dunroving

In the big scheme of things I am a pretty small-scale traveller but have accumulated about 150k miles with USAir (Star Alliance member) and 39k miles with United (also Star Alliance member, but these miles are in a United account).

I brought up a question on another thread but didn't want to derail it, so here is what I am wondering:

I've only every used my USAir miles once, to fly with USAir to Egypt, from the US back in about 2005.

If I don't get off my *rse and use these miles, I am convinced they will disappear (I do make sure I fly frequently enough that I beat the "dead miles" deadline). Plus it seems stupid not to use them for a well-deserved holiday!

I'd like to take a relatively big trip, but would rather use it to go somewhere other than the US (as I have been all over the US in the past 30 years). I wondered the following:

I now live in the UK, and am pretty sure I can't fly USAir from here to another country that's in the opposite direction from the US (other than via a convoluted flight path to LA, and then on to the other country). At least I tried to do a dummy run and it didn't seem to want to play ball.

How easy is it to use FF miles to fly with another carrier in the same alliance? Are there restrictions or disadvantages (such as having to use more FF miles?)

USAir has merged with AA (who are with OneWorld). If my USAir miles move to OneWorld, I'll be with two different FF groups (United/Star Alliance, and USAir-AA/OneWorld). So far, I haven't received any communications from USAir that this will happen but if anyone knows any different please tell me.

How easy is it to merge the FF miles accounts of two airlines who are in the same alliance? If it is possible, any opinion on whether it would be better to transfer my 30k miles from United to USAir/OneWorld, or to move my 150k miles from USAir to United/Star Alliance? Both schemes have a lot of airlines, and I can't see much difference.

Any advice from more seasoned and knowledgeable travellers welcome!

dunroving

Well, I found some answers:

Q. Can I transfer miles or points between Star Alliance airline member programmes?

A. No. Once you have earned miles / points in one programme, you are not able to transfer that balance to another programme within the alliance. All programmes remain independent.


Q. Can I combine miles or points for free tickets?

A. No. Miles / points cannot be combined between Star Alliance airline frequent flyer programmes.

Q. Can I redeem miles or points for awards on Star Alliance member airlines?

A. Yes. You are able to use your miles / points earned in one programme for travel awards on any of the Star Alliance airlines (subject to availability). For information and/or booking, you will need to contact your frequent flyer programme directly. Individual FFPs have their own redemption rules regarding the redemption for your family members.

- looks like I wouldn't be able to combine the USAir and United FF miles for a single trip, not even sure 30k FF miles on United will get me much more than a free lunch.

Pulaski

Tonrob! Where are you?

AmerLisa

Probably on one of his frequent free trips...

dunroving

Can I trade in my FF miles for free sprouts? Can I? Can I?

lansbury

If US Air works the same as United (I have 250k United miles). You book through US Air with other carriers in the same alliance. I can redeem my United miles, through United, for a ticket on other Star Alliance carriers.

lansbury

Take a look a flyertalk http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/airli...e-programs-374 you might find the answer in the America Airways forum, as I see they have combined the US Air one with it. Someone there is bound to have the answer.

penguinsix

I book upgrades through alliance partners (one world) which are often less miles than booking an upgrade through my primary carrier.

Your best bet is Flyertalk.com and check out the relevant mileage discussion boards for the best way to use / keep active the miles (fwiw I often just subscribed to a cheap magazine with miles every few years to keep an account active. Costs like 3,000 miles or something)

dunroving

Looks like USAir will join OneWorld in about March.

I can't find anything that states explicitly that existing miles will be transferred to the OneWorld program, but if they don't I won't be happy.

Having done a bit more online searching, I found there is a place to register all of your FF points and transfer/exchange with other members. It's called Points.com, but I don't know how simple it would be to use it yet.

Turns out that even 150k FF miles doesn't buy you much.

Noorah101

I used to love collecting FF miles. They were easy to redeem way back when.

Nowadays I hate it. I spent a long time collecting Delta miles, only to find out when I wanted to use them for a big vacation, those destinations which only needed 50K miles, now needed 80K, which I didn't have yet. I travelled more, collected 80, and then when I wanted to use them, it had gone up to 100K. ARGH!

I gave up. Now I just fly on the cheapest flight I can find, and don't worry about collecting miles. If I get them, fine, but I go into it figuring I'll never use them.

Rene

tonrob

If only there was a dirty great big stickied thread for this type of stuff...

In no particular order:

Common wisdom is that your US Airways miles will become AA miles sometime soon after March/April. Both programmes (UA and AA) have their pros and cons so what you'd end up wanting to spend your miles on depends on whether you should fret about this or not.

150K US gets you a lot if you're traveling alone. Only last year I booked what was effectively a first class round-the-world ticket using 120K US plus pocket change in taxes. That price still holds good now (but not for long - see above). There's also a thread in the BE Aussie forum where people clamour to get their mitts on US Airways miles to use as a cheap way of getting between the UK and Australia in business class (and flying far better airlines than US Airways!)

Your 39K UA will buy you a round-trip coach ticket in Europe on Lufthansa (or any Star Alliance carrier), and 40K would get you into (crappy) business class.

Million Mile Secrets wrote a piece a while ago on ways to prevent airline miles expiring.

Oh, and points.com is generally thought to be a bit of a rip-off. You'd be better outright selling the miles using an online broker if you can't genuinely find any better use for them.

dunroving

Thanks, that's better than I thought. I didn't realise you were the BE FF expert.

I just spotted the sticky as I loaded this page (maybe because it was bolded -looks like someone just added a post) - don't know why I've never spotted it before.

Looks like the thing to do is wait until things shake out in March-ish and in the meantime look for an interesting Europen destination for a mini-break courtesy of United.

Thanks again!

tonrob

Depends... You're in the interesting position that you can spend these miles on either Star Alliance (by booking before March) or One World (by booking afterwards). As (assuming you travel alone) you have sufficient to have a good old jaunt (and at the pointy end too) then where you might fancy going could make the decision for you.

If you fancy flying Thai or ANA (for example) then book sooner.

If you fancy Cathay book later.

(This assuming you know that you get better value flying east rather than west).

Bookings can be made 11-12 months out, so you could still travel Star Alliance up until early next year - you just need to book before the programme changeover. Only complication is that you might not be able to make changes to a Star booking after US Airways Dividend Miles goes away.

By the way you won't be able to get into Lufthansa or Singapore first class using your US miles - they simply won't release the award space, the rotters...

tonrob

Clarification to what I wrote above - the miles cost of a round-trip coach ticket would be 25K (versus 40K for business).

So if going coach you have 14K left over. United allows one-way award bookings, so you could fly business one way and coach the other. Intra-European business is fairly crappy on any carrier (usually an economy seat near the front with the middle one left empty plus a free meal and booze) but you will also get lounge access, so if doing one way in business make the business leg the one where you depart from the country in which the carrier is based (generalization here - but likely the lounge is much better).

Dorothy

We've just booked what's essentially around the world tickets business class for 3 of us for 110k miles each. We're going from Australia to Bangkok (14 hour stopover in BKK) to shanghai (12 hour stopover) to Toronto for 2 weeks then home to Australia via a 5 day stop in Prague. All it cost was 110k USAir miles +$287 taxes each. Oh, and a 45 minute phone call to USAir reservations.

There's also a thread in the Aus forum for more tips. I'm on my phone so can't link to it, but do take a look.