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.

All Nippon Airways (ANA)--a Japanese Star Alliance carrier--launches a new route between Tokyo-Haneda and Vancouver from March 30, 2014.

Saver award space is excellent on the route in economy and business class. You can book the space this week--by January 31, 2014--with United miles at pre-devaluation rates.

The offers for the cards listed in this post have expired, so their links have been removed.

With US Airways' official oneworld join date still over two months away (March 30), speculation is rampant over the design of their combined frequent flyer program. What will the new award chart look like, especially in light of United's massive devaluation and Delta's unprecedented double devaluation? Which routing rules will the program establish?

Because everyone loves to wonder, this post is meant to highlight the strengths of each program.

A new application for the US Airways MasterCard has popped up, offering 40k miles on first purchase.

Application Link: US Airways 40k Offer

40,000 Bonus Miles after your first purchase
Earn up to 10,000 Bonus Miles when you transfer a balance within 90 days of account opening (Do not do this. The 3% transfer fee is more expensive than the miles are worth!)

Earn 2 miles per $1 on US Airways purchases.

There is currently gold mine business class award availability on US Airways flights from the US to southern Europe for this summer.

Award space on US Airways flights is especially advantageous because it means that you can book the space at favorable mileage rates (and no fuel surcharges) with:

US Airways miles
American Airlines miles
United miles (until March 30, 2014)
Ultimate Rewards (until March 30, 2014)
Membership Rewards (until March 30, 2014)

What are the routes? How good is the space? How good is US Airways Business Class?

I got something wrong in today's earlier post titled American Airlines Space Bookable with US Airways Miles and US Airways Space Bookable with American Airlines Miles. I corrected the information in that post.

Today marks a huge step forward for the integration of American Airlines and US Airways, which have already legally merged. (See integration time line here.)

Today you can use your American Airlines miles to book awards that include flights on US Airways.

You can also use your US Airways miles to book awards that include flights on American Airlines planes.

Even better: space on both airlines is now showing on both aa.com and usairways.com.

The American Airlines AAdvantage program and US Airways Dividend Miles programs are very different.

US Airways and American Airlines have merged. Citi will be the issuer of the credit card for the combined New American Airlines. Barclaycard, which currently issues the US Airways Premier World MasterCard will at some point in the very near future have to discontinue the card.

For that reason, I've recommended that people who want to get a new card get the US Airways Premier World MasterCard with 30,000 US Airways miles after first purchase before it disappears and the chance to earn the miles disappears with it.

2013 was a year of several major devaluation announcements including:

United (kicks in February 1, 2014)
Southwest (kicks in March 31, 2014)
Delta (already kicked in on current award bookings for travel that starts February 1, 2014 or later)
Hyatt (kicks in January 7, 2014)
Ultimate Rewards (with three major transfer partners devaluing--United, Southwest, and Hyatt--the program took a major hit through no fault of its own)

But the more things change, the more they stay the same.