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Issuing Bank: Barclay’s
Card: US Airways World MasterCard
Sign Up Bonus: 40,000 US Airways Dividend Miles after First Purchase
Application Link: US Airways World MasterCard
US Airways has a new credit card out with a 40,000 mile sign up bonus after first purchase. This matches the highest offer from the last two years; the difference is that you actually qualify for the offer.
(Brief history: For most of 2012, there has been an expired 40k offer targeted to top tier US Airways elites that many people including me have had success with. That offer waived the first year annual fee. The official offer was 30k on first purchase. The official offer is now 40k on first purchase.)
US Airways miles are my absolute favorite type of mile. I rank them #1 on the MileValue leaderboard at 1.95 cents each because the US Airways Award Chart is the best by far among legacy carriers. (Virgin America is making a claim for best award chart in the world.)
US Airways Award Chart Sweet Spots
US Airways has the standard price for the most common award I book for my clients, which is USA to Europe. US Airways charges 60k/100k/125k for roundtrip economy/business/first.
Where US Airways shines is on other awards that I’ve booked for creative, once-in-a-lifetime journeys.
For instance, it costs only 100k roundtrip in business class from Europe <-> South America with US Airways miles, a 40k+ discount over competitors. I used this amazing sweet spot to book myself my best award ever:
Buenos Aires to Johannesburg
Johannesburg to Munich
Munich to Chicago
That is 30 hours of flat beds on 2 of the nicest business class products in the world–South African and Austrian–across 4 continents for 100k miles. See Anatomy of an Award: South America, Africa, Europe, and North America in Flat Beds for 100k.
This award was only possible with the insanely generous US Airways chart and insanely generous US Airways routing rules (more on those later.)
Off Peak
US Airways has the most generous off peak awards. A month or two each year when you can fly to Europe for 35k miles or 60k in a bed roundtrip. Similar incredible deals exist to the Caribbean and South America.
For more on US Airways Off Peak awards, see All of US Airways Off Peak Award Space to Rio de Janeiro Loaded for 2013. There is still great off peak availability to Europe for next month.
North Asia
Or how about the USA or Canada to China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and the rest of North Asia for 90k US Airways miles roundtrip in flat bed business class. United charges 120k for the same trip, so US Airways saves you 30k miles.
Australia via Asia
US Airways also charges way less than the going rate for a flat bed from the US to Australia. In business class roundtrip, this award goes for only 110k US Airways. Compare that to 135k United miles.
And you can even get more value from the trip by stopping one way in Asia. You can get a vacation in two continents, flying business class all the way for only 110k miles.
US Airways Sweet Spot: Australia via Asia
Asia
Or how about an award I booked for my sister and niece that they’ll be flying in a few days? Intra-South and Central Asia is only 30k miles roundtrip in business class, so they’re flying from Thailand to India roundtrip in Thai Business for just a few more miles than an economy class ticket from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
This award was only possible with US Airways miles.
Anatomy of an Award: South Asian Sweetspot
South America
For instance, it costs only 30k miles roundtrip in business class anywhere within South America also. That means you can fly into smaller airports or cross the continent from South to North (6+ hours) and still pay only 5k more miles than a roundtrip economy class ticket in the US.
US Airways Sweet Spot: South America
Routing Rules
The other half of the value proposition from US Airways miles is its routing rules. US Airways partner awards are booked by phone–only US Airways own flights can be booked online–by agents, not computers. This leads to some inconsistent applications of the rules in your favor.
In practice, I don’t have trouble getting US Airways awards booked unless I try to book more than eight segments. But if I stick to eight or fewer segments, I can route pretty much any direction I’d like between two points. Take my master award above from Buenos Aires to Johannesburg to Munich to Chicago.
I am flying to four continents. And I routed between South America and Europe once via Africa and once via North America. These routings would be completely impossible with American or Delta miles.
What Can 40k Miles Do?
The 40k miles you earn on first purchase can do a few things. First, they can get some of the roundtrip business class tickets I talked about above that cost only 30k.
Second, they can pay for two roundtrips within the US and Canada on US Airways. One of the benefits of getting the card is a 5,000 mile discount on any award flown on US Airways planes. So if you find a domestic economy award on US Airways planes, the award costs 20k miles instead of the normal 25k, meaning the credit card gets you two such awards at first purchase.
