This card just keeps giving and giving. Here’s another easy way to earn even more bonus miles in addition to the original sign-up bonus and the 15,000 non-use bonus. Reader Andrew in SLC emailed me back in March that he received an email offer in late February that offered 500 miles for switching to paperless statements - Sign up for Paperless Statements on your US Airways MasterCard by March 31, 2013 and get 500 Bonus Miles.

Now, according to Andrew, his wife Marni already had a previous US Airways card and her new card was automatically enrolled in paperless statements. He switched her back to paper statements the day he received the email in hopes that she too would receive the offer. Andrew reported that three weeks and two days after switching to paper, Marni received the offer as well…but for 1,000 miles!

Like Marni, I already had a previous US Airways MasterCard and it was enrolled for paperless statements which carried over to my new card received in December. I switched back to paper statements on March 11th and have been waiting for my paperless offer. It took much longer than Marni’s! Today, May 16th (just over 2 months after reverting to paper statements), I finally received the offer in the mail…though it’s only for 500 miles. Be Green Warning – For 1,000 US Airways miles, I certainly would have made the switch and sacrificed being green for two months. However, for only 500 miles, you might want to consider the environment. Up to you…

Additionally, Splittin’ Aces on Flyertalk has started a thread on Flyertalk regarding his 500 mile paperless offer and the other offers received as well.

So, without taking into account any of my spending, I’ve earned a whopping 55,500 points from one US Airways MasterCard (40K sign-up, 15K spending bonus, 500 paperless bonus). That’s a pretty incredible sign-up bonus! I plan to cancel the card at the end of this month and apply once more to try and earn the bonuses all over again (I was shockingly turned down in my last app-o-rama for already having the card).

Current sign-up offers (40K first year free is dead)
1) 35K after your first purchase, annual fee waived for the first year, 10K for card renewal. No landing page or promo details (thanks Chester F for the link).
2) 30K after your first purchase, annual fee of $89, up to an additional 10K when you transfer a balance within 90 days (1 mile per $). Full landing page and promo details.
3) Business Card - 25K after your first purchase, up to 10K for balance transfer within the first 30 days (1 mile per $), $79 annual fee. Note this link will also give you the option to select a business card with no annual fee and 5K miles for signing up.

Related - Building Up US Airways Miles for the AA Merger – Time to Take AAdvantage, Full List of Offers!

I recently received a link to the 2013 US Airways media kit, essentially a sales pitch for potential US Airways Magazine advertisers.  Some interesting facts:

US Airways strangely considers several locations only served via their partners to be their “International Getaway Destinations”, including Sydney, Istanbul, Beijing, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. Additionally, St. Thomas, Rochester, and Long Island MacArthur are considered some of “US Airways Top Markets”.

Some demographic details for US Airways travelers…of which 70% are married and 52% make 100K+ a year:

On Friday, I’m heading out to Colorado Springs on a United flight for the first ever Boarding Area conference of BA (and other popular) bloggers – BAcon. While I have elite status (and won’t be checking any bags), a fellow traveler does not and will need to pack for the next few weeks for a continuing trip. The outbound won’t be a problem as I’ll be there and can check their bag for free, however they’ll be on their own for the return and I’ll be taking my first ever JetBlue flight back to New York (yes, first ever…I like my legacy status and miles but wanted to take advantage of this promo).

Now, the other traveler also has several upcoming flights out west on US Airways and United, but the flights won’t be enough to earn them status in either airline’s program (even via a challenge). This got me thinking about the Aegean Miles&Bonus program as they certainly will have enough flown mileage to pick up Blue status in Aegean’s program, allowing for a free checked bag on either carrier. Aegean has some of the easiest requirements for elite status – 4,000 miles for Blue and 20,000 for Gold…but it gets even better. Upon signing up for the program you receive 1,000 miles, bringing the requirement down to 3,000 for Blue and 19,000 for Gold. Better yet, once you reach Blue you have 12 months to earn the 16,000 miles for Gold – “Once you have collected 16,000 miles within one year from the date which you qualified to the Blue status, you will receive the Gold Card.” Of course, for any business or first itineraries, you’ll be earning bonus miles which count towards qualification. Icing on top…the status does not expire as long as you take one flight (on any Star Alliance carrier) every 36 months.

