US Airways Brings Back “Layaway Pricing” For Dividend Miles
As a middle-class Italian family growing up in New York our family lead a simple, enjoyable life. We didn’t go on extravagant vacations or buy luxurious things, but we enjoyed what we had. My grandmother used to prepare for Christmas every year in the summer time. She would go to the local department store (Caldor’s back in the days before Target and Walmart) and pick out Christmas gifts for all the kids and put them on layaway. To be honest, I’m not sure layaway even exists at today’s department stores. Essentially, she would head to the store every couple of weeks and pay them some money towards the purchase of Christmas gifts. She’d usually finish up in November and take everything home to wrap everything up.
Well, courtesy of View From The Wing, you can now do the same thing with US Airways. They’re currently running a promotion that offers a 100% bonus on shared miles. What does this mean? If you have US Airways Dividend Miles and a friend or family member, you can share those miles with them and they earn a 100% bonus on the shared miles. They can then transfer them back to you so you earn a 100% bonus.
The cost to share 50,000 miles (which ultimately yields 100,000 miles transferred) is $567.50, or just over a penny a point. Why do I consider this “layaway pricing”?
Well, as Gary pointed out, you can use US Airways Dividend Miles for lots of international business class travel for right around 100,000 miles, effectively pricing those tickets at around $1200. I wouldn’t consider that unbelievable pricing for a coach ticket, but it’s a super strong price for business class and probably about the cost of what you’d expect to spend going to Europe if you plan ahead and book an affordable coach ticket. Except, you’re flying business class!
Similarly, you could use these miles for domestic US travel, though it will be a better value on some routes versus others.
The other reason I consider this “layaway pricing” is because I can’t recall a time I’ve ever seen American Airlines AAdvantage miles that cheap. And, since there’s still a reasonable chance the merger happens between US Airways and American Airlines, you’re effectively buying those miles very cheaply for next year’s travel.
Lots of travel bloggers advocate the earn and burn strategy, where you don’t hold on to a ton of miles. That’s a solid strategy, but I prefer to hold a few more miles for emergency travel and also for trips that I haven’t really thought of yet. An offer like this definitely gives you the ability to do so. Even with a change to the award charts of US Airways or AAdvantage it would be hard not to find redemptions that made buying miles at 1.1 cents and some change a good value.
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Thank you for the info on the mileage! I took advantage of the offer and “took’ some of my husbands miles so that I finally had enough miles to go to Europe!
I think I know the answer (no!!). But, is it possible to share my miles with my husband then have him share them back to me? Basically doing a double dip.
Chris, you thought you knew the answer, but you didn’t. Yes, you CAN share the miles back to your account from your husband for the double dip! Pretty cool, huh?
That is awesome! This seems to easy and a lot cheaper than flying. I have been flying on business a couple times a month for the past year, and it has taken me forever to just earn just 28,000 miles. That is why i decided to learn more about how to accumulate miles.
Chris,
I’ve always been a big fan of diversification. Flying is great, credit cards too. Promos add up as well. Put those all together and you have a winning strategy for enjoying aspirational travel. Let me know if I can answer any other questions.