US Airways is back with their 100% bonus on purchased miles through September 15. And this time the offer is also available for gifted miles as well (buying the miles and depositing them into someone else’s accout).
This time it’s 10,000 bonus miles for every increment of 10,000 miles that you buy, up to a maximum bonus of 50,000 miles. In other words,
•Buy 10,000 – 19,000 miles = 10,000 bonus
•Buy 20,000 – 29,000 miles = 20,000 bonus
•Buy 30,000 – 39,000 miles = 30,000 bonus
•Buy 40,000 – 49,000 miles = 40,000 bonus
•Buy 50,000 miles = 50,000 bonus
US Airways has been offering some variant of this bonus most of the time since November 2009. It’s what earned Dividend Miles the distinction of being ‘the official consolidator of Star Alliance premium class seats’ because you could buy miles cheaply and redeem them for international premium cabin awards on their partners. And because US Airways will let you put an award on hold for three days without yet having the miles in your account, you can secure the reservation first and then buy the miles (which usually post instantly).
Interestingly, this year US Airways has been varying the offers a great deal. They’ve limited the offer to co-branded credit card holders, they’ve required the downloading of an app, they’ve discounted the purchase rather than awarding bonus miles for instance. Now instead of making the bonus 1:1 for each 1000 miles purchased, they’re incentivizing stretching members towards the next 10,000-mile increment in order to get them to buy more (excess) miles. The data folks must be having a grand ‘ol time in Tempe analyzing member behavior.
Buying 50,000 miles for a bit under $1500 gets you 100,000 miles .. enough for a transatlantic business class award ticket, or enough for business class from the US to China or Japan (with 10,000 miles leftover). Of course many folks already have US Airways miles, and these offers represent a great opportunity to top off towards the next award level. Personally I like doing that only when there’s a specific award I’m redeeming and I need the miles, especially since US Airways has had these offers around enough that they’ve become ‘the new normal’ and I expect this isn’t going to be the last shot to buy miles.
US Airways accounts must be at least 12 days old in order to buy or receive gifted miles, so if you don’t currently have an account but think you might want to use this offer, open one now.
Is there an annual limit as to how many miles you can purchase?
Nope. Just a limit to how many bonus miles per offer.
Is there excise tax on top of this? I rarely see you are lucky talk about the excise tax associated with transferring SPG points, AMEX points, or buying miles.
Is that $1,500 really $1,612?
@unavaca yes, the excise tax went back into effect at 12:01am this morning. But the $1500 *includes* the excise tax.
Can one both buy and be gifted miles? So buy 50K and be gifted 50K Both with bonus so have 200K in a single account?
Folk may want to wait a bit to see if US does their Grand Slam promotion, as buying miles usually earns a point toward that promotion that usually occurs in September.
Does anybody know if buying miles will qualify for the $200 reimbursement toward incidental air travel fees that AMEX platinum holders are eligible for?
@Jeff #9, I’m quite sure they will not work with AMEX Platinum. The purchase posts with the merchant set to “Points.com” and that does not qualify as an “in-flight expense” which would post as “US Airways” …
Miles Purchased: 50,000 + 50,000 Bonus
Mileage Cost: $1,375.00
Tax Handling Charge: $103.13
Total (billed to your card):* $1,478.13
Gary,
I׳ll gladly buy those miles if US releases award seats for PHL-TLV route.. Did anyone ever had a chance to secure a C award in this route???
@Udi you’re much more likely to get Philadelphia – Frankfurt – Tel Aviv, for instance.
newbie question: are these miles redeemable for biz class on any star alliance partner? the way i read it the answer is yes but want to make sure. i do not want to fly US Air but would love to fly AirNZ or Lufthansa
I’m curious to hear what the answer is to Del’s question…can one account profit from both promotions?
@Gary, I had great success going via FRA. Just wondered if you or anyone could ever get the US PHL-TLV in C..
@Corey
Redeeming on US *A partners is their primary function for people reading this blog I suspect. I and a couple of hudnred flyertlakers can at least attest to it working soundly.
what’s the best way to locate availability on *A partners with these miles? Call US Airways?
I was actually able to get 120k miles for the price of 60k by using two transaction, a buy miles purchase and a gift miles purchase–it looks like the bonuses are separate and combinable.
I participated back in July with the same offer. Am I still able to purchase and get the bonus miles? From the wording, it looks like you can participate up to 50k miles per promotion and this is a separate promotion since it has different dates than the last promotion. Anyone know, because I don’t want to purchase 50k and not get my bonus since I already did this back in July. Thanks for your help.
I’ve also been reading about the potential US Air Grand Slam promotion that is coming up in Sept. Do you need a US Air CC to participate? Thanks and always love the great advice!