US Airways is back at it again – selling their miles at a lower level than normal. The most popular (and best) option to purchase US Airway miles is always during their share promos that give bonuses of 100% when you share your miles with another. At that point, you are basically paying 1.1 cents per mile. That type of spending on miles can even make sense if you redeem for some economy tickets, but sees the most value when redeemed for premium cabin redemptions.
US Airways Buy Miles Promo – 1.88 Cents Per Mile
During their Buy Miles Promo (where you are actually purchasing the miles outright instead of transferring, so you do not need miles to start), the cost is a bit higher – about 1.88 cents per mile. At that price point, it really only makes sense to buy if you are going to redeem for premium cabins. To give an example, economy redemptions to Europe from US sits at 60,000 miles. If you were to purchase all 60,000 miles through this promo, it would cost you $1,128. While there are itineraries where it may cost you up to a couple of hundred dollars more to purchase the trip outright, you need to remember that you will still be on the hook for taxes and booking fees – which may cause the cost of the ticket to rise another $200 or so. That puts your “free” award ticket to Europe at $1,330. Not only that, but it also does not earn you miles. On such a trip on a paid ticket, it would earn you around 10,000 miles in your mileage program (depending on elite status, it could earn you much more). Putting all of that together, it really does not make sense to buy miles during this promo to use for economy.
Business Class Redemptions
But, if you heart is set on redeeming for business or first class international flights, this may make sense for you. Yes, you are paying a lot of money for miles that will be subject to availability, but if you were going to take a trip someplace and the coach ticket was going to cost you around $1,500 – $1,700, you could fly in business for just a couple hundred more. It is up to you as to whether or not that is worth it, but I would consider it to be worth it, not just because of the added comfort but also the priority access throughout the itinerary (can be very helpful in international destinations), extra baggage allowance, and lounge access (if you do not already have it).
If this sounds like it might be of interest to you, head on over to this page to purchase the miles. Unfortunately, the transaction is handled by points.com so you will not earn any type of bonus for airline purchases. So, this would be a good purchase to put on a card that you are trying to hit the minimum spending on or to hit a particular spending threshold.
Here are the details:
- 1,000 – 9,000 miles – 25% bonus
- 10,000 – 19,000 miles – 50% bonus
- 20,000 – 29,000 miles – 75% bonus
- 30,000 – 50,000 miles – 100% bonus
Just looking at the numbers, you can tell it really does not make much sense to purchase a small amount of miles during this promo. If you decide to purchase, it makes more sense to go big.
This promotion runs until May 25, so there is plenty of time for you to line up the trip that you plan on taking with these miles. You can hold an itinerary with US Airways for 72 hours, so you could assemble the whole trip and then purchase the miles.
The maximum miles that can be received by one member through this promo is 50,000 miles. That means you can only purchase 50,000 miles, but you will receive the 50,000 mile bonus. This is per account, so if you want to fill other accounts you can do that.
Just note that the account that you are purchasing the miles for must be older than 12 days to be eligible for this promotion. To max out this promotion, it would cost $1,881 after figuring in the recovery tax of 7.5%
As with all mileage purchases, do not purchase through this promo to save these miles. As we have seen, American Airlines and US Airways have no problem make changes without notice. Only purchase these miles if you have a trip in mind for the short-term and you can put it together soon. You do not have to fly soon, but you should be prepared to ticket soon.