After checking out Gary’s post on the topic, I felt silly for not taking advantage of the BMI status match that Aegean was running last spring/summer in order to obtain (lifetime) Gold status. Aegean Gold status allows for star alliance lounge access, even on a fully domestic itinerary! Yes, that means entry is granted simply when flying United or US Airways within the US. So, I figured I might be a year late, but why not send the email to customer service and give the match a shot. I found my BMI Diamond Club Gold level membership card (which was a status match as well) and sent in the match request. Within 3 days, I received a response that I had been matched! Now, as Gary points out, Aegean clearly states that they can change the requirements and benefits of the program at any time…but for now I’m excited to test out my domestic lounge access. Unfortunately, while it seems that Aegean is still accepting BMI status match requests, there are no recent positive reports of matches from any other carriers. The have in the past matched status for other Star Alliance carriers who also ceased operations (Spanair). However, even Blue gets you the free checked bag if you’re not a frequent traveler.

Aegean Benefits

Blue:

• One free checked bag on any Star Alliance carrier.
• Priority standby and waitlisting on Star Alliance carriers.

Gold:

• Complimentary lounge access when traveling on any Star Alliance carrier, regardless of your ticketed class, including one guest.
• Extra baggage allowance & handling -Additional weight and/or pieces.
• Priority check-In & Priority Boarding
• Priority standby and waitlisting on Star Alliance carriers.

Full benefits for Blue and Gold here.

Robert Isom, US Airways’ chief operations officer and Bev Goulet, American’s senior vice president and chief integration officer, were both in attendance earlier this week during the US Airways Unplugged Media Day event and discussed their integration plans with the WSJ in a joint interview. The two executives revealed that they are only in the early planning stages of their joint integration efforts and that nothing can officially begin until the merger closes. However, here are their current timeline goals as reported by The Middle Seat:

Mr. Isom said the new American wants to have a few things ready to go the day after the deal closes. That includes putting signage in airports to direct customers if they try to check in at the other carrier’s counters, to train workers on the other airlines’ policies, gates and lounges, and have a single crisis plan in place in case of an accident or incident.

Soon after the merger closes, he said, the goal is to allow passengers to book flights on both carriers on a single itinerary and combine some operations in Fort Worth, which means bringing some employees from US Airways’ current headquarters in Tempe, Ariz. Within six months, the two hope to start moving their planes around, matching the size of the plane with the demand on a route. They also want to let passengers earn and redeem miles on the other carrier’s frequent-flier plan, and harmonize some product offerings such as food and beverages on board and align some passenger processing procedures, Mr. Isom said.

By a year after the merger’s closing, the two plan to move to one computer system and a single website, combine their operations centers and align employee procedures and manuals. The latter is required to win a single operating certificate from the FAA. Only then can the two join their workforces, mix and match aircraft and crews and offer a single passenger experience.

Speaking of their desire to avoid the system integration troubles experienced during the UA/CO and US/HP moves to a single passenger reservation system…

Mr. Isom said. US Airways and American have said they intend to move US Airways to American’s system because American is the larger airline and that will minimize the amount of training required to familiarize US Airways’ fewer employees with a new system.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had been patiently waiting and hoping to receive the much talked about 15k offer from Barclays and it finally arrived at the end of February. Several readers who signed up for the card a month or two after me, had been waiting for their offer as well, two of them (Eric and Bryant) emailed me yesterday to inform me that they received the offer yesterday for May 1- July 31st! What is the 15k offer? Lately, Barclays has been offering an additional 15K bonus for spending $750 every month for 3 months after a period of inactivity once you complete your first purchase (usually 2 months or so) on your new US Airways Premier World MasterCard. In my case, I applied for the card (for a second time) in early December and made my first purchase on December 17th. My bonus miles posted to my Dividend Miles account on January 2nd and I then tucked the card away. For those of you who have just received the card, this promotion is still very much alive and I’d recommend curbing your spending after your first purchase in order to potentially qualify for this promotion.

Check out this previous post for results of my experiments in US Airways MasterCard churning and tips on proposed timelines and best available offers.

1) 35k after your first purchase, annual fee waived for the first year, 10k for card renewal. No landing page or promo details (thanks Chester F for the link).
2) 30k after your first purchase, annual fee of $89, up to an additional 10k when you transfer a balance within 90 days (1 mile per $). Full landing page and promo details.
3) Business Card - 25k after your first purchase, up to 10k for balance transfer within the first 30 days (1 mile per $), $79 annual fee. Note this link will also give you the option to select a business card with no annual fee and 5k miles for signing up.