Or you can take one roundtrip to Hawaii, which costs 40k in economy or 35k in economy if you find space on US Airways flights.
I would try to avoid doing those things. I would try to collect 90k+ miles for a bigger award. This is actually pretty easy to do with a 40k head start from the credit card. Why? You can actually take advantage of this offer at least twice. Barclay’s will approve you for at least two US Airways MasterCards with full 40k bonus as it has done for me.
Alternatively you can buy US Airways miles when they are cheap. US Airways miles are almost constantly sold with a 100% bonus making them 1.88 cents each. And occasionally there is a transfer bonus making the points as cheap as 1.1 cents each like the one this October.
Features of the Card
- 40,000 Dividend Miles with first purchase
- 1 mile per dollar for balance transfers in the first 90 days up to 10,000 miles
- 1 mile per dollar on purchases
- 2 miles per dollar on US Airways purchases
- 5,000 mile discount on award redemptions on US Airways flights
- One Free US Airways Club Pass Annually
- First Class Check In
- Zone 2 Boarding
- Two $99 Companion Tickets Annually: Up to two domestic tickets for $99 plus tax with the purchase of a $250+ ticket on the same route. This is actually a decent benefit–far better than the Delta card’s companion ticket benefit.
- $89 Annual Fee Not Waived the First Year
More Good News
The card is a MasterCard issued by Barclay’s. All things equal, MasterCards and Visas are preferable to carry since they are accepted more places than American Express.
All things equal, an offer piques my interest more if it’s from Barclay’s than one of the bigger banks. We can only apply for a finite number of cards from each bank, so it’s nice to enjoy another bank’s offerings. Also, different banks tend to pull your credit report from different agencies, so this can spread around the credit pulls.
Bad News
US Airways awards have some drawbacks that I discussed in When to Use United Miles and When to Use US Airways Miles. Those drawbacks are all baked into my 1.95 cent valuation, but I’ll mention them here for completeness.
Awards are priced at the roundtrip price whether you fly roundtrip or oneway. You can’t fly oneway for half the price of a roundtrip award.
Any change to an award costs $150, and no changes are permitted after travel begins. Depending on your traveling style this can be no big deal or a huge problem.
International and Hawaii award tickets have a non-refundable $50 “award processing fee.” That means the cash outlay on US Airways awards is $50 more than on United awards on the same flights. This is annoying but generally swamped by the way cheaper US Airways award chart.
Verdict
Am I getting this card? I have already gotten it twice with the exact same bonus to earn myself 80k miles (wait 3-6 months before getting a second). I just closed the first card as its annual fee came up, and I’ll look to get a second one again in the near future.
I can’t get enough US Airways miles because they are my favorite currency to work with: the same great Star Alliance partners United has with cheaper awards and better routing rules.
So getting 40k miles on first purchase on a credit card issued by a bank that I don’t have any other credit cards from is a no-brainer for me.
Application Link: US Airways World MasterCard
Bonus
For pro-level redemptions, check out the Master Thread: Free Oneways on US Airways Awards.
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.
NOOOOO!!!!!!!
This was such an easy no fee card. I accumulated 140K US Airways miles in the last year so easily. So annoyed with the fee. I’m running out and reapplying for the card now.
Sorry, I freaked out. The no annual fee version seems to be still available (I never noticed it was specifically targeted at chairman’s preffered members). I applied for my 3rd US Airways card just the same. The 2nd card is still open. I hope the no-annual-fee gravy train won’t end. This is the most lucrative card I churn
Gotta say, I’m a little surprised you are advocating for readers to sign up under this “new” offer without fully disclosing that the terms of the old “Elite” were actually much better. For example, not only was the $89 annual fee was waived for the first year under the old offer, but you also got an additional 10k miles at your account anniversary if you elected to keep the card open for the second year. I understand that the old offer was targeted, but as you say, virtually everyone had success with it. I think you owe it to your readers to clearly spell out all of the details and let them decide which is in their own best interest.
I wasn’t at all surprised when Rick @ FTG conveniently omitted those facts from his post this afternoon as he’s notorious for pitching his referral links over better offers. However, I am surprised you chose to go down the same path.
This was a partial oversight. I remembered the old offer charging me the annual fee, but I think you are correct that it did not. As far as the anniversary 10k, I just cancelled my card under the old offer because the agent told me it wouldn’t earn the anniversary 10k. I’m not sure if she was mistaken because the offer page does say anniversary 10k.
