US Airways is offering a 100% transfer bonus when sharing up to 50k miles between accounts during the month of October. With the $30 processing fee, a 50k transfer prices at $567.50 or 1.135 cents per net mile. While it isn’t quite as good as Grand Slam last year (approximately 0.34cpm), this promotion requires far less attention and effort to benefit from. As noted in the promotion terms, “accounts less than 12 days old are not permitted to Buy, Share or Gift miles,” leaving two weeks to open an account to participate.
To make the value of these miles a bit more tangible, it’s worth consulting the US Airways award chart.
- Off-peak (Jan. 15 – Feb. 28) North America/Hawaii to Europe in business class is 60k miles (or 55k for US Airways Mastercard holders) plus taxes/fees. The cost of acquisition for those miles under this promotion? $681 (or $624.25 respectively).
- A Star Alliance North America to North Asia award (potentially routing with a stopover in Europe) is 90k miles in business class. United runs 100k in comparison.
- A Star Alliance North America to the South Pacific award is 110k miles in business class and 140k miles in first class. United charges 135 and 160k miles respectively.
While I still haven’t put the miles I earned from Grand Slam to good use as I promised (since I took two revenue and one award trip to Europe in the meantime), I’m oddly tempted to top-up my account a bit.
US Airways is also running a (targeted) 100% bonus promotion for buying miles this month. as well
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