Offer is valid for select cardmembers and is not transferable. You will earn 15,000 bonus miles after you charge over $750 in net retail purchases (purchases that are not returned or rescinded) each month from May 1, 2013 through July 31, 2013. If you do not spend over $750 in any of the 3 months of the promotion, you will not be eligible for any bonus miles as part of this offer. To receive your bonus miles, your account must be open and in good standing. Purchases made during periods when your account is delinquent, your balance exceeds your credit line or your account is otherwise not in good standing as defined in your Credit Card Cardmember Agreement do not qualify for this offer. Your bonus miles will appear on your statement up to 6-8 weeks after the end of the promotion. Net retail purchases do not include such things as the purchase of money orders, traveler’s checks, foreign currency, lottery tickets, gambling chips, wire transfers, person-to-person money transfers or using the account to obtain a cash advance.

Have you become disillusioned with SkyMiles redemptions? Do you refuse to spend triple points to get to your destination and you’re not flexible enough to find any low priced awards? Why not use some miles for a good cause. The Make-A-Wish foundation announced earlier this week that they are extremely low on frequent flier points and need help from the travel community.

Wishes in Flight – You Hold the Ticket to a Child’s Wish.! The Make-A-Wish Foundation needs more than 2.5 billion miles, or 50,000 round-trip tickets, to grant wishes each year. Every mile donated helps wish kids and their families travel to destinations around the world. Once donated, your miles will never expire and are used to support wishes across the country. This is just one simple way you can help grant a life-changing wish experience.

You can donate as few as 1,000 Delta Skymiles via this link. United (500 mile min) and US Airways (1000 mile min) are also partners, United is even matching all donations through April 30th.

Delta has partnered with several other charities as well which you can access here:

Check out this previous post, Doing Good & Earning Miles, for a rundown of ways to both earn and redeem miles/points in a variety of programs by doing good. Thanks to reader Nicole from NY for the tip on the Make-A-Wish need!

Remember those 500 US Airways miles promised from Whiteboard that we never received and sort of lost hope on? Well, it looks like we might still get them! Of course, it made sense that most of us never received the miles as Whiteboard never even asked for an associated US Airways Dividend Miles number. As such, you can believe my shock when I received the following email in my inbox a few minutes ago:

Anyone else receive the same? I’ve sent on my membership details and I’ll report back if the miles actually post…

exMiami, a website “chronicling Miami’s Transformation” reports that a well-placed source at US Airways confirms that American will add flights to Tel Aviv from both Miami and New York’s JFK airport. Now, even-though this was posted by an administrator of the site, I tend to doubt that the yet to merge carrier has already decided on new routes and that they would share such information with exMiami. In any case, it’s not too much of a stretch as I do believe that the new AA will be adding additional Tel Aviv flights in the future and JFK/Miami would certainly make sense based on demographics. Additionally, Delta, United, and US are bringing in huge profits with their TLV routes. Of course, AA will have to figure out how to settle their severance dispute with the previous TWA Israeli employees in order to avoid an impounded jet in Tel Aviv.

Here is the full list of 2013 updates with a few changes in bonus amounts…

Are your credit cards relegated to the back of a drawer once the sign-up bonus posts? While your still in possession of those cards you acquired during your past few churns, why not put them to use and earn some additional miles or points? Remember, holding cards instead of canceling right away makes sense as you can use them as leverage in your next churn, offering to give up the card in exchange for a new card and a new bonus.

Priority Club – 2,013 points after $40 of spend on a single dine within 30 days of registration (registration now closed)
Delta – 1,500 miles after $40 of spend on a single dine within 30 days of registration.
American – 1,000 miles after $40 of spend on a single dine within 30 days of registration.
United – 1,000 miles after $40 of spend on a single dine within 30 days of registration.
US Airways – 1,000 miles after $40 of spend on a single dine within 30 days of registration  (remember these will become AA miles down the road).
Hilton – 1,000 points after $40 of spend on a single dine within 30 days of registration.
Alaska – 500 miles after $30 of spend on a single dine within 30 days of registration.
Southwest – 300 miles after $25 of spend on a single dine within 60 days of registration.

Each promotion is for a “new” profile, meaning both a unique credit card and email address is required (in my previous post reader Elaine noted that she has used the same email address with a different cc for all programs without any problems, YMMV). Additionally, each of the promotions above requires you to complete a review in order to qualify for the bonus. The link to the review is emailed after your dine and is a simple multiple choice survey.

