One of the more frequent questions I’ve been asked about the US Airways-American Airlines merger, now that the US Airways brand is expected to go away October 17 and all flights going forward will be American flights, is what happens to US Airways companion tickets after that?
Those companion tickets say they’re only valid for travel on US Airways, and that has meant US Airways flights and not American flights despite the merger.
But there are still Barclaycard-issued US Airways companion certificates valid for travel through December 31. Yet there won’t be any US Airways flights October 17 through December 31.
Back in May I answered this question.
[S]tarting at some point in July, for travel at some point in October through the end of December, the certificates will have to be valid on American flights.
Now that October 17 US Airways flights onward have been transitioned to become American flights, the question comes up again. And several commenters have been asking for confirmation that this is how these companion tickets work.
I reached out to American and they have confirmed that the certificates are valid on American flights when travel is October 17 onward.
The rest of the restrictions on the certificate remain. They have to be booked by phone, calling the number on the back of the certificate. You’ll just be able to use them for American flights for October 17 onward travel.
This is huge. transcons now officially in play.
Thanks Gary for the clarification. I’m sitting on 4 of these certificates so it is a relief to know that it’ll still be useful after Oct. 17th.
Excellent news and timing. Thanks
I just used mine to book tickets home for Christmas. Was a fairly easy process… just be sure to ask for someone who knows what they’re doing. I got volleyed around several times.
I’m also assuming that if we’ve had our US Airways mastercard converted to an AAdvantage Aviator card that we can still use these, correct? Because in the past you always had to pay for the ticket on the US Airways mastercard associated with the certificate – but I’m assuming our converted Aviator card is somehow linked or still valid for pay for this?
Thanks Gary. However I am just wondering whether is there a way for a Hawaii resident to use the companion tickets from Hawaii. I heard that some airline will allow residents of Hawaii and Alaska to use companion tickets to the west coast.
A question! Can this companion certificate be used by family members, even if the cardmember is not traveling with them? I know Delta’s could be.
@Phil The cardmember must be one of the travelling parties.
Are these upgradable?
If not, it looks like I’ll use it on lax-sfo
@garyleff I just spoke to a U.S. Airways agent who would not book a flight from NYC to LAX in December using the “Barclay” companion certificate because she was absolutely certain it can only be used on US coded flight.. Instead of wasting my time arguing, I decided to do a HUCA later or tomorrow.
I spoke to AA several times on the subject. They have set up a special desk to handle the certificate. We I last called on Sunday, July 19th, the Barclay certificate had not been loaded, but I was told it would be on Monday July 20th. Will work on any AA flight.
The number of the certificate is simply the general US Air reservation number. Call your EXP and asked to be transferred to the special desk that handles. I was also given the phone number 1-800-433-1790 which I think is the meetings desk that handles special codes and discounts.
Just booked a ticket with the US Air $99 companion on what was AA metal. No issues at all – I called the meeting desk at 1-800-433-1790. Routine for them, they just needed the RESBK3349 code and I need to mail the certificate to US Airways, Winston-Salem.
Doesn’t matter if you use legacy AA or US metal. Everything is now AA after Oct 17th.
@Randy Thank you for the info. I will call the provided number to book my flight.
Thanks! I called yesterday and although I got transferred around to multiple people I got my flight booked on AA! It seemed they knew what they were doing but not each person had the capability to book the AA tickets with the US certificate, so they knew there would be a transferring around process to a specialist. After about 20 minutes, surprisingly with no wait to get someone to pick up even after all the transfers, two companions and I were booked with a total savings of around $500.