A couple of weeks ago, immediately after US Airways transitioned to using American’s fare class codes, the floodgates opened on US Airways international awards in business class.
Krystyna F points out to me that US Airways transatlantic business class space is again very very good.
Not quite what it was a few weeks ago, most dates on most routes with a whole cabin wide open. But still excellent for summer travel.
- You can use US Airways or American miles, and not pay fuel surcharges. Using American miles across the Atlantic in business class without fuel surcharges has been a real challenge the past couple of years.
- You can use British Airways points prior to the April 28 Aviosgeddon.
Here are some samples of what I’m seeing — in all cases business class for 2 people, with blue showing availability.
Here’s Charlotte-Madrid, you can catch a US Airways domestic flight to Charlotte and from Madrid you can reach plenty of destinations beyond using oneworld ariline Iberia.
Philadephia – Zurich allows you to fly from many cities to the US Airways hub in Philly.
Want a real gem, non-stop availability from the US to somewhere really difficult to reach on points? How about Philadelphia – Tel Aviv?
The ‘special availability’ condition appears to dry up on many routes come the end of summer and early fall, for instance a search of Philadelphia-Munich after peak availability looks like… what we often see from US Airways:
Search those summer Europe award trips using American, US Airways, and British Airways (and other partner or oneworld miles) while the getting is good, because availability this good won’t last.
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Can you use avois without fuel surcharges? I called BA and they are adding them.
I was wondering about the same. When US Airways was first bookable using Avios, there weren’t any fuel surcharges but then they quickly added them (even though they still don’t add them to other partners, such as Air Berlin).
US Airways didn’t used to file fares that included fuel surcharges as a component.
I also noticed that I see some saver US Air flights when looking for them on http://www.aa.com but not on http://www.ba.com
For example: US700 PHL-FRA on July 30, 2015 in business class.
@Gary: Do you know about this?
US Airways space is not currently showing up on the BA.com website. This is a known technical issue. You can find the space at aa.com and then call BA to book. Ask them to waive the phone booking fee.
Thanks!
Looks like its gone already. Am I right about that? thanks.
I’m not seeing this. PHL-ZRH doesnt seem available on US for any day in July. There’s availability on BA, but that’s nothing new.
Did not last but a few minutes, already DEAD!!!
I was sooo close to booking CLT – CDG for 2 but hesitated, now its gone. NO!!!
oh well, theres always next time!
shoot, one hour too late
again, the same issue as before – literally no matching US domestic segment availability. and no, it is not just about buying a separate ticket for the domestic segment, because doing so probably means that you need to recheck in your luggage at connecting airport as most airlines no long does interline luggage. so the missing availability of domestic segment is more troublesome that it seems.
@Lynn with the alignment of baggage policies between AA and US, US should be willing to through-check as long as travel on both tickets is between oneworld airlines.
Indeed, dead!
Is this available when using USAir miles or only via AA? USAir is still pricing everything as peak awards for me.
@RH it was available with us airways miles but is gone now
How is the transatlantic availability on SU Aeroflot. I flew them business class intra Europe on four flights recently and was very impressed with the product and even more the service.
@John – it varies but is better than you would expect, with fuel surcharges
Gary, I attempted unsuccessfully to check out a booking from DFW – Marseilles, France & return from Paris using AA Aadvantage miles on the US Airways offering of 100,000 miles for Business class without fuel surcharge and got nothing but a runaround from both US & AA phone reservationists. They say the Reward programs are not merged & this booking is not possible – after long waits & disconnects on the phone. Any suggestions?