA) Air China (Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai)
(NZ) Air New Zealand (Auckland)
(NH) ANA (Tokyo-Narita, Tokyo-Haneda, Osaka, Osaka-Kansai)
(OZ) Asiana Airlines (Seoul-Incheon, Seoul-Gimpo)
(OS) Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
(AV) Avianca (Bogota, Colombia; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Quito, Ecuador)
(SN) Brussels Airlines (Brussels, Belgium)
(CM) Copa (Panama City)
(OU) Croatia Airlines (Zagreb)
(MS) EgyptAir (Cairo)
(ET) Ethiopian Airlines (Addis Ababa)
(BR) EVA Airlines (Taipei, Taiwan)
(LO) LOT Polish Airlines (Warsaw)
(LH) Lufthansa (Frankfurt, Munich, Dusseldorf, Berlin-Brandenburg)
(SK) Scandinavian Airlines (Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm)
(ZH) Shenzhen Airlines (Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanjing)
(SQ) Singapore Airlines (Singapore)
(SA) South African Airways (Johannesburg)
(LX) Swiss International Air Lines (Zurich)
(JJ) TAM Airlines (Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia), leaving second quarter of 2014
(TP) TAP Portugal (Lisbon)
(TA) TACA (San Salvador, San Jose (CR), Lima)
(TG) Thai Airways International (Bangkok)
(TK) Turkish Airlines (Istanbul-Ataturk)
oneworld alliance
(AA) American Airlines (Dallas-Fort Worth, New York-JFK, Los Angeles, Chicago-O’Hare, Miami)
(US) US Airways (Charlotte, Philadelphia, Phoenix), starting March 31, 2014
(AB) Air Berlin (Berlin-Brandenburg, Dusseldorf)
(BA) British Airways (London-Heathrow, London-Gatwick)
(CX) Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong)
(AY) Finnair (Helsinki)
(IB) Iberia (Madrid, Barcelona)
(JL) Japan Airlines (Tokyo-Haneda, Tokyo-Narita, Osaka, Osaka-Kansai)
(LA) LAN (Santiago, Lima)
(MH) Malaysia Airlines (Kuala Lumpur)
(QF) Qantas (Sydney, Melbourne)
(QR) Qatar (Doha)
(RJ) Royal Jordanian (Amman)
(S7) S7 Airlines (Moscow-Domodedovo, Novosibirsk)
(UL) SriLankan Airlines (Colombo), joining early 2014
(JJ) TAM Airlines (Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia), joining second quarter of 2014
As you can see, the Star Alliance is much larger, though it will lose two members to oneworld in the coming months in US Airways and TAM.
Awards to Book by March 30, 2014
If you book an award by March 30, 2014 with your US Airways miles, you can combine US Airways award space with award space of Star Alliance partners.
That means you want to book awards by March 30, 2014 for travel until about February 27, 2015 that is better served by Star Alliance carriers. Generalizations are no substitute for award searching the day and route you have in mind, but hopefully my generalizations can guide your thinking.
The five places I would try to book by March 30, 2014 with US Airways miles are:
- Hawaii
- Europe
- South America
- Africa
- certain awards to Asia
Hawaii
United has better award space to Hawaii and more comfortable fully flat bed first class options than other airlines. If you want to book a Hawaii trip with your US Airways miles, now is probably the time to book it.
Note, though, that traditional airline mile are not usually the best way to book an economy award to Hawaii. If you live on the west coast, you are better off using British Airways Avios, and if you live somewhere else, you’re probably better off using Arrival miles from the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® and ditching the award space hunt altogether.
Europe
Star Alliance options to Europe are much better than oneworld options with a few big caveats.
Currently United is offering good economy and first class award space to Europe on its planes. Austrian is offering fantastic economy space and business space (starting 89 days before departure.)
