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.


Until April 13, 2014, US Airways is offering a bonus of 100% on sharing between 30,000 and 50,000 miles between Dividend Miles accounts.

Screen Shot 2014-04-07 at 12.22.40 AM

The US Airways Share Miles promo is typically the best mileage purchasing offer of the year.

Sharing miles works out to buying miles for 1.13 cents each. If you could buy unlimited miles at that price, a roundtrip award from the US to Europe in business class would be only $1,180 plus government taxes, an incredible value.

This is why I routinely max out US Airways Share Miles promotions even when I have no specific use for the miles in mind.

This is a non-targeted offer that only requires membership in US Airways’ Dividend Miles program for at least 12 days and a minimum of 1,000 miles in your account to begin.

Very similar promotions occurred in October 2012, October 2013, and December 2013. I participated fully all three times.

How can you take advantage of the best mileage-buying promotion of the year? Should you, in light of the fact that US Airways recently changed alliances?

What do I need to take advantage of this offer?

You need at least two Dividend Miles accounts that have been open for a minimum of 12 days. One account is yours, from which the miles will be shared. The second account can belong to a spouse, friend, or family member, and will receive the miles–and the bonus–from your account.

If you do not have a US Airways Dividend Miles account, open one now! There is still time to earn some very valuable US Airways miles before the airline and Dividend Miles program disappear, though your account will be too young to take advantage of this deal.

How do I actually share the miles?

Log in to your account at www.usairways.com and navigate to “Buy, share, & gift miles”:

Once you are on the Buy, share, or gift miles page, click on “share miles”:

You will see confirmation of the 100% bonus when you share 30,000 to 50,000 miles, and you will be prompted to enter your membership information, the number of miles you want to share, and the membership information of the person receiving the shared miles:

Screen Shot 2014-04-07 at 12.30.44 AM

In my example above, I have shared the minimum number of miles (30,000) such that the recipient will receive a 100% bonus. This means that the lucky recipient will get a total of 60,000 miles deposited into his account!

After you have entered the account details for the sharing and receiving accounts and the number of miles you want to share, you will be quoted the final price, which is 1 cent per mile plus a fixed fee of $30 and tax of 7.5%.

In my example, sharing 30,000 miles with a 30,000 miles bonus costs $352.50 ($300 + $30 + $22.50). The net result is buying 30k US Airways miles for $567.50 or 1.18 cents each. Sharing 50,000 miles and creating another 50,000 bonus miles costs $567.50 or 1.13 cents each.

How can I take advantage of this offer if I don’t have any miles?

Have a friend transfer you 50,000 US Airways miles. Your account will receive 100,000 miles. Transfer 50,000 back to him.

You are left with 50,000 miles, and you’ve spent $567.50.

What is this deal worth?

I value US Airways Dividend miles at 1.95 each—see the Mile Value Leaderboard. That means 50,000 miles are worth $975. Through this promotion, you can pay $567.70 for 50,000 miles—a discount of $407.30 or 42%! This is a fantastic value for the money spent.

What else should I know?

Because the buying, sharing, and gifting of US Airways Dividend Miles is processed through points.com, you will not get any category bonus points on cards that earn bonuses on airfare or travel purchases.

But how will I use my Dividend Miles to book my flight when they are in someone else’s account?

Don’t worry–the miles can be redeemed for an award ticket in your name, even if they are in a friend’s account.

I want to max out this promo. What is the limit?

The limit is that each account can only receive 50,000 bonus miles (plus the 50,000 miles shared = 100,000 miles.)

Here’s how it would look for two people to max out this promo:

  • A = you, 50,000 miles in account
  • B = partner, no US Airways miles

Then:

  • A shares 50,000 miles with B
  • B gets 100,000 miles
  • B shares 50,000 miles with A
  • A gets 100,000 miles

At the end of the day, you have transmogrified 50,000 miles into 150,000:

  • A has 100,000 miles
  • B has 50,000 miles

What can I do with 100,000 US Airways Dividend Miles?

Here are some possible roundtrip redemptions–US Airways does not allow oneway award ticket bookings at half the roundtrip price unfortunately:

  • 2 first class or 4 economy class trips in the continental US
  • 1 round trip business class trip to South America
  • 1 round trip business class trip to Europe
  • 1 round trip business class trip to North Asia–for example Hong Kong, Japan, or South Korea–with 10,000 miles left over. This award also allows a stopover in Europe.

In previous posts, I discussed the South American sweet spots in US Airways’ award chart and how US residents can use open-jaw itineraries to take advantage of some of these sweet spot awards originating in South America. With some creative routing, you can squeeze even more value from your Dividend Miles.

Recap

The US Airways 100% bonus on shared miles promotion runs from now through April 13, 2014 and offers an outstanding value at a cost of 1.13 cpm for Dividend Miles.

US Airways miles are the most valuable miles and can be used to book award space on 26 airlines.

To participate in the shared miles promotion, you and the recipient of the shared miles must have Dividend Miles accounts at least 12 days old. The maximum bonus that a recipient can earn is 50,000 miles, but there is no limit on the number of miles that you can transfer out of your account.

Hat Tip Lucky



Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

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.