Another 100% promo

[_TheTraveller_]

Didn't receive the email.

For the dummies is this the promotion where miles cost ~1c/mile?

1.8c/m after taxes and fees

 

[QF029]

No, not gifting - buy and share only.

Not sure if I have misunderstood this comment but the current promo is for buying and gifting (not sharing which is significantly better value).

 

[Limewood]

Not sure if I have misunderstood this comment but the current promo is for buying and gifting (not sharing which is significantly better value).

Both Mrs Lime & self USAirways members, so I could buy 50K and she could gift me 50K?, with promo that would be 200K.

 

[_TheTraveller_]

Both Mrs Lime & self USAirways members, so I could buy 50K and she could gift me 50K?, with promo that would be 200K.

I'm pretty sure no matter how you do it, you'll only get 50k bonus and I think thats the limit. If you're gifted 50k, you won't receive the 50k bonus if you've already bought 50k and received the 50k bonus.

 

[QF029]

I'm pretty sure no matter how you do it, you'll only get 50k bonus and I think thats the limit. If you're gifted 50k, you won't receive the 50k bonus if you've already bought 50k and received the 50k bonus.

This is my understanding also.

 

[anat0l]

No, not gifting - buy and share only.

Not sure if I have misunderstood this comment but the current promo is for buying and gifting (not sharing which is significantly better value).

Not sure what serfty is alluding to here. The current promotion (or at least the one I received an email for, assuming everyone else is the same) is for Buy and Gift Miles, not Share Miles. (Share Miles promotions have caps too, usually the same amount, but this is not a Share Miles promotion).

It's a 50k bonus points cap applicable to all (eligible) members during the promotion. As I would understand it, there is no separate bonus caps for Buying and Gifting - it is a common cap. Which I have given an example previously to try and explain.

Didn't receive the email.

For the dummies is this the promotion where miles cost ~1c/mile?

1.8c/m after taxes and fees

To be technical, it comes to USD 1.88c per mile after sales taxes, assuming you purchase the full 50k and get a 50k bonus (total 100k miles received). Purchasing less miles, even at the 100% bonus level, will increase the cost due to one of the fees being a fixed price.

Sharing Miles usually comes in at around USD 1.1c per mile with a 100% Share Miles promotion, with the possible exception of the last Share Miles promotion where the cost was increased.

Both Mrs Lime & self USAirways members, so I could buy 50K and she could gift me 50K?, with promo that would be 200K.

I'm pretty sure no matter how you do it, you'll only get 50k bonus and I think thats the limit. If you're gifted 50k, you won't receive the 50k bonus if you've already bought 50k and received the 50k bonus.

This is my understanding also.

As I said above, I believe it's a common cap. So in the example of Limewood, the first purchase would result in Limewood's account increasing by 100k (50k bought, 50k as a bonus). Now if Mrs Limewood gifts Limewood 50k after that, Limewood's balance would then be 150k. There is no further bonus awarded during this promotion because Limewood has exhausted the number of miles receivable as a bonus.

The same result would happen if the two transactions were reversed, e.g. Mrs Limewood gifts to Limewood first, then Limewood buys 50k into his account.

Bonus miles, for the purposes of counting up the cap, are scored against the recipient of the miles. Hence, Limewood could buy 50k into his account, get a 50k bonus and he will not receive any more bonus points for the duration of the promotion. But Limewood can gift as many miles to as many accounts as he wants; as long as those target accounts have some bonus cap remaining, they will all receive bonus points equal to the cap not exhausted.

 

[Questor]

How hot are they on multiple accounts? Say for example I wanted to create a second account for the purposes of getting the bonus miles, how easy is it to get awards by paying with multiple accounts? It seems like it would be strictly verboten but you never know...!

 

[_TheTraveller_]

How hot are they on multiple accounts? Say for example I wanted to create a second account for the purposes of getting the bonus miles, how easy is it to get awards by paying with multiple accounts? It seems like it would be strictly verboten but you never know...!

Best to create it for a family member

 

[Questor]

I did think of that, although there's just the wife and I, who already have them - I guess I could create it for the cat.... although then comes the issue of accessing it when on the phone to the USDM service desk!

 

[serfty]

Not sure if I have misunderstood this comment but the current promo is for buying and gifting (not sharing which is significantly better value).

This is my understanding also.

Not sure what serfty is alluding to here.....

Yep - sorry.

Mixed up the words share and gift.

Buy and Gift only - NOT Sharing.

 

[anat0l]

How hot are they on multiple accounts? Say for example I wanted to create a second account for the purposes of getting the bonus miles, how easy is it to get awards by paying with multiple accounts? It seems like it would be strictly verboten but you never know...!

Note that you can't pool miles from several accounts to book an award. So if you have 100k and another account (doesn't matter who) has 100k, if the cost of your award is 120k you can't tell the agent "I'd like to use 100k miles from my account, and 20k miles from account so-and-so".

To enable the booking in this case, you would need to get another 20k miles into your account, either by buying the miles, having someone gift them to your account, sharing at least 20k miles from the other account (this also costs money) or what not.

