On Monday I wrote that we don’t know when the US Airways MasterCard product will go away. American and US Airways are merging, there will eventually just be an American Airlines co-brand card. My guess is that the two airlines combine into a single entity at the end of February or beginning of March 2015, but even that doesn’t tell us with certainty when it becomes no longer possible to apply for the current US Airways card issued by Barclays.
MileValue and I debated this on Twitter, since he had contended on his blog that the card would disappear in ‘a few weeks’ and I disagree.
In my post I pointed out that there’s a 35,000 mile signup bonus (after first purchase) with a $0 fee the first year.
Now it appears there is also a 40,000 mile signup bonus, albeit with $89 annual fee not waived for the first year. Effectively this offer means buying an incremental 5000 miles at 1.8 cents apiece.
It’s great to have more options to consider. Both are, of course, better than my referral link (not provided in this post) which gives you 30,000 miles after first purchase and has an $89 annual fee.
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Lol at his flimsiness with “few weeks”!
“Both are, of course, better than my referral link (not provided in this post)”
…. and better of course than the referral link MV provides in every single post
I hate that you are giving the slimeball MV any attention at all, but if you absolutely have to, at least let it be calling him out on his disgusting CC pushing practices.
and no, he doesn’t actually have a clue when the CC will go away
You and I both know that he only posted what he did as a fake-alarmist tactic to get people to sign up with his referral link
I know you’re not naive enough to think there was any other reason behind his “analysis”
Well played Gary in not giving that douche bag the pleasure of a back link.
He also censored my comment posting a link to the $150 sign up bonus for Discover. His post had it big and bold there was no sign up for the card.
There is absolutely nobody worse in this business than this clown.
And my take is these cards will be around a lot longer… I am pretty confident I will get another anniversary 10k on my card and the two my wife has
Any idea on how long it takes for the miles to post. I did the 35K about a month ago and my sepnd nor my bonus points have posted. I assume after the billing cycle closes? But I usually don’t have to wait at all for a first purchase bonus to post. Odd.
I like milevalue’s posts. I learned a lot from his blog.
He is the first one who pointed out the “free one way”.
When he talked about this “free one way”, none of those MMS, pointsguy, nor boarding area bloggers, travelsort were mentioning about that . But of course, nowadays, every blogger is mentioning about this “trick”
good job on expose MV for his lies. Its a joke that he considers 24 weeks as “a few weeks”.
its also a joke that he refuses to tell his readers about better offers.
That guy censors all negative comments.. he must be getting desperate lately.
@GuestA (who at p=.8 I believe may be MileValue or commenting on behalf of MileValue): My impression is that I was the first blogger to write about free one ways — on May 10, 2009.
@Heather – should post with miles from your first statement
Thank you for your integrity and for pointing out bloggers who appear to be less than transparent with their commentary due to ulterior motives.
“@GuestA (who at p=.8 I believe may be MileValue or commenting on behalf of MileValue)”
So um yeah…. that doubling down on MV’s part didn’t work out so well….
Q: My wife and I each have a US Airways card. I’d like to apply for the business cards (we each have an applicable business) and a second copy of the personal card in order to segregate recurring expenses.
Apparently, quite a few people get denied for a second card.
Is there any negative effect (besides the credit inquiry) of being _denied_ for a credit card?
Is this card still considered churnable? What about the Citi AA card with 50k offer, is it churnable as well?
Re: “There is absolutely nobody worse in this business than this clown.”
Actually, I would beg to differ. DeltaPoints is right up there with MileValue.
WTH! What is wrong w Rene? He’s great!
milevalue is pushing the card that offers less points for referrals, such a shame
While we are dishing out on MV, let me chime in too. His award help page is the worst I’ve seen. Always pushing people to reach out to him through booking service without giving much “general” help, not to say that it is a paid service and expecting money for advise is wrong. But we readers also provide readership and click through links to apply for cards, so i’m guessing that is some contribution to get some advise or run through some routing doubts..
I’ve seen you and Ben respond very well to questions like that without pushing too much on having to buy the service to get some general advise.
@LarryInNYC – How long have you had the first personal open? I opened two personals of this card in a 6-month span (March and September 2013) with no issue and both bonuses.
