US Airways 50,000 Mile Credit Card Sign-Up Bonus
I’m not a big fan of the US Airways Dividend Miles program. But, if you live on the East coast they may be a fundamental part of your travel. If so, they’ve got an offer out now that seems worthwhile if you’re in the market for a new credit card.
The offer is for 50,000 miles, though you’ll have to pay some money to get all 50,000 miles.
Here’s a link to the application.
ETA: HT to Scottrick (see comments below) for a potential waiver of the annual fee. Try this link.
You get 40,000 miles after your first purchase, but you need to transfer $10,000 to the card to earn the last 10,000 mile bonus. You earn 1 mile for every dollar you transfer, so if you don’t get approved for $10,000 you can still earn something for the balance transfer option.
But, there are fees. First, an $89 annual fee which it appears you’ll pay right away. Plus, a 3% balance transfer fee even though the APR on the transfer is 0% for 15 months. So, if you were to apply and receive at least a $10,000 line of credit (and do the full $10K balance transfer), it would cost $389($89 annual fee plus $300 balance transfer fee) to get 50,000 miles.
HT:Ketan, who can actually do math early in the morning unlike me. Thanks for correcting my error.
It’s far less then a penny a point, though there are better deals out there in my opinion. Chase Sapphire offers a 40,000 point sign-up bonus. I find those points more valuable then US Airways, mostly due to their flexibility.
And, as Ketan points out when he corrected my math, paying 3 cents per US Airways mile doesn’t make sense.
And, while I don’t have a problem spending plenty on a credit card (thanks, Mickie!) the Sapphire bonus requires $3,000 in spend. So, if you’re looking for miles without a spending commitment, the US Airways card might be a good fit for you.
There’s been a better offer out there for a while. This link goes to an application with no annual fee the first year, and you get a bonus 10K miles with each card anniversary. It still offers the 40K miles with first use and an extra 10K if you choose to do the balance transfer.
http://www.mostmiles.com/Chairmans
I had seen that offer at some point, but it now reflects language I don’t think was there before “Offer available to Dividend Miles members currently with Chairman’s Preferred Status only”.
Have you heard of non-Chairmen getting the better offer?
I recognize that, but it didn’t seem to stop me or my fiancee from opening accounts. I will agree that I have not heard of better offers actually targeted to non-Chairmen.
Hey, if you’ve gotten the better offer, that’s good enough for me. I’ll change the link above. My guess would be worst-case scenario they charge someone the annual fee.
I signed up for the offer Scottrick described last year for an instant 40K. I got a targeted promo to spend $750/month for 3 months to get 15K bonus miles. A month before my anniversary, my 10K bonus miles posted and I canceled the card before the annual fee. All in all, 65K miles for $2250 spending (or 50K for one purchase).
3% fee on 10k transfer is $300 not $30. This makes it a very bad idea to do the balance transfer for 10k miles.
Thanks, Ketan. I’m specializing in bad math today.