What evidence do you have that the Chairman’s offer is “expired”? I haven’t seen any reports of the the chairman’s link being expired or no longer working. Why did you choose not to post a link to it? People on FT are reporting it still works just fine. As far as the employee ID field, it is likely an optional field that could give a referral or offer additional benefits to employees. What benefit is there to using your link? How is it the better offer? The annual fee is not waived and it doesn’t net the 10K renewal. By using your link readers are potentially giving up both of these potential benefits and gaining little. I feel this is counter to your assurances that you will always promote the best offer. Are you also going to start promoting the official Citi AA offers over the expired links? I can’t tell as the link is broken to your list of “best offers”.
I think the 10k renewal benefit is dead, or at least that is my experience. This offer does have an annual fee, but the other offer which I’ve linked to before and am happy to link to again (http://www.mostmiles.com/apply/Landing.action?campaignId=1465&cellNumber=163) requires that you have top tier US Airways status. And the app itself behind that link requires that you be a US Airways employee. Everyone who is comfortable applying for that card should do so.
The 10K annual posted posted for me before the annual fee. I called to cancel after the annual fee posted. Another nice feature of this card is that people seem to be randomly target for 15K for $750 min spend for 3 months. If you stack all of those offers together, you’re getting 65K per card for $2250/min spend in 3 months. If you’re not targeted for the min spend offer then it’s 50K miles/$1 min spend.
could you clarify this from the reading, for international ticket, say you want to stay longer, could you change to later date for the return without a change fee or it cant be changed ??
Unfortunately no. On US Airways awards, no changes are permitted at all after travel begins.
any way to get more than 1 US Airways mile/$1 of spend?
No. This card only has US Airways purchases as a category bonus (2x), and Starwood AMEX doesn’t have any category bonuses (except 2x at Starwood), so there is never a way to earn more than 1 US mile per dollar over big purchases.
Starwood lets you get better than 1 mile/$ on US Airways as long as you transfer in blocks of 20k. That definitely makes the SPG card better than the US Airways card for earning US Airways miles, Barclays bonus offers aside.
As someone mentioned though, the Barclays card does regularly offer people a bonus for spending over a 3 month period–mine was 15k miles for 3 months of $1,250. That’s 5x for everything if you get it right at $1,250/month. I went a little over, but certainly won’t complain about 4.x miles/$!
That’s a good point about the near constant 15k promo they run. I’ve gotten the $1,250 and $750/month offer.
Just a word about the USA-Australia “sweet spot”. It’s soured a bit with US now enforcing MPM on most routes. A few people have managed to sneak a couple routings via Asia in (me included back in early Nov) but most people are getting denied based on the FT thread.
I see them still enforcing inconsistently. Hang up, and call again if you are denied for MPM reasons.
I’m not really having too much difficulty with enforcement of MPM and find US-Australia via Asia still quite doable, agree as with most things US Airways just hang up call back.
Is Hawaii considered domestic for the 2 companion tickets? Can you use the 2 companion tickets at the same time? Do you get them immediately?
You get the companion certificate in the mail with your card. It’s good for continental US and Canada.
Would you mind describing the process you take to get the two Barclays ?
I can really use those miles and I don’t want to mess up on it.
Thanks
Sure. Get one card today, and get one on your next churn in 91 days or 182 days or whenever. See https://milevalu.wpengine.com/easily-earn-110k-us-airways-miles-per-year/
[…] New 40k US Airways Miles Credit Card Offer Offer | milevalue.com […]
Does anyone know if it’s possible to book a RT partner award Europe to Asia via North America? I’ve heard of many people booking North America to Asia via Europe but I seem to remember reading somewhere that they don’t allow routing from Europe to Asia via North America. If this routing is allowed it would help unlock a free one way!
People have done it. You can try, and the worst you can lose is time if the agents won’t let you.
Scott-
You mentioned your August post about the churnability of this card, do you feel the same way now after the data points from your comments section? I applied for a card in June (still open) and am considering it again for my next AoR. Also, what are your thoughts about the biz version of this card?
Thanks!
Yes, this card is still churnable. What I don’t know is whether you can get more than 2 at a time.
[…] ask. The worst that you get is a firm “no.” Scott actually did a great write up of the new 40K US Airways MasterCard offer earlier this month, including discussing their incredible value and sweet spot award […]