Hmmm. Just for shits and grins, I looked up your May 10, 2009 post and frankly can’t see where you mention the free one-way at all.
@Heather, Rene is the Kim Jong of BoardingArea and pushed inferior affiliate links and censoring comments long before MileValue. Just another example:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/external-miles-points-resources/1532703-bloggers-posting-wrong-misleading-advice.html
Bloggers need to put bread on the table, so should it surprise anybody that a person pushes and pumps his/her links? Be a smart consumer and pick the links that work best for you.
All the blogs I read come with a different focus/emphasis, unique observations, and helpful advice. MV has brought me some great information over time.
Can we please lift ourselves back up to Gary’s objective standards in these comments, and cease and desist on the name calling and sniping?
@Bluecat I described it as booking two awards and getting the third free (same concept, and I gave city pair examples). I didn’t do it with arrows and circles, but the concept wasn’t an original one. Folks on Flyertalk (where I credited in the post) realized the possibility literally within a day of American introducing one-way awards.
@LarryInNYC – no negative effect besides burning a credit inquiry for getting denied.
@Gary: Thx. Also, check you bookyouraward email when you get a chance. . .
@Larryinnyc – been running hard the last 24 hours, be with you soon! Best, Gary
Gary, at the risk of belaboring the point (but in the spirit of fair play), I can’t see how a reasonable person would understand the concept of “free one way” from that post. (I am referring to “American Introduces One-Way Awards and the End of Most Stopovers”, but maybe I’m looking at the wrong one?)
The entire “beauty” of the “free one way” is that you can take it much earlier or much later than your main RT travel, in effect, getting a trip and a half. Your post did not allude to that at all.
And the fact that the concept was mentioned else before doesn’t support your rebuttal to the .8p MileValue supporter.
You do a lot of great things for us but I can’t add that particular post you referred to to the list of “Cool things I learned from Gary”.
@Bluecat – It has been repeatedly suggested that the ‘free one-way’ is a new, recently-discovered concept. I did not discover it, that post simply made reference to it but did not teach it, and flagged that it wasn’t my idea but rather a poster’s on Flyertalk. All I’m pointing out is, it’s neither new nor original.
The “free one way” is something that has been around for a long time and MV just marketed as his own. Much the same way that applying for multiple Citi AA cards was around for years, in fact you could get 3 or 4 at a time, but MMS crowned it the “two browser trick” like it was his idea.
Also it’s a very over-rated trick. Those of us with families and time constraints have a hard enough time lining up the flights for one trip. I’d rather spend a little more effort on MS so I can just afford to do trips when I want rather than always trying to plan my next trip and the one after that all in one magic ticket
@HikerT – sorry I don’t actually take DP seriously enough to include in my mental process but you are right.
@MilesAbound _ “Those of us with families and time constraints have a hard enough time lining up the flights for one trip.”
FINALLY, someone who I can relate to with similar mileage travel and point constraints! It seems 90% of the hobbyists are guys travelling alone, or maybe with wives or friends. But not me—I’ve got to try to do all this with kids in tow, and during peak travel seasons. Tricky!
@bluecat – He’s right. There are multiple posts on may 10, but it’s clear as day here: http://viewfromthewing.com/2009/05/10/adding-a-free-domestic-roundtrip-to-an-american-international-award/
May 10, 2009. Good for Gary! So much MVs one contribution though. That’s a bummer.
Is it possible to get card #3 with Barclays? Both my wife and I have card #1 already canceled and card #2 currently open for at least 6 months now. Should we cancel both our cards #2 before applying for cards #3?
Do you think Barclays will match/upgrade my offer?
I had this card, and then downgraded to an Arrival card about 4 months ago. I just re-signed up for the card (30k offer) and was immediately approved. Now I see the new offer for 40k miles, and since my first billing cycle hasn’t even completed yet on my new US Air card, I’d like to see if they’ll match me with the new 40k offer. I wrote Barclays a secure message asking, and they replied that “they’d be happy to look into upgrading my offer, but to please call them to sort it out”. Now I’m nervous that if I call, they’ll tell me that since I just had this card a few months ago, I’m not eligible for any bonus and end up with nothing. Do you think it’s worth trying for the match, or just let well enough alone?
Thanks!