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Reminder: 100% US Airways Buy Miles Bonus Ends March 31

by on March 27, 2011 · 22 comments

in star alliance, US Airways

Just a friendly reminder that the 100% US Airways purchase miles promotion ends on Thursday, March 31, 2011. As I outlined in my original post on the offer, this is an excellent way to buy premium Star Alliance flights for cheap.

For example, $1,238 will get you 45,000 base miles plus 22,500 bonus miles and then another 22,500 bonus miles when you complete a mere three searches using the Dividend Miles toolbar.

90,000 US Airways miles will earn you a trip to Asia in business class (Star Alliance award travel chart) from North America on any Star Alliance carrier. So don’t use usairways.com as a judge of what flights you can get – I recommend using continental.com for award searches because the site also includes Star Alliance airlines like ANA, Thai, United, Continental, US Airways, Lufthansa, TAP, bmi and Air Canada. But beware – the search engine is not perfect. It only shows coach and business class (not international first class) and sometimes business class availability will appear, but you are actually booked into coach class – a shenanigan I highlighted in this post. Also make sure to take into account that a bunch of airlines like Turkish, South African, Singapore and Swiss won’t show up online.

Remember – this promotion includes US members who had an account before 2/1/11.

Feel free to post any questions about the promo or US Airways in general in the comments section and I’ll do my best to answer.

Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuer. Opinions expressed here are author.s alone, not those of the credit card issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuer. This site may be compensated through the credit card issuer Affiliate Program.

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  • Michael

    What about lax to Europe in biz? How many miles do you need, what is the cost to buy and what is best premium cabin in star alliance to Europe?

  • Glenn

    isn’t the Aeroplan awards search engine better than CO’s? It shows F class international awards. And choices with mixed classes clearly indicate as such.

  • Glenn

    Michael, see the linked awards chart. 100K in C from NA to Europe. Taxes and fees will depend on your destination and to some extent the airline you choose.

    Note however that 90K to Asia is only “North Asia” which is defined as China, Hong Kong, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Mongolia, S. Korea, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. SE Asia is considerably more. But Australia/South Pacific is oddly cheaper than SE Asia.

  • Michael

    I thought there was a 68k biz rt award so that was what I was going for but maybe that was one way first class?

  • The Points Guy

    @Michael- the 68k biz rt award is what you could get if you transferred 68k Amex to Delta using the 50% bonus promotion (that would net you 100k miles- enough for a RT to Europe at the low level- most likely on Air France or other Skyteam partner). ANA also has a 68k RT to Europe from the North East to Western Europe (NY-London) since their awards are based on distance.

    @Glenn thanks for chiming in. Aeroplan is good as well, but sometimes buggy. To be honest, I haven’t used it a ton, but will write about it soon so people can take advantage of it.

  • Albert

    Hi there, AWESOME work you’re doing!
    If we join the program today ie US Airways and aren’t in the USA can we still buy these miles?
    Thanks again.

  • Glenn

    click on the first link above in the post and it takes you to the promotion page. Small print at the bottom says (among other things)…

    Offer is subject to change. Dividend Miles accounts less than 12 days old are not permitted to Buy, Share or Gift miles.

    †25% additional bonus offer: Dividend Miles members based in the 50 United States and Puerto Rico can earn an additional 25% bonus on their “buy miles” purchase by downloading, installing and completing at least three valid searches using the Dividend Miles Toolbar during the above dates. To qualify, a member’s Dividend Miles account must have been registered with a United States or Puerto Rico address on 2/1/2011. Members who did not have a United States or Puerto Rico address on file as of 2/1/2011 are not eligible to receive the 25% additional bonus regardless of address updates. 25% additional bonus miles will post 5-10 days after eligible members have completed a qualifying “buy miles” transaction and valid Dividend Miles Toolbar search.

  • Albert

    Thanks Glenn – appreciate the prompt reply and sad to hear of those little T&C’s!

  • Powerjoe

    Do these points expire end of the year? Or the roll over until used?

  • SIMBA

    Do we know for sure that you must have an account before 2/1/2011? What if I had an account from years ago but with no activity? Just wondering how to take advantage of this offer. Thanks

  • The Points Guy

    @Albert- US AIrways runs these promos a lot, so you might as well sign up for an account now using this link (2,000 free miles) http://www.usairways.com/en-US/dividendmiles/promotions/social-enrollment.html?c=facebook_promo_21009_03092011

    @Powerjoe- they don’t expire for 18 months and that expiration clock resets when there is any activity on the account- very easy to do so (buy 1 iTunes song)

    @SIMBA- years ago with no activity is fine. They just wanted to prevent foreigners from creating new accounts with US addresses so they could get the 25% bonus- that offer was targeted to only US residents. Anyone with an account can get the 75% bonus.

  • Pingback: Avoiding Foreign Transaction Fees on Points and Miles Earning Credit Cards | The Points Guy

  • Farhan

    I plan to travel to the Indian sub-continent in Dec, and currently have around 68k dividend miles. Do you think its is worthwhile topping my account using this offer?

    PS: I also have 200k skymiles and rarely fly US…

  • PowerJoe

    @Powerjoe- they don’t expire for 18 months and that expiration clock resets when there is any activity on the account- very easy to do so (buy 1 iTunes song)

    Thanks for the update. Also have you installed their toolbar? what constitutes a search there? I did about 100 searches since installation still have not been able to get 1 of 3 searches done. Weird.

  • Jon

    I installed the toolbar but can’t figure out a valid search either. I’ve done several searches but to no avail. Can anyone who performed 3 “valid” searches chime in on what they did? I don’t want to miss the March 31st deadline. Thanks!

  • Michael

    I’m about to pull the trigger on this deal. Just trying to figure out if it makes sense to spend roughly $1300 for biz to europe.

    Questions:

    1) Is it easy to perform 3 valid searches, as Jon mentioned above?

    2) What are the taxes and fees for a biz class tix on US AIR?

    3) How good are there biz class seats on their aircrafts — flying from LAX?

    thanks for your help!

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  • Michael

    My concern is the valid three searches. How do you accomplish this so you get miles? It’s the only thing holding me back from plunging forward

  • The Points Guy

    @Jon- no one on Flyertalk has reported having problems doing valid searches. Are you based outside the US? If so, you aren’t eligible and they may be detecthing that. Search Fraud
    Your search was deemed invalid and did not qualify for earning a reward. Per someone who was declined:

    This could have been for the following reasons:
    * You are in a country that is not eligible to earn rewards
    * Your search query was nonsensical or yielded no actual results
    * Your query originated from an automated process or macro
    * Your search patterns reflect that you are not actually using this service for results

    @Michael- the searches validate right away and from what I hear, its very easy to do them as long as you are eligible (live in the US and do them before March 31)

  • Michael

    Great re: miles — so to get to 100K, I’d need to purchase $1300 or so miles, correct?

  • Russ

    I live in the Northern Mariana Islands–a US territory. If I buy 40,000 points and then attempt three valid searches, will I be considered “outside the US”? I can’t recall if I’ve ever had a membership–if so, its been years ago. Will that be an issue? Also will purchased points count towards my membership status (sorry, I’m a rookie when it comes to points).

  • MichaelP

    Brian,
    US Airways has a new mile buying bonus from June 6th to June 30th, 2011 at 100% bonus up to 50,000 purchase.

    MichaelP