US Airways is rebranding their Dividend Miles program as “GoAwards” and making the miles worth less. What a shock.
This should come as no surprise, given that US Airways’ Dividend Miles program had a more generous redemption structure than Star Alliance partner United. The US Airways release says nothing about partner awards — we await the next shoe to drop — but you should expect a similar scale. (For the time being, newbie alliance member Continental is the go-to carrier for cashing in alliance awards now.)
The biggest change is the introduction of two additional tiers of awards. Instead of the old “saver” and “standard” awards, the new program introduces “Off-peak,” “Low, “Medium,” and “High.” Delta added a third tier to their program recently; US Airways now has four. Whoo. As the names imply, the cost will vary according to the desirability of those dates.
As per the FAQs, the discounted “off peak” seats are available in a small window: “Off-peak awards are available from North America to Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean September 1 – 30; to South America May 1- 31 and October 1 – 31; and to Europe January 15 – February 28.”
So, while a saver business class award from the US to Europe now costs 80,000, it will soon cost either 60,000, 100,000, 200,000, or a whopping 350,000 miles, depending on the dates. And those 60,000 mile off-peak seats are only available for six weeks in winter. OUCH. And what are the odds that the 100,000 seats aren’t much more readily available?
The new program into effect January 6, 2010. Check the old award chart. Then compare to the new award chart. See where you stand. And if you can, book now.
Especially if you’re taking advantage of the great deal on purchased miles I posted about last week, as reader Chris notes in the comments.
Also, Preferred members of the program will not be exempted from blackout dates, of which there are several, though, oddly, they are different from the current program’s blackout dates.
This is a disappoint. Not a surprise, given United and Delta’s recent devaluations, but a disappointment nonetheless.
RSS (FeedBurner)
Read with Amazon Kindle
Subscribe by E-mail
Follow on Twitter
November 10th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Interesting how they spin it in their email marketing newsletter. Here’s the subject and headline:
“New award travel – more choices and fewer restrictions”
November 10th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
It’s only one more level, not two more levels. The US Airways press release says 2 more, but that’s wrong. They currently have off-peak awards, so that’s not new. This just splits the rule-buster level into two different categories, medium and high.
Personally I expect adjustment to the partner award chart (eg us to europe in business to go from 80k to 100k) but I’m still hopeful that little else changes there — and that’ show US Airways miles are most valuable to begin with.