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Last month I wrote:

US Airways didn’t announce when its off peak awards to South America will be valid this year, but based on checking their calendars, the off peak dates appear to be March 1-15 and all of May.

US Airways has finally updated the award chart section of its webpage, and I correctly deciphered the dates. Off peak awards between the USA are available between March 1-15 and May 1-31.

US Airways 2012-2013 Off Peak Award Dates: The Best Value in Miles

This is all such huge news because US Airways off peak awards are the best value in awards. 35k roundtrip from the USA to Rio and 60k roundtrip in a flying bed to Europe, yes please! For a more thorough analysis of off peak awards and their rules, see this milevalue analysis.

Unfortunately, there are still no off peak business class awards loaded to Rio. But the off peak availability in economy class between Charlotte and Rio is pretty good. Here’s May’s availability. The left side shows Charlotte to Rio; the right shows Rio to Charlotte.

Charlotte to Rio is US Airways’ only route to South America

 

This is the key chart because US Airways only flies one route to South America–Charlotte to Rio–and US Airways off peak awards have to be flown on US Airways planes.

US Airways doesn’t have great domestic availability, so from your home airport to Rio, it might be difficult to construct an itinerary completely made up of low level/off peak seats to get in on the 35k miles roundtrip deal.

If you can’t find the itinerary, feel free to use my Award Booking Service like a growing number of savvy travelers are.