American and US Airways will combine frequent flyer programs in a few months. In preparation for that, they’ve made it possible for you to link your AAdvantage and Dividend Miles accounts so that when the programs combine you can be sure all of your miles go to the right place.
This is all about helping American AAdvantage ensure the right accounts get linked, so there’s a smooth transition when the AAdvantage and Dividend Miles programs combine in the second quarter of the year.
- There are no bonus miles for doing this (as Delta/Northwest offered).
- You cannot move your miles back and forth between accounts (which America West/US Airways, Delta/Northwest, and United/Continental allowed).
- Linking accounts does not benefit elite status at this time.
You want to do this so that you’re sure your elite status, status miles, and redeemable miles all combine smoothly. For the most part they’ll do a pretty good job of it even if you don’t, but you have an incentive to make the process as easy as possible so you aren’t tracking down missing miles and missing accounts.
Here’s how to link your accounts…
The American Website
When you log into your AAdvantage account at aa.com, you’re confronted with a popup offering for you to link a US Airways account. I find that interesting, it’s certainly a great way to put this in front of people, but I’d bet that fewer than half of AAdvantage members are also Dividend Miles members. This may be confusing to those people.
I entered my US Airways number — a legacy US Airways account from before the America West merger — and the system is smart enough to add the requisite zeros prior to my number to make it match the current account number structure.
(Current US Airways account numbers are 11 digits, like the old America West system, since when US Airways and America West merged they went with the – in my view – inferior but cheaper America West architecture for managing frequent flyer accounts.)
I got instant confirmation that my accounts linked.
You get confirmation when looking at your AAdvantage account as well.
The US Airways Website
When you log into your account you get this popup offer to combine your accounts. You’ve already logged into your US Airways account. Now you just need to enter your AAdvantage number.
On my first attempt, I failed. The email addresses for the two accounts did not match.
If you don’t match right away when you get the popup, it is still an option to do it when you go to ‘My Account’
Success!
Incidentally one account had a middle name and the other account didn’t but that didn’t cause the problem. I changed only the email address, thinking I would check one factor at a time to see what was necessary for linking, and it worked.
Here’s what then shows up under ‘My Account’ when accounts have been linked.
Email Confirmations
When you link accounts, you’ll receive an email from both US Airways and American.
So Should You Do This Now, or Wait?
I do wish that American and US Airways would offer bonus points for doing this, and some will hold out hoping that they can pick up 500 miles for doing this if they wait… although American has said that they’re not offering bonuses, just the option to do this.
I think it’s worth doing, and doing early enough to see if there’s any problem getting accounts to match. I’ve done it for two accounts already, one had the slight problem of email accounts that were different was easily enough fixed. But I’d rather know up front if there are any problems so I can get them sorted before the programs actually merge.
In the end this is a minor process, there’s no huge benefit to doing it now versus waiting until March. I’d rather do it earlier and tick the box, others will wait in hopes that the airlines change their minds and give a bonus for the activity.
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I logged onto AA.com and matched my US Airways number. No problem. Then logged into usairways.com and tried to match.
I was denied:
Heads Up
The AAdvantage number you entered has already been matched.
To verify, please call 800-428-4322.
What do you think I am doing wrong?
@johnbom – you already matched, you only need to do that once! I was just showing both sides of the equation (using different accounts)
Email addresses didn’t match, it errored. Made them match, it worked. Thanks!
Fail here.
Address the same, email the same, phone number the same (after I deleted some in the AA profile).
So far, I’m more impressed with the DL/NW match process. And they gave me miles to link up the account.
I think Doug’s gone cheap on the conversion process. AA Customer Service closes at 5:30 eastern time, so no one to assist this west coast frequent flyer.
Easy fix to the fail
login to your AA account
click AAdvantage then click My account then Personal info then Secure flight info click edit and then enter your date of birth and gender
of course check that your e mail and home address on each account match
your good to go!
Check you US airways account for any warning message that miles may expire soon. You could lose your US airways miles before the accounts merge if your account has been inactive for too long.
I don’t understand this statement, “You want to do this so that you’re sure your elite status, status miles, and redeemable miles all combine smoothly. For the most part they’ll do a pretty good job of it even if you don’t, but you have an incentive to make the process as easy as possible so you aren’t tracking down missing miles and missing accounts.”
I credit everything to AA. The only thing to combine will be old redeemable US miles, and that won’t happen for many months. Parker screwed us in multiple ways. I don’t see why I should make anything easy for them and do this early.
@Nun you don’t have a situation where combining elite qualifying miles is relevant.
I had to make sure my email address matched on both and I was linked. If you log into US airways you get the same message to match/link your account.
I have 70k USAir miles that are expired and need to reinstated before 1/30. Should I combine my accounts now and hope that my recent AA activity will magically reinstate them? Or should I get them reinstated first? I’ve been having trouble reinstating them with a small purchase through the USAir shopping portal. It keeps making me log into my mastercard account (I used to have the usair cc) but when i log in it just logs me into my arrival barclaycard, and I think it’s crediting THAT portal instead of USAir.
I do not expect linking accounts to reinstate already-expired miles. And activity is expected to be pulled over with its original date, rather than the new date at which points get combined (ie combining won’t reset account expiration either, or so I’m told)
I currently have over 900,000 American miles credited toward my million mile category. When AA and US Air combine accounts, can I expect my miles to also combine and help me reach million mile status with AA??
@Michael Hodgson they haven’t said how they will handle this but I would assume so yes
I just got my US Airways account and got approved for the Barclay’s card. There are no miles in US Airways but I have miles in American. Should I do this now or would it possibly impact the 50k bonus points I would ultimately get? Would this create an issue if I now wanted to apply for the American Airlines card?
Last would this not allow me to book trips exclusively in the US Airways system?
There’s no downside to linking. But linking does not let you use American miles for a US Airways-issued award.
I know that my US Airways account has mileage in it. Since US Airways and AA has combined accounts and I had purchased the Aviator Master Card a few years ago and was awarded 2 CONUS round trip tickets in doing so, I want to make sure this is still a record on my account. I was told by US Airways that the “2 CONUS round trip tickets would not expire”. Is this still correct? My card number ends in 5426. It was changed (or the orginal card number was changed) do to bogus charges by somebody.
Are my account combined now and does it still reflect the 2 CONUS round trip tickets awarded when I was awarded the US Airways, AA Aviator card?
check my dividend miles andrew book 855C4N0 my email is abook6@yahoo.com.thanks
Good afternoon!
My husband and I were saving up our US Air miles to plan a trip from Philadelphia to Australia. We had enough miles and life caught us up in so much that we put the trip off thinking we’d get back to it. We didn’t.
I thought we’d lost all the miles when US Air left but it was suggested to me to contact you to see if those miles could be added to my United Air account. Is this possible and what information do you need from me?
Betsy Salunek US Air frequent flyer Account # 6204536
John Salunek #041 JOT