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.
Get 40,000 bonus miles after first purchase on the US Airways MasterCard! Click here for details.
The notes at the bottom of the US Airways award chart have some bad news: US Airways is losing four partners this year.
On Saturday, I explained Where to Search for Award Space on All 26 of US Airways’ Partners. If you want to fly four of those partners, though, you need to book in the next few weeks.
Which partners is US Airways losing? When do you have to book by? How far into 2015 can you fly the awards? What are good substitute airlines for the partners being lost?
Here are the four partners being lost and the last day US Airways will be able to book their award space.
1) Award redemption on Air New Zealand must be booked by June 29, 2014
2) Award redemption on Avianca must be booked by May 31, 2014
3) Award redemption on EVA Air must be booked by May 14, 2014
…
5) … Award redemption on Singapore and Turkish must be booked by July 31, 2014.
Note that awards on these airlines need only be booked by these dates. You can book US Airways awards up to about 335 days in advance. That means you can fly awards containing the lost partners into 2015.
With your US Airways miles:
- Book Air New Zealand flights by 6/29/14 for flights until about 5/30/15.
- Book Avianca flights by 5/31/14 for flights until about 5/1/15.
- Book EVA Air flights by 5/14/14 for flights until about 4/14/15.
- Book Singapore flights by 7/31/14 for flights until about 7/1/15.
- Book Turkish flights by 7/31/14 for flights until about 7/1/15.
How to Replace the Lost Partners
Losing partners is a blow to the value of US Airways miles. Luckily US Airways has other partners in all the regions served by the outgoing partners.
Air New Zealand Substitute
Even after US Airways’ partnership with Air New Zealand ends, US Airways will still partner with Qantas, which is based in Australia and serves several destinations in New Zealand.
Avianca Substitute
When Avianca and its hubs throughout Latin America exit, US Airways will still partner with LAN, which has hubs in Chile, Peru, and Argentina. American Airlines (which has now merged with US Airways) also has an extensive network throughout Latin America.
EVA Substitute
EVA flies to the US and throughout Asia from its hub in Taiwan. US Airways’ oneworld partner Cathay Pacific does the same, but from its hub in Hong Kong.
Singapore Substitute
Kuala Lumpur, the hub of Malaysia Airlines, is less than 200 miles from Singapore.
Recap
US Airways is losing four partners this year:
- Air New Zealand
- Avianca
- EVA
- Singapore
All are Star Alliance members who US Airways has maintained as partners even though it has left the Star Alliance for oneworld.
You can book US Airways awards up to 335 days in advance, so you can fly all four of these partners will into 2015 on US Airways awards.
Get 40,000 bonus miles after first purchase on the US Airways MasterCard! Click here for details.
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℠ 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.
Which one can replace Lufthansa??? I don’t see a match.
Lufthansa has already been lost. I’d “replace” them with airberlin, though airberlin has no first class.
British Airways would be the most logical match to Lufthansa given its comparably large route network. However, taxes and fees will be a pain.
Scott, how different would this itinerary be at this time?
https://milevalu.wpengine.com/anatomy-of-an-award-south-america-africa-europe-and-north-america-in-biz-for-100k/
Very, very different. I’d have to fly Taca Avianca from the US to Buenos Aires instead of United, then I’d have to fly probably Turkish or US Airways back from Europe.
How about the other 2 segments, i.e. one to JNB plus another from JNB to anywhere in EU? How about One World partners?
I flew those on South African, which is still a US Airways partner. There is no good oneworld option from South America to Africa. oneworld is very weak to Africa in general. BA has the best network, but there are those fuel surcharges.
If South African is still US Air partner, than, no partners from One World are needed. Thus, your last year’s plan/itinerary should still work at this moment 🙂
LAN Colombia, with its hub in Bogotá, is also a member of oneworld now, and can help people get to destinations in Colombia that AA doesn’t serve (e.g., Cartagena). airberlin could be regarded as oneworld’s answer to Lufthansa in terms of getting to Germany from the USA; of course, airberlin’s route network isn’t nearly as broad.
Nor is airberlin’s product as good as Lufthansa. Losing Lufthansa is a tough blow. But US Airways gained some great partners too.
But we can’t combine oneworld with US Airways’ other partners on a single mileage award, right?
For example, I couldn’t fly LAX-AKL on Air New Zealand, stopover, then fly Qantas from AKL-SYD-PER. Please tell me I’m wrong, but I thought that’s how it is. If you want to use the non-oneworld partners, you have to combine it with US Airways flights (Can you combine them with flights on AA?)
If this is the case, US Airways’ non-oneworld partners already have limited value and it won’t be that great a loss when they exit, since we’ve already lost a great portion of their value by not being able to use them to link up with other US Air
It is correct that you can’t combine the oneworld partners and the other partners. But we’re still losing options, which is bad.
[…] I wrote in “US Airways Losing Four Partners in the Next Few Months,” four of the Star Alliance partnerships that US Airways carried over when it joined oneworld […]
[…] Two months ago I wrote that US Airways would be losing five of its Star Alliance partners over the course of 2014. […]
[…] Three months ago I wrote that US Airways would be losing five of its Star Alliance partners over the course of 2014. The final two of those five bite the dust this Thursday! […]