Lufthansa is also offering good economy and business class space, but US Airways agents can not see most of it because it is being blocked by their computers. Attempts to get the agents to book you the space that Lufthansa has released to partners–but that is not showing on the agents’ screens–is currently futile. Also, US Airways miles cannot book Lufthansa First Class space at all according the US Airways award chart.
Even with the Lufthansa-blocking, US Airways miles are more valuable to Europe before March 30, 2014 because several Star Alliance partner including United and Austrian are offering good space to Europe.
South America
You might be surprised to see South America on the list, but here’s my reasoning:
We need to look at the change in partners. Currently US Airways miles can book United flights. I booked United flights to Brazil for June’s World Cup with my US Airways miles.
On March 31, US Airways miles lose United’s award space but gain LAN’s. United’s award space to South America is generally better than LAN’s.
Note 1: American Airlines has the best award space to South America. You can book it now with US Airways miles or book it after March 31, 2014. Either way is fine.
Note 2: US Airways treats all of South America as one region, so awards to Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru are much cheaper with other types of miles.
Africa
The Star Alliance kills oneworld to Africa. The Star Alliance has several African partners like South African, Ethiopian, and Egyptair. Plus Lufthansa has great award space via Europe and United even flies to a few African cities.
Oneworld mainly serves Africa via British Airways, and awards on British Airways flights incur massive fuel surcharges.
If you want to go to Africa in the next year with your US Airways miles, book your award by March 30, 2014.
Certain Awards to Asia
The Star Alliance beats oneworld in terms of the number of partners in Asia and there is more economy and business class transpacific award space with the Star Alliance.
The one type of Asia award I would hold off on booking now would be if you want to fly Cathay Pacific business or first class with your US Airways miles. In that case, wait until March 31.
Awards to Book After March 31, 2014
1. Awards for travel February 28, 2015 or later
You can only book US Airways awards up to 330 days out. On March 30, 2014, you’ll be able to book until about February 27, 2015. If you make changes or new bookings March 31, 2014, you will only be able to use oneworld award space.
2. Awards to These Place
I’d generally wait until March 31, 2014 to book US Airways awards to the following places.
- Middle East
- Cathay Pacific Business and First Class to Asia
- Australia & New Zealand
Middle East
Qatar has good award space and an awesome business class product to the Middle East. Wait until March 31, 2014 and you can book the award space with US Airways miles.
Cathay Pacific Premium Cabins to Asia
I’ve had Cathay Pacific First Class on the top of my wish list for a while. If it’s on yours, wait until March 31, 2014 and book it with US Airways miles.
Australia and New Zealand
Qantas has incredible economy award space to Australia with connections to New Zealand that is bookable with US Airways miles starting March 31, 2014. Business and first class space to Australia will stink equally on Star Alliance and oneworld partners. (Use Delta miles to book Virgin Australia business class.)
US Airways allows you to route to Australia via Asia, so there should be a great chance to book Business Class awards on Cathay Pacific from the US to Australia for only 110k US Airways miles roundtrip, starting March 31, 2014.
Awards You Probably Shouldn’t Ever Book with US Airways Miles
Don’t forget that there are plenty of awards that are a bad deal with US Airways miles now and still will be on March 31. A change of partners won’t help.
These four regions don’t usually offer a good cents per mile value in economy with traditional miles. (Of course, they can sometimes.)
- Intra-North America
- Hawaii
- Central America
- Caribbean
For Central American and Caribbean awards, I like Frontier miles and Avios depending on the destination. Frontier charges 30,000 miles roundtrip to its Central American and Caribbean destinations with good award space. Frontier is currently offering 40,000 bonus miles after spending $500 on the Frontier card in the first three months.
For domestic flights, Arrival miles are almost always best. You can book any flight on any airline and redeem a net of 88 miles for every dollar of the flight, which is 1.14 cents per mile. The Arrival card earns 2 miles per dollar on all purchases, and comes with 40,000 bonus miles after spending $1,000 in the first three months.
Caveat
Note that this post is very general by necessity. Your specific routing and dates might suggest the opposite path as I am advocating in this post. This post is no substitute for award searching.
