Rio for Carnival 2014 and Adding Free One-Way Trips on US Airways Miles Awards
Svetlana (a.k.a. Samba for Miles) and I just went to Rio de Janeiro in December. Both being big samba fans, we have been wanting to go for Carnival. Well, it’s finally happening! In 2014, we are going to Rio for 3 days during Carnival. It’s a short trip, but as they always say, good things come in small packages. In this post, I will explain how Svetlana booked a round-trip flight from Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro for Carnival and added a free one-way trip from Vancouver for Labor Day.
The itinerary (she was able to add a free one-way trip from Vancouver to Los Angeles without using any extra miles):
- Vancouver to Los Angeles September 2, 2013.
- Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro February 26, 2014.
- Rio de Janeiro to Los Angeles March 1, 2014.
Svetlana’s cost for the itinerary: 60,000 US Airways miles + $178.
How she got the miles: Svetlana got the Barclays US Airways Dividend Miles card when the bonus was 40,000 US Airways Dividend miles for the first purchase plus 10,000 miles every year. She already had 20,000 miles from previous trips.
The current affiliate link for the
offers 30,000 miles after the first purchase as well as a $99 companion certificate good for taking two additional passengers for $99 plus taxes each for any paid ticket on a US Airways flight. However, there is also a non-affiliate link on this FlyerTalk post that people have reported offers 35,000 miles after first purchase, although the landing page has no information.
Svetlana still has to buy a ticket from Los Angeles to Vancouver. We would normally try to redeem British Airways miles on the direct Alaska Airlines operated flight, costing just 7500 British Airways Avios. Unfortunately, there is no low level award availability for her dates. The cheapest flight is $172 on Air Canada. This is a perfect candidate for my new
which lets us pay for any airline, hotel or travel expense with the card as cash and then reimburse the points. Svetlana plans to get one of those on her next round of applications and get $440 in travel credit after meeting the $1000 spending requirement.
[Disclosure: I earn an referral commission if you apply for credit cards through some of the links above. I always provide the very best offer I can find regardless of commission. If you decide you also would like the card and apply through my link, thank you for your continued support!]
Booking Awards with US Airways Dividend Miles
Keep in mind that US Airways is merging with American Airlines and the US Airways miles program will soon change. Your US Airways Dividend Miles will become American Airlines AAdvantage miles. For now, US Airways is still a member of Star Alliance and their miles can be used on Star Alliance partners.
US Airways has a partner award travel chart where you can look up the cost in flights between different regions. From anywhere in North America, the cost of a round trip ticket to South America will cost 60,000 miles round trip or 100,00 miles in Business Class.
US Airways award search engine only displays US Airways flights and nothing else. For that reason, it is practically useless when searching award space due to the severely limited options it presents. To find award space, you need to search on either the United Airlines website or the All Nippon Airways website.
I prefer to use the United Airlines website to search for US Airways award space. Any Star Alliance partner award space at the Saver level you can find on the United Airlines website in can be booked using US Airways miles. Just avoid standard awards. Those are not available as US Airways Dividend miles awards. To book, one needs to find the routing and flights on the United Airlines website and then call US Airways customer service at 1-800-428-4322 and give them the exact route and flight numbers in order to book the award. This cannot be done online and, usually, US Airways will waive the award phone booking fee as a result.
Svetlana’s Trip to Rio de Janeiro with a Free One-Way Trip from Vancouver
With US Airways international round-trip itineraries, you are permitted one stopover OR one open-jaw. All travel must be completed within a year of the date the ticket is issued.
A simple round-trip flight from Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro and back would not use any stopovers or open jaws so we decided to maximize the miles by adding a free one-way trip from Vancouver. Here is how we planned the itinerary:
Outbound leg:
Sep 2, 2013: Vancouver to LAX with a connection in SFO
Feb 26, 2014: LAX to Rio de Janeiro with a connection in Houston.
