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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.
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:
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.
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!
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Actually off-peak you can get a round-trip award to Europe on US for 35,000 or on AA for 40,000 (assuming the same deal will be available by the time the miles transfer over) so you could, by buying them at 1.13 cents, get a round-trip to Europe for $395.50-$452.
Plus a $50 US Airways award processing fee plus taxes, so around $500 minimum. But this is another reason why buying the miles for 1.13 cents each is a great deal! (Also, I’ve edited the sentence you’re referring to above to include the words “in business class.”)
I did this last Fall gifting 50,000 miles to my wife and back to me and then used your booking service to book Bus class trip to New Zealand via China this August/September. Problem is I only have 27,000 miles left in my US account now. Any ideas on how to take advantage of the 100% deal?
You could transfer 20k SPG to your US Airways account, receive 25k, and have 52k. Or you could ask around to see if any friends have 50k+ US Airways miles.
Scott what are the economics behind these sales e.g., do they imply impending devaluation?
Well we saw them in October 2012, October 2013, and December 2013 with no devaluations yet, so I don’t think it means there’s one next month or anything like that. My outlook is that US Airways miles will devalue in 2015 when the new AA announces one chart for the combination of AA and US mileage programs. I think we have approximately a year to book US Airways awards at today’s rates, which means we have almost two years to travel on them at today’s rates.
I’m guessing after what happened early this morning you are reevaluating these assumtions? 😉
I’m guessing after what happened early this morning you are reevaluating these assumptions? 😉
Just out of curiosity — is it possible for a family of four to exponentially increase this offer if they have enough miles? In other words, A shares with B, C and D; B shares with A, C and D; etc? Is this worthwhile?
My wife and I each have 150,000 miles in our accounts and each of our kids have 100,000 miles. We’re planning family trips to Europe and Australia *next year* so I’m wondering if this is a good opportunity to stock up ahead of them.
Jim – There is a 50k limit on this offer, so you can’t “exponentially” increase your miles. Each transfer costs the same amount and nets the same new miles, but you can perform your transfers four times and net 200k miles.
The best you can do is A -> B -> C -> D -> A. You’d create 50k miles for each person at a cost of around $2,300 total. But each account is capped at receiving 50k bonus miles.
If anyone needs a partner to swap with, please let me know.
Adam, I’m interested. What’s the best way to communicate with you?
Email me, milevalue dot meetraz at xoxy.net
Guys, I am not going to delete these comments, but please know that I am not endorsing this, and there is very little you can do to avoid being scammed in a deal like this.
I can’t imagine paying money to share, transfer, or gift miles. A can simply book a flight for B using his own miles. Example: I paid for my son, his wife, and his kids for a round trip using my miles. Works with Avios, too.
Normally, you’d be correct. The news here is that by transferring miles from A to B, USairways will double the miles transferred. You pay for the transfer, but the miles you gain are worth the transfer fee.
What Adam says is correct. The “share” is really just a chance to “buy” for 1.13 cents each. And I’d happily buy 50k US Airways miles at that price.
What are the chances of US Airways miles merging with AA miles 1:1 in the future? I want to take advantage of this offer, but I won’t need the miles until early 2015 flying business to Hong Kong (family of 5).
Odds of US Airways miles transferable to AA miles by January 1, 2015? 50%
Hi,
I have had this account open but mileage balance is 0. Can i still find a partner to share with or do you have to have 1000 initially to even take advantage of this?
Thanks!
You need to find someone to transfer to you first.
Sharing, transferring, gifting by paying with money is rediculous. A can use his miles/Avios to buy a ticket for B and pay cash only for the mandatory taxes and fees.
Your argument misses the point that this isn’t really a play to move miles from one account to the next. The reason to share US Airways miles this week is because of the 100% bonus that makes it like buying miles for 1.13 cents.
I understand when people say they won’t buy miles even for 1.13 cents because they get them cheaper from sign up bonuses or spending. BUT the argument that you can book anyone a ticket from anyone’s US Airways account is not an argument against participating in the US Airways Share Miles program.
You said: 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
Is that right? A transferred 50k to B and then got back 100K, for a net to A of 50k. As I see it, both A and B end up with 50k each.
A started with 50 and B started with 0. At the end of the day, they both gain 50. That means A ends with 100 and B ends with 50.
Scott,
How long does it take to transfer SPG points to US? I currently have around 34,000 SPG points. So now I would have 52,000 US miles and 14,000 SPG points. Also, once I gift 50,000 points to my wife and she then has 103,000 points ( she has 3,000 left after the NZ buy) and gifts me back 50,000, so that I now have 102,000 US miles and she has 53,000. Couldn’t she then share in the opposite direction with me for another $567.70?
Jeff
Each account can only RECEIVE 50k BONUS miles during the promo.
Sadly, overnight this statement became no longer true. “■1 round trip business class trip to North Asia–for example Hong Kong, Japan, or South Korea–with 10,000 miles left over.”
I was planning to buy and hold for awhile because my schedule is pretty booked for right now. I figured I could still get good value even with some devaluations in the merger. With no notice devaluations I’m not sure about that statement anymore, so I’m sitting here trying to decide. Of course, with North Asia going to 110k in J it makes sense to redeem in F for 120k if the space is available which is still less than SkyMiles to Europe in J. I was only slowly accruing AA miles while racking up miles in DL, US, and UA for trips to Oz, Asia, and Europe respectively, so I don’t know much about OW partners. Is F space to Asia readily available for two people on CX or JL?
Yes, if you are flexible on dates, you can find two F seats on Cathay.
[…] change is especially brutal for anyone who bought 50k US Airways miles yesterday through the US Airways Share Miles program and was planning to use them to go to North Asia in business class. (By the way, I still think the […]
[…] US Airways used to offer the chance to “share” miles with a bonus once a year that gave the chance to buy miles for 1.13 cents each. […]