Getting US Airways Miles
There is still time to get US Airways miles by March 30, 2014.
The US Airways card offers bonus miles on first purchase. If you open the card today, the miles will likely post in late March. The best offer is 40,000 bonus miles after first purchase.
You can also transfer Starpoints to US Airways miles. Every 20k points transfer to 25k miles. Mine posted within 24 hours on my last transfer. You can earn 25,000 bonus Starpoints after spending $5k in the first six months on each of these cards:
- Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express
- Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express
I got both in August of last year because Starpoints are the most valuable points in the milesphere.
Recap
US Airways is leaving the Star Alliance on March 30, 2014 and joining oneworld the next day. This affects what partner award space can be booked with US Airways miles.
Some awards are best booked by March 30 to take advantage of Star Alliance space, and some awards are best booked March 31 to take advantage of oneworld space.
The timing of some award bookings doesn’t matter because the space you want is on US Airways or American Airlines planes, both of which are already bookable with US Airways miles. For other awards, you don’t want to use US Airways miles at all, so it doesn’t matter when you book them with Arrival miles, Avios, Frontier miles, or Delta miles, which are not affected much by the change.
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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.
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Scott,
I just had a situation where I needed to change an award ticket from TPA to MUC. I was booked June 10th on United connecting to LH MUC at Washington Dulles. We could not find any award opening with the same flight combination I held for an earlier departure. There was one from TPA to Charlotte on USAir connecting with LH to MUC on May 26th. However, the agent and her supervisor confirmed that I could not book this award since the portion TPA to Charlotte was after March 30, when USAir was no longer a Star Alliance partner. Were they wrong according to your write-up?
Is March 30 also the last date for crediting US flights to Star Alliance partners (like A3)?
Scott any guesses when the AA award chart will be devalued?
Hola Scott,
Love your site,especially the anatomy of awards! With your ideas I was recently able to acquire enough US Air miles and book two RTW business class tickets
Since I already live in Mexico they were only 90,000 miles each and I could use the stopover on my trip. We are going MEX- IAH-IST on Turkish 777 300 ER. Then IST -DEL stopover – BKK destination- NRT on Thai A380-SJC on ANA 787 then back PHX-MEX. Not bad for 90k, all segments in business . Thanks again
Incredible! Enjoy the trip.
Maybe I’m dimwitted but i’m confused. if you book dividend miles for a *A flight and need to change dates, is this possible after its booked for travel Oct 2014? Same itinerary just date change. Would change of date be done with US or *A carrier? Also if another trip is booked with DM after 3/31 in oneworld, is the mileage going to be what’s noted on the DM Partner award chart currently or will that change to what AA has on their award charts for their (Aadvantage partner chart)? Thanks. Yes I’m new at this, sorry to rehash anything that’s already been discussed.
Scott….any possibility of shedding light onto my question (s)? When you have a minute. Thanks!
Maybe I’m dimwitted but i’m confused. if you book dividend miles for a *A flight and need to change dates, is this possible after its booked for travel Oct 2014? Same itinerary just date change. Would change of date be done with US or *A carrier? Also if another trip is booked with DM after 3/31 in oneworld, is the mileage going to be what’s noted on the DM Partner award chart currently or will that change to what AA has on their award charts for their (Aadvantage partner chart)? Thanks. Yes I’m new at this, sorry to rehash anything that’s already been discussed.
Do you think the US Air chart will be merged with American and/or devalued on March 30?
I’m hoping for the best but expecting the worst. What do you think?
Scott, any insights into whether * Alliance awards booked with US Airways miles will be changeable after March 30? Or are we looking at cancel/re-deposit/start search from scratch??
UAPhil – Thanks for putting my question more concisely. I’m hoping we could just do a date change with the *A carrier. I find the US agents have a lack of interest in helping … maybe because they’re not sure if their careers are to be eliminated or they won’t have as many pass privileges with AA.
