US Airways Won’t Adopt American’s Award Rules on March 31, and Other Answers!

by Gary Leff

As a followup to my questions about how US Airways Dividend Miles awards will work starting March 31 when the airline joins the oneworld alliance, I asked some additional questions.

We already know that US Airways is keeping its own separate award chart rather than adopting American’s.

And we know that US Airways Dividend Miles will add fuel surcharges to British Airways and Iberia awards as American does today.

But I still had outstanding questions about US Airways routing rules. The initial answers I was getting weren’t on point, so here’s what I asked hoping to get a clearer answer (and not to have American have to explain much).

I asked whether US Airways systems were going to be updated to auto-price awards and auto-validate routings using the American’s rules? I assumed that they would not do so, that US Airways’ award rules would prevail, given the cost to make such a change (reprogramming computers, training agents) for use over a limited time horizon.

Correct. It would take some time before we have the same rules and routes in place.

I also asked whether it would be possible to combine US Airways’ new oneworld alliance partners in the same award as their non-alliance partners (such as Star Alliance airlines that they would have a continuing relationship with).

Currently American allows members to book both oneworld and non-oneworld airline partners on a single award ticket. For instance last year I flew both Etihad and British Airways on an award from Abu Dhabi to San Francisco.

US Airways on the other hand does not currently allow combining of their Star Alliance and non-Star Alliance partner airlines on the same award now.

Which situation would prevail – the current American approach of allowing such combinations, or the US Airways approach forbidding the booking of alliance and non-alliance partners on the same ticket?

US will not allow a mix of awards on oneworld and non-oneworld (former Star or other partners)

So now we know: US Airways systems and rules stay in place for now, US Airways has their own award chart, and just as with current practice it will not be possible to combine alliance and non-alliance partners in a single award ticket.

Bottom-line is that the players may change but the basics on how to book awards using US Airways miles stays the same.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. any idea what would happen if i booked a flight on united using us airways miles before the end of the month, and had to cancel after march 31? want to book a flight for south africa for august, but might have to cancel in june depending on how an entrance exam goes.

  2. What about stopovers on One World awards? Will those have to occur at Star (+US) hubs? That would be weird and would rule out stopovers in places like HKG, SYD, MEL, KUL, DOH, HEL, and AMM, among others.

  3. @Gene – not understanding the question. Are you talking about US Airways miles? I’ve found only ~ 10% of the agents even enforce the Star Alliance hub rule for stopovers. And there is no way that they will require you to stop in Star hubs once they’re in oneworld. No way.

  5. Well actually we’re talking about US Airways agents so nothing is ludicrous. I will not rule out the possibility that a given agent will insist on such a thing. Hang up, call back. 🙂

  6. Hi Gary

    So does that mean after midnight march 31st, I should be able to book cathy roundtrip for 120k us airway miles from LAX-HKG?

  7. I am currently looking at booking an American Airlines award flight from CLT to YHZ in May. What I really want to do is use British Airways Avios to book the trip. However, the American site shows availability in mileage saver but the flights are actually US Air. When I try to book these times/routes on the British Airways site, it shows no availability even when I check by individual segment. I expect that this is because the actual flight is operated by US Air and not American. I am wondering
    what effect the merger of US Air and American may have on this. Do you know if, after March 31st all flights operated by US Air and American may be treated the same when trying to book using Avios? It seems that, at least for now, it is being treated as if US Air and American are still different airlines. Any insight as to what the future holds in this regard would be appreciated.

  8. British Airways is not yet a partner of US Airways, so cannot book awards on flights operated by US Airways.

    On March 31 US Airways will join oneworld and become a British Airways partner. At that time you should be able to use Avios on US Airways flights.

  9. It is clear that a mix of awards on oneworld and former Star or other partners will NOT be allowed.

    However, what about a mix of former Star and/or other partners? Would an award combining, for example, Air China and EVA be allowed?

Comments are closed.