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.
US Airways Dividend Miles are extremely valuable for award flights to Europe because they can be redeemed for awards on all oneworld airlines as well as a number of Star Alliance airlines.
All together, that’s nine airlines you can use to cross the Atlantic, and you can even add in a stopover or an open jaw for free. With more partners than American Airlines, and lower premium cabin redemption rates than United and Delta, US Airways Dividend miles offer a fantastic value for award trips to Europe.
The US Airways® Premier World MasterCard® is currently offering 40,000 bonus miles after first purchase, which gets you most of the way to a roundtrip award to Europe.
- Which nine US Airways partners fly from the United States to Europe?
- How do you search for Saver availability on all nine airlines?
- Which routes have the best availability?
- What are US Airways’ routing rules concerning stopovers and open jaws?
- How can you get more US Airways Dividend Miles?
US Airways Prices
US Airways charges 60k/100k/125k miles roundtrip from the United States to Europe in Economy/Business/First.
That’s the same price as American Airlines charges, but US Airways has three more partners to use to get to Europe than American.
That’s far less than Delta and United charge to get to Europe.
US Airways Partners
Since US Airways joined oneworld earlier this year, it now partners with all oneworld airlines. In addition, US Airways still maintains partnerships with some of their former Star Alliance partners, which means you have a total of 10 airlines–from two alliances–to choose from for your award trip to Europe using US Airways Dividend Miles.
You cannot mix Star Alliance and oneworld partners on a single award unfortunately. (The only exception is that you can mix US Airways flights with Star Alliance partner flights.)
oneworld Options to Europe:
- Air Berlin
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Finnair
- Iberia
- US Airways
Star Alliance Options to Europe:
- Singapore Airlines (must book by July 31)
- TAP Portugal
- Turkish Airlines (must book by July 31)
Searching for Availability
Only US Airways and American award availability is displayed on usairways.com, but you can easily search availability for all of the partner airlines using other websites. Any Saver award space on any of these airlines will be bookable with US Airways miles regardless of the site you searched to find that space.
Search on aa.com for:
- Air Berlin
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Finnair
- US Airways
Search on ba.com for:
- Iberia
Search on united.com for:
- TAP Portugal
- Turkish Airlines
Search on aeroplan.com for:
- Singapore Airlines
Routes With Great Availability
Availability is wide open on dozens of routes in Economy and Business Class, while First Class availability is a bit sparser.
Availability in Economy is fantastic on virtually every transatlantic route when you book far in advance, and it’s still pretty good even when you don’t. For example, there are tons of available Saver award seats from New York City to Istanbul early next year on Turkish Airlines, while availability from Chicago to London is great on American Airlines even on short notice.
In Business Class a number of routes have great availability including American Airlines to Barcelona, Zurich, and Madrid; Air Berlin to Dusseldorf and Berlin; Finnair to Helsinki; and TAP Portugal to Lisbon.
Out of all the airlines US Airways partners with, only American Airlines and British Airways offer a true First Class product–and British Airways flights include huge fuel surcharges. American only offers their Flagship First Class service on a few European routes, and although availability is generally pretty tight it can still be found.
For example, First Class award space is good between Dallas and Paris this fall.
US Airways Routing Rules
US Airways does not allow one way awards, but it does allow you to add a stopover OR an open jaw to a roundtrip award.
Stopover Example
You could fly from New York City to London on American Airlines and then stopover in London for as long as you’d like before taking your British Airways flight to Helsinki. Then, when you’re done in Helsinki, fly back to New York City on Finnair.
Open Jaw Example
You could fly from Chicago to Berlin on Air Berlin and then fly home to Chicago from Rome on American Airlines.
Stopovers are supposedly only allowed in partner hub cities, but in practice you can book a stopover pretty much anywhere. Unlike most other airlines, US Airways manually processes award tickets, meaning that routing rules are enforced by the agent on the phone, not by the computer. So, if you try to book an award and the agent tells you that your routing is against the rules, just hang up and try again with another agent.
Getting US Airways Miles
The US Airways® Premier World MasterCard® is currently offering 40,000 bonus miles after first purchase, which gets you most of the way to a roundtrip award to Europe.
Unfortunately, the 100% Share Miles Bonus on US Airways miles that allowed folks to “buy” the miles for 1.67 cents each ended yesterday.
Recap
US Airways Dividend Miles can be used to book flights to Europe on nine different airlines, in two alliances, with great availability. The miles are easy to acquire, the redemption rates are low, and you can even add in a stopover or open jaw for free.
US Airways charges less for awards than United and Delta, and they have more partners and less rigid routing rules than American, making US Airways extremely valuable for European travel.
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.
Are there any other credit cards that can get miles to US Airways that offer more than 1 mile per dollar? Such as 1.5? I don’t care if it has a signup bonus, I’m looking for something with more than 1:1 ratio. Thanks!!
Many of us were targeted for 1.2 to 1.3 for the next few months. Otherwise, the best is the SPG card which earns 1 Starpoint per dollar at 20k Starpoints transfer to 25k SPG points (1.25 per dollar). –> https://milevalu.wpengine.com/can-you-earn-1-2-miles-per-dollar-on-your-us-airways-card-through-august-31/
I think you should mention that Iberia award tickets also have high fuel surcharges. Called US Airways yesterday to put an itinerary on hold and was told taxes, surcharges, and fees totaled more than $1,000 for a R/T in J. Eventually booked on AB.
I would like to travel to Milan, Italy. My home airport is NOT a city with a direct flight to Milan on US Air. If I start my award travel trip from my home airport, is the first stop (domestic airport that offers the direct flight) considered my one layover? I would like to travel from my home airport to Milan to Paris and return to my home airport.
There is not a rule that you get one LAYOVER. You get one STOPOVER. A STOPOVER is a stop of 24+ hours.
You can go home airport to Milan (STOPOVER) to Paris (DESTINATION) to home airport just fine on a US Airways award.
Could both my husband and I sign up for the US Airways card and combine our points (80,000)? Our intention would be to buy business class tickets- one with points and the other with the companion pass for $99. Is this possible?
No, you can’t combine miles freely within accounts. Also the $99 companion pass is for companions of paid tickets within the domestic US not for award tickets.
I would like to use miles to book an economy flight to Europe, but when I perform a search for flights, the miles required are much higher than what the redemption chart says. For example, the points for the return flight from Rome to Charlotte on any Friday or Saturday in June 2015 is 110,000.
Would it be possible to find a flight on a One World partner for 60,000 using my dividend miles, even if the USAirways is quoting me 175,000?
All prices in this article and basically all prices ever mentioned on this site are the Saver/Low price on the award chart, which is only available on certain flights.
Any space on partners would cost 60k miles. usairways.com only shows US and AA flights, so you need to search ba.com to see space on other partners or hire my Award Booking Service (milevalue.com/award-booking-service)
See https://milevalu.wpengine.com/free-first-class-2014-airline-mile-redemption-basics/
How do you compute the “pricing” in the stopover example on different airlines? Is it as simple as adding the sum of the parts? Must each of the segments be in the same class (all economy, all business, etc.)?
Thanks
Also, must you book all three routes at the same time?
You must book all parts of the award at once. Free stopovers add zero miles. That means that the price should be the same as if the stopover city were merely a layover on your way to the destination. Airlines charge the entire DIRECTION (not r/t) as the highest cabin you fly.
You might want to hire my award booking service –> milevalue.com/award-booking-service