Thanks, Scott!! Based on my experience, I think all changes to award tickets must be made with the ticketing carrier….so I’m not optimistic.
Regard this
”
On March 31, 2014, US Airways will join the oneworld alliance. This is the first day to use US Airways miles to book award space on oneworld partners. (US Airways miles can already book American Airlines award space.)”
Is there a chart already published that shows the amount of miles required for business or first class travel by region once us airways joins oneworld?
Scott,
Currently I believe you can’t book 1 way trips with us airway miles will that change after March 31st?
[…] US Airways miles: 80k miles roundtrip. Currently has access to United and Air Canada flights. Switches alliances March 30, 2014. Will lose … […]
*Alliance using US miles on LH…so much conflicting information out there. FT’ers in the US forum (now AA) seem to have a lot of success booking business class seats and when I asked about how that info contradicts what bloggers are posting the reply I got was “we know better than the bloggers.” Again here it is posted that US agents can’t see and therefore cannot book biz seats on LH…is that really correct?
What will baggage transfer be like if you end up with a *A and ow carriers on the same ticket? For example, UA to Europe then transfer to LH for intra-Europe.
When the carriers are not on the same alliance, but there is still one ticket for both carriers, will the first carrier check bag all the way through?
I do not know. Hopefully.
I meant US to Europe, not UA
Is not the alliance that matters, the baggage will still be checked through to your ticketed destination. Even though the US/LH alliance will change, they still maintain their interline agreements – that will not change at all. Interline agreements have been and will continue to be sort of a separate entity, outside the scope of any alliance.
Hi Scott!
Thanks for all the good reads on your website! Don’t know if I’m right here but heard of a website (Giift) that can help you trade miles between airlines, was interested because I don’t want to lose my UA miles… Have you ever heard about it?
Never heard of it. There are a lot of ways to not lose miles though. See https://milevalu.wpengine.com/free-first-class-next-month-keeping-miles-active-with-dining-programs/
[…] and some places are easier to get to with oneworld partners. That’s why I wrote a post called Which Awards to Book Before US Airways Leaves the Star Alliance March 30 and Which to Book After. Check it […]
[…] Here are the awards that are easier to book in the next two days and the awards that are easier to b… […]
hi…
just a quick question, if I would like to search for either CX or JL award seats by using US miles, which airline website I can use? I know it’s better just give the US agent the designate flight instead of let them search for me. So, do you have any suggestion? Will those award seats on these two airlines easy to get? Thank you
Do you know if we booked using a united ff# way before march 31 for a flight after march 31 if we’ll get credit? My inclination was no, but i got told on the phone explicitly that I would, only to get told when they called me for another reason that I absolutely would not be getting credit. Be nice to earn some miles flying overseas on my preferred milage account (united/star alliance).
You’re the boss who knows this type of stuff. Everything google returns is related to booking rewards travel not earning miles.
You will not get credit. Change the FF # on that ticket.
Who are you booked on, that’s the question which will give you the accurate reply. In other words, are you on a star alliance flight or a oneworld flight?
Its booked through US unfortunately. Had to be for contract/cost reasons. So I’m probably SOL. Wish the first guy hadn’t gotten my hopes up.
The only other option would be to go here:
http://www.usairways.com/en-US/dividendmiles/promotions.html
Get the card, pay the fee and buy something, any price. Then you’ll have the 40k miles plus whatever mileage earned on the flights. At the very least you’ll get something out of it.
So it’s an actual usairways flight then and nothing to do with the star alliance? Then you don’t have much of a choice unfortunately. Yes, it’s a real drag to be misinformed and sol. If you need help in the future I’d be happy to help you.
[…] and some places are easier to get to with oneworld partners. That’s why I wrote a post called Which Awards to Book Before US Airways Leaves the Star Alliance March 30 and Which to Book After. Check it […]
[…] Here are the awards that are easier to book in the next two days and the awards that are easier to b… […]