On March 13, American sent out word that the American and US Airways frequent flyer programs would be combined within 30 days. Or in American parlance, that’s when they’d move to ‘Single Frequent Flyer Program’ (SFFP).
When the 2015 program and details of how the US Airways and American programs would be combined were released in October, we were told the combination would happen during the second quarter of 2015. At the time I wrote,
They haven’t set a target date, and there’s lots of IT work to do, but they sounded optimistic to me about hitting their deadlines on the early, rather than late, side of the calendar.
Throughout I’ve been predicting early in the second quarter rather than later. Unless they were certain of being able to hit the second quarter (meaning they thought they’d be ready even before that) they wouldn’t have publicly made the second quarter commitment.
It turns out that the programs may combine even more quickly than promised (before the second quarter) and long before the end of the ’30 days’ range.
This is apparently the current target date. They’re certainly running significant tests and continue to wargame the combination. So hiccups could occur that push back the date.
It makes complete sense to pick a Saturday for this. That gives them all day Sunday to bring things back up if need be, too.
If you want to book any US Airways awards through the Dividend Miles program, do it right away. They’ve said they will close off US Airways award bookings a few days in advance of combining the programs.
Gary,
This is probably common knowledge, but, if I have miles credit to my US Airways account say, two weeks after everything merges, the points will automatically merge into my AA? I am hoping. I guess this is my only concern 🙂
I’ve noticed that many of the US Airways Award searches are only showing US Air flights. AA shows both US Air and American, and the US Air website was showing both a few weeks ago. (PHL –> SJD over christmas). Since trying to book an American flights using US Air miles, I’m now eager for the combination. Any suggestions?
Glad I am traveling on Friday and not Saturday or Sunday as I remember what happened with the United/Continental merger–hope it won’t happen to American.
I’m flying on Friday and Saturday, hoping to credit both legs to US Airways as the 50% class of service (business) bonus will be counted in both AA Elite miles and points when they combine.
@Silver Springer – this is not a change at all to the reservation systems so should not disrupt travel in any way. Res system cutover comes later in the year.
@Sean they should but you’re advised to use an AA number going forward nonetheless.
If I have dividend miles, would this mean that theoretically I could book a one-way award on US Airways metal in 6 days?
@Andrew as soon as your miles are in an AAdvantage account
Hmm, so will this mean that Alaska elites can now get benefits/miles on US?
@Nick – no, US Airways is not an Alaska partner and it is still a separate airline until later this year