US Airways 100% Buy Miles Bonus: A Good Deal?

Until May 25, US Airways is offering a tiered bonus when buying miles. While the miles themselves are expensive, it may become reasonable for some people who are looking to redeem for an expensive business class seat. In this post, we’ll analyze the cases for when this is a good deal as well as mention a few potentially cheaper ways to get the US Airways miles.

Here is the promotion link: US Airways Buy Miles Up to 100% Bonus

The 100% Buy Miles Bonus Promotion

The tiered promotion works like this:

• Buy 10,000 to 19,000 miles, get 50% bonus miles
• Buy 20,000 to 29,000 miles, get 75% bonus miles
• Buy 30,000 to 50,000 miles, get 100% bonus miles

To maximize the bonus, you would have to purchase at least 30,000 miles. Each mile will cost 3.5 cents and there is an additional 7.5% tax. Here are the miles costs for each type of bonus:

• Buy 10,000 to 19,000 miles, get 50% bonus miles = 2.82 cents per mile
• Buy 20,000 to 29,000 miles, get 75% bonus miles = 2.35 cents per mile
• Buy 30,000 to 50,000 miles, get 100% bonus miles = 1.88 cents per mile

US Airways is now a member of oneworld, but has retained partnerships with several other airlines.

The oneworld award travel chart covers award costs with US Airways oneworld partners. The miles can be used on American Airlines, LAN, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, TAM and so on. As the US Airways website will not show most oneworld partner availability, it is best to search on the British Airways website and then call US Airways Customer Service to book.  For the time being, it offers far more generous routing rules on award tickets than its counterpart American Airlines. American Airlines will now allow transit through a third region in an award ticket and does not allow stopovers. US Airways has almost no routing restrictions and allows a stopover on any round-trip between different regions.

The Other airline partner award travel chart covers award costs with combinations of US Airways other partners Aegean Airlines, Air China, Air New Zealand, Avianca, EVA Air, Hawaiian Airlines, Jet Airways, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, TAP Portugal, and Turkish Airlines. It’s nice that US Airways has retained relationships with many Star Alliance partners as well.

Potential Better Deals?

I personally won’t buy any miles during this promotion as I bought plenty during the Share Miles Promotion. The share miles promotion works somewhat differently in that you pay to transfer miles from one account to another and a 100% bonus was given for the transfer. The cost of transferring miles was 1.1 cents each (50,000 miles = $567). It was essentially buying miles at 1.1 cents each. The catch was that we already had to have miles in our accounts to transfer. While we don’t know when or if the share miles promotion will come back, it has been around every few months so I’m hoping to see it before the end of the year. A good way to build up some miles ahead of time is the US Airways World MasterCard, which offers 40,000 bonus miles right now with your first purchase. 

That said, if you do value US Airways miles above 1.88 cents each, then the US Airways® Premier World MasterCard® is probably a good card to sign up for, if you don’t already have it. It has an $89 annual fee, but offers 40,000 miles with no spending requirement at all. With a US Airways miles valuation of 1.88 cents each, the 40,000 sign-up bonus alone is worth $663  ($752 minus the $89 annual fee).  You also, however, get a companion passe to fly up two additional passengers for $99 each, a 5000 mile discount on US Airways carrier award bookings and free checked bags. I managed to get two of these cards two years ago and still have both.

So that’s a summary of some better deals that may or may not be available. But, of course, the question is: Are US Airways miles worth 1.88 cents each?

When Is This A Good Deal?

If you’re going to outright buy the miles for a full award ticket, then it likely isn’t worth it if you’re aiming for economy class. As an example, a round-trip ticket to Europe will cost 60,000 miles. If you buy the miles and use 60,000, you will be paying $1200 for the miles + $50 booking fees + around $100 in taxes. The total would run $1300-$1400. It would be about the same as a regular ticket and you’d be restricted to award seat availability with US Airways partners.

On the other hand, if you go for a business class ticket, it’s a far better value. As an example, a business class ticket to Europe costs 100,000 miles round-trip and US Airways flies their Envoy Suites on many routes. If you were to buy the miles, you’d be paying $1880 for the miles, $50 booking fee and again around $100 in taxes. The ticket would cost $2000. This is definitely not cheap, but probably a very good deal on a business class ticket… provided you can find the award availability.

The real value comes once you start taking advantage of US Airways generous routing rules. There are a number of sweet spots in the award chart that offer good value if it’s the kind of itinerary you’re interested. The following do cost over 100,000 miles so you’d need to either have some miles already or sign up for the  US Airways World MasterCard for an additional 40,000 miles:

• For 110,000 miles in business class (or 120,000 miles in First), you can fly to North Asia (Hong Kong, Japan, etc) and schedule a free stopover in Europe along the way. Cathay Pacific is a member of oneworld and has excellent business class.
• For 120,000 miles in business class, you can fly to Central Asia (Thailand, Singapore, etc) and schedule a free stopover in Europe along the way.
• For 110,000 miles in business class (or 140,000 miles in First), you can fly to Australia and schedule a free stopover in Asia along the way.

If you have one of these trips in mind, then buying the miles can be worth it as you can get each of them for about $2,000 provided. That said, I wouldn’t speculatively buy miles with this promotion the way I would with the Share Miles promotion. Hopefully, that will come back!

Summary

• Until May 25, US Airways is offering a promotion for up to a 100% bonus when buying miles. This essentially allows us to buy miles at 1.88 cents each.
• While this isn’t great value for economy class, it can be very good for business class and first class tickets across multiple regions leveraging US Airways’ generous routing rules.
• An easier and cheaper way to supplement your miles balance is to sign up for the US Airways® Premier World MasterCard®, which is offering 40,000 miles with the first purchase right now.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I do receive a commission for approved applications through my site. I always include the best offer I can find regardless of commission. As always, thank you very much for your support!)