This card just keeps giving and giving. Here’s another way to earn even more bonus miles in addition to the original sign-up bonus and the 15,000 non-use bonus. Reader Andrew in SLC emailed last week that he received an email offer back in February that offered 500 miles for switching to paperless statements. Sign up for Paperless Statements on your US Airways MasterCard by March 31, 2013 and get 500 Bonus Miles.

Now, according to Andrew, his wife Marni already had a previous US Airways card and her new card was automatically enrolled in paperless statements. He switched her back to paper statements the day he received the email in hopes that she too would receive the offer. Andrew reports that this morning, three weeks and two days after switching to paper, Marni has received the offer as well…but for 1,000 miles!

Like Marni, I already had a previous US Airways MasterCard and it was enrolled for paperless statements which carried over to my new card received in December. I’ve since switched back to paper statements and will report if and when I receive a paperless offer. Splittin’ Aces on Flyertalk has started a thread on Flyertalk regarding his 500 mile paperless offer and the other offers received as well.

Any US Airways miles in your Dividend Miles account will one day be joining those AA miles in your AAdvantage account, so why not build up your US balance while you still can.  Here are some of the easiest offers:

US Airways Barclays card offers - 30k-40k for signing up for the personal card and 25k for the business card. Plus receive an additional 15k miles for purchases on the personal card using these tips once the card arrives. Also, remember that these cards are churnable and you have plenty of time before the merger closes. Check out my US Airways churning experiments here.

Dividend Miles Dining - 1,000 miles after $40 of spend on a single dine within 30 days of registration.

Dividend Miles StoreFront - Miles for online shopping. Most of the merchant offers will be the same as AAdvantage eShopping, but perhaps there are some merchants that are not part of the AA program or have a better offer with US.

Groundlink - 1,000 miles for airport car service.

Vinesse Wine Club - Join Vinesse Wine Club and get 1,000 bonus miles, plus 5 miles for every $1 you spend.

PetFoodDirect.com - New customers earn up to 10,000 bonus miles per calendar year. Earn 500 bonus miles for your first purchase and earn 1 mile for every $1 spent on pet food and supplies. Earn up to 2,500 bonus miles with Auto Ship, including your first purchase.

21st Century Auto Insurance - Earn 200 miles when you get a free auto quote with no obligation.

Dish - This one requires some spending but if you happen to be thinking of a switch to Dish, you can earn 5k miles for packages as low as $24.99/month. Reports are that miles post after 60 days or two billing cycles.

Energy Plus - 5,000 bonus miles after 2 months and 2 miles for every $1 you spend on the Energy Plus portion of your electric bill. No long term commitment and you can cancel after the miles post. CAUTION – In NYC Energy Plus service was $12-$14 more per month than my normal electric provider was charging.

Fedex - Earn 1 Dividend Mile for every dollar you spend on select FedEx shipping services and 250 Miles when you first use your FEDEX account. The 250 miles post after your first shipment and you’ll receive a 5% discount when you print your shipping labels at home.

LasikPlus - Previous post on how to earn up to 25,000 miles at any of the LasikPlus centers across the U.S. See the warnings in the linked post.

Super Shuttle - Earn 50 miles each way with SuperShuttle Blue Van airport ground transportation.  Earn 150 miles each way with ExecuCar, SuperShuttle’s private sedan service.

Sealy - Earn 5 Dividend Miles for every $1 spent. Caution, there are several merchants in the StoreFront and AAdvantage eShopping portal that may offer better mileage opportunities on your mattress purpose.

Audience Rewards - Earn US Airways miles for answering trivia questions.

eRewards & e-Miles - US Airways miles for completing surveys

Whiteboard - 500 US Airways miles for completing more surveys Big warning on the legitimacy of this partner, check out this post and the associated comments.

SkyMall - Earn 3 Dividend Miles for every dollar you spend

Normal 1800Flowers/Florist.com/FTD/Telaflora offers  for floral purchases - check out all those deals here.

There are several other promo partners, but they only post after the trial period is over - LifeLock, LifeShield, and Rewards if Found.NetworkSolutions provides US Airways miles for web hosting services, though their prices are much higher than the competition.

Of course there are also the normal hotel and car rental earning opportunities too, though all of those programs will allow you to earn AA miles as well.

Anything I left out? Add it to the comments section!

Note that BoardingArea is migrating to a new server starting at 3AM EST on Friday and I won’t be able to respond to comments (or post anything new) during the 48 hour migration period. However, you can continue accessing all entries during this time. Talk to you on Sunday!