Is there worse award availability with US Airways Dividend Miles than with AAdvantage miles and Avios?
Count me as one of those who's looking forward to their US Airways miles to become AAdvantage miles. Do I continue to apply for the The US Airways® Premier World MasterCard®, which awards 40,000 miles after first purchase and payment of the $89 annual fee? Sure, since it's like buying miles for just 0.2 cents per mile, which is a steal, and US Airways miles will ultimately become AAdvantage miles. And it's fantastic that, assuming you haven't applied for too many credit cards recently and have an excellent credit score, you can even get this bonus again (see When Can You Get a Credit Card Signup Bonus Again?)
Pro: Longer, More Creative Awards Possible with Dividend Miles
Don't get me wrong, I love the ability to use Dividend Miles to travel to Asia via Europe and the Middle East, flying British Airways New First Class, Qantas First Class, Cathay Pacific Business Class and Japan Airlines First Class all on one award ticket (see the second example of When Buying US Airways Miles is Worth It).
Similarly, while I haven't had the patience for this, some readers have reported success with booking an award from the U.S. to Australia via Europe and Asia. You might have to call *a lot* but if you have more time than money, some creative itineraries are still possible.
Con: Lack of Award Availability vs. AAdvantage and Time Required to Book
But, in addition to well-known cons such as only roundtrip award availability and the inability to change a routing once travel has begun, add to this the problem of worse award availability for certain routes. Specifically, I was checking some potential continental U.S. to Hawaii awards recently for an Award Booking client with a significant Dividend Miles balance, and found that on every date we checked, there was either no award availability (even though there was ample award availability available using AAdvantage miles or British Airways Avios) or just a small subset of what was available with AA miles or Avios.
Subsequent calls yielded the same result. Nor am I the only one having this experience. Flyertalker svik notes:
“When [US Airways was] part of Star Alliance I used to go on the ANA tool, find what I wanted, call the US Airways desk, spoon feed flight numbers and dates, and all was good. Now even if there are a lot of available awards on AA or BA websites, the [US Airways] agent on the phone says they are not released to US. Is US being cheap or is OneWorld treating us as pariahs?”
Even if this ultimately isn't the systemic award availability problem it appears to be, and somehow a more skilled US Airways agent would be able to find the availability or do a manual sell, the sheer amount of time involved does make me look forward to when Dividend Miles become AAdvantage miles, so that I'll be able to use AAdvantage call center agents to make bookings, and for that matter, request a call back, which to date US Airways has not made available.
Have you experienced any award availability issues when booking with Dividend Miles vs. AAdvantage miles or British Airways Avios?
Related Posts
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When Buying US Airways or AAdvantage Miles is Worth It
Bye Bye US Air 90K North Asia Business Class Award, No More AA Free One Ways or Explorer Awards
US Airways Not Answering Your Phone Call? Call Abroad for Better Customer Service
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