Inbound leg:
March 1, 2014: Rio de Janeiro to Vancouver with connections in Houston, LAX and SFO.
What we booked is actually a round trip with just one stopover and no open-jaws. The stopover is in Los Angeles on the outbound leg for 6 months.
Samba for Miles plans to buy a ticket from Los Angeles to Vancouver and the return from Vancouver back to Los Angeles is covered in this itinerary. She will be spending Labor Day weekend in the Pacific Northwest with Natalya!
On Febuary 26, 2014, she will start her trip to Rio de Janeiro from Los Angeles. The return on March 1, 2014 actually goes all the way back to Vancouver, but includes a connection in Los Angeles. She will simply get off the plane in Los Angeles and end her journey there. No reason to fly all the way back to Vancouver when she lives in LA! We’re also super efficient and never check luggage, a necessity when getting off at your second stop in the US.
Calculating How Much She Saved Using US Airways Miles
The whole award cost 60,000 US Airways miles + $178. There were $128 in taxes and US Airways charges a $50 international award processing charge. The cheapest flights would cost $1122 for a roundtrip flight to Rio de Janeiro from LAX and $222 for a one-way flight from Vancouver to Los Angeles.
The two flights together would cost $1344. Samba for Miles is still paying $178 so the 60,000 miles is saving $1166. That’s about 1.94 cents per mile! (Which means her sign-up bonus for the US Airways card earned almost $800 just for making a single purchase with the card).
Summary
- Svetlana and I are going to Rio de Janeiro for 3 days during Carnival 2014!
- For 60,000 US Airways Dividend Miles and $178, Svetlana booked a round trip flight from Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro in Economy Class and also added a one-way return ticket from Vancouver to Los Angeles.
- She will be buying the actual ticket to Vancouver from Los Angeles with fixed-value points earned with the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard.
Anyone else going to Rio for Carnival 2014, World Cup or Olympics? Lots going on in Rio!
Other posts you may like:
Cayman, Panama, Rio, Cancun: Svetlana’s Southern Adventures with United Miles
Thanksgiving in Grand Cayman, New Year’s in Rio and Fourth of July in Greece
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Wow, this is great! I never knew US Airways miles can do that! I have a question, though. What if she wanted to go to Vancouver next March? Would that work? Or could she take two trips to Vancouver?
Because US Airways allows only a stopover OR an open jaw so if you want to use a stopover, you must start in the same city you end in. So she has to start and end in Vancouver. She can go to Vancouver twice, but then her trip to Vancouver would have to be either right before or right after her trip to Rio. If she had more time, she’d probably go for Rio longer!
Hope that answer about the routing makes sense! :)
Great article! http://www.worldcelebrationblog.com/carnaval-no-rio-de-janeiro/
I would like to go to Bali from WAS and add a free oneway in the Carribean/Europe. Is that possible? How would you go about doing that. Using US Air miles?
With US Airways miles, you can have a free one-way in the Caribbean (Europe will not work) or many places in North America as long as it’s before your big international trip. Similar to what Svetlana did here. If you follow her exact example replacing Vancouver with your Caribbean destination and Rio de Janeiro with Bali, you can do the same thing and get a free one way!
Thanks! I just read your post on how to book a free stopover from Vancouver to Rio, but please pardon me as I had a hard time understanding the itinerary, so your friend book ROUNDTRIP ticket award from Vancouver to Rio and added Los Angeles as a free stopover? If she lives in LA, why would she made Vancouver as her starting point? because by doing that she has to buy one way $172 ticket from LAX to Vancouver.
By the way, did you use United Airlines website and select “multiple cities” to plan this whole itinerary including the connection flights and stopover?
That’s correct! By starting her ticket in Vancouver, she gets that free one-way and only has to pay for the ticket there.
I actually searched one segment at a time: Vancouver-LAX, LAX-Rio, Rio-LAX. The United search engine is flaky when you try to give it too hard a problem! You can then call US Airways to book the full itinerary.