You can use other accounts to book awards for you, e.g. if you have a family member who has 200k miles, they can call US DM and book an award with your name on it, using their miles to pay for it. Similarly of course you can use your miles for awards for other people. I also call US DM to book an award on behalf of, say, my sister (i.e. I call US DM to book, the award is for her and the miles come from her account). Works out "nicely" since I do most of the legwork for my family anyway and the agents are cool with it (even if I give her credit card details to pay for the taxes); helps more that I've registered myself on my sister's account as a "delegate" (not sure what the terminology is, but generally someone who is allowed to have some co-functionality over the account). Now if it were me calling to use my sister's miles to book an award for me, I'd be prepared for potential resistance (and hope it comes through or they call my sister to check first before proceeding).

There are good reasons not to get too casual about this (unless you are all family or close friends), and ideally - not to arouse any concerns from the auditors - awards should be booked for any given person using their own miles from their own account.

 

[_TheTraveller_]

Note that you can't pool miles from several accounts to book an award. So if you have 100k and another account (doesn't matter who) has 100k, if the cost of your award is 120k you can't tell the agent "I'd like to use 100k miles from my account, and 20k miles from account so-and-so".

...

There are good reasons not to get too casual about this (unless you are all family or close friends), and ideally - not to arouse any concerns from the auditors - awards should be booked for any given person using their own miles from their own account.

About the 'delegate' do I phone up and ask them to put so and so on there or is there some other formality towards it? Is it also possible to put 2 tickets on hold and retrieve the booking from 2 different accounts to pay for them or do I have to do them 1 by 1? - I'm probably in the same situation as Questor, 2 different accounts wanting to book 2 tickets on the same PNR (if thats even possible). How do you guys deal with this situation?

 

[Questor]

Note that you can't pool miles from several accounts to book an award. So if you have 100k and another account (doesn't matter who) has 100k, if the cost of your award is 120k you can't tell the agent "I'd like to use 100k miles from my account, and 20k miles from account so-and-so".

That's a shame, but expected.
Does that also work the same way however when my wife and I both have enough miles to book an award individually, but not enough to book for both of us from one account - would they allow multiple account bookings that way or would they have to be booked separately, with the potential pitfalls that entails?

EDIT: Snap Richh

 

[anat0l]

About the 'delegate' do I phone up and ask them to put so and so on there or is there some other formality towards it? Is it also possible to put 2 tickets on hold and retrieve the booking from 2 different accounts to pay for them or do I have to do them 1 by 1? - I'm probably in the same situation as Questor, 2 different accounts wanting to book 2 tickets on the same PNR (if thats even possible). How do you guys deal with this situation?

That's a shame, but expected.
Does that also work the same way however when my wife and I both have enough miles to book an award individually, but not enough to book for both of us from one account - would they allow multiple account bookings that way or would they have to be booked separately, with the potential pitfalls that entails?

EDIT: Snap Richh

It's actually a fairly simple system and to be honest I'm only postulating that it works rather effectively (and when I say this, it basically means the alarm bells / red flags / auditors are kept at bay). Log into a US DM account on US Airways website, go to Booking Preferences and it's Third Party Authorization. Click Yes and then fill in the name of the person who would be allowed to create or change bookings for the current account holder.

You can put more than one booking on hold, e.g. if you are booking for yourself and partner, you can put each of your tickets on hold. I'm not sure if US DM has any "hold limits"; e.g. AAdvantage has a limit of one booking (not ticket) on hold per account. Even if that was the limit, that is usually no big deal, as you're not likely to be trying to hold more than one booking at a time and should discourage people from trying to "block" or "reserve" availability away.

For booking with more than one person, if all of the miles come out of one account for all passengers, then one booking reference can be created. If the miles comes out of the respective accounts for each passenger, then separate booking references are created. Logistically, it makes very little difference in the end, except possibly for IRROPs, seating and some rather obscure / rare occurrences of flight changes.

 

[Questor]

Thanks anat0l - as a mild noob when it comes to USDM it's nice to get good info.

 

[_TheTraveller_]

Thanks anat0l - as a mild noob when it comes to USDM it's nice to get good info.

Indeed! Thanks for that anat0l.

I'm personally willing to buy miles but I also have concerns as to whether this may be the last offer from USDM which means that I would still be short of miles (AUS-EU) even if I bought 50k+50k. So I'm taking personal precaution.....

 

[Questor]

Talking again with SWMBO tonight, and what is the general consensus as to the value of having miles to save, considering the likely merger of AA and US programs. Obviously using miles is always good, but saving them for potential F awards is of course always fun.

 

[markis10]

Talking again with SWMBO tonight, and what is the general consensus as to the value of having miles to save, considering the likely merger of AA and US programs. Obviously using miles is always good, but saving them for potential F awards is of course always fun.

Considering at the moment you can never get AA miles at that price and the will convert across at 1:1 when it happens...

 

[nickykim]

I am going to buy in for the first time. Feeling a bit nervous, so you will have to bear with with later on when I try to get to Oregon in Sept / Oct 2015!

 

[Limewood]

anat01, great info you provide.

Take our case, we require 90USDM from HKG to CDG (Paris) each in J return, if transferred 90K miles to a partner its an extra $15 per 1000!, so we buy the 45K USDM each for 90K USDM, find award flights, call up and book, then have them deduct 90USDM from each account.