US Airways cuts off-peak business award to Europe, other changes

Posted by Seth Miller on February 7, 2013 under frequent flyer, News, points | 21 Comments to Read

It would seem that at some point in the past 10 days or so the US Airways award chart has seen a change for the worse. The 60,000 point business class award between North America an Europe has disappeared. This was one of the gems of the Dividend Miles program and losing it will be quite unfortunate for their members. Here’s what the chart looks like now:

image

And here’s what it looked like on January 27, 2013, the last date there is a copy in the archive.org system:

image

US Airways has also split out Alaska as a separate destination zone for flights from the continental US, raising the rates at the medium and high levels. And low-level first class awards between North America and Hawaii are now 80K rather than 70K. High level business class between North America/Hawaii and Europe are up to 350K from 325K.  High level business class between North America/Hawaii and Europe/South America are actually going down to 325K from 35oK. Finally, the middle and high tier rates between North America/Hawaii and the Middle East have spiked dramatically; at the top end a first class award goes from 240K to 350K.

OUCH!

Tags: , , , , , ,

  1. JohnnieD said,

    Can I assume this was not announced ahead of time?? Loyalty is a one way street??? Glad we went last Feb to Paris for 110k in business for two (cc discount included)…

  2. The Miles Professor said,

    So sad. This was such a great deal. For what it’s worth, American Airlines does not offer off-peak awards in business class.

    On the other hand, American Airlines’ off-peak award season has a much bigger window than US Airways. On American Airlines, Europe off-peak is Oct 15 – May 15 while on US Airways it’s only Jan 15 – Feb 28.

  3. Mike @ The #hustle Blog said,

    Well that’s crap news…

  4. MileageUpdate said,

    had a few good trips at those low rates. Sad to see it go.

  5. mommypoints said,

    Time to go to South America then! Really is a bummer though.

  6. Jon said,

    Wonder if they’re trying to align themselves with AA’s award chart. This may be the first of several possible devaluations.

  7. Travel Bug said,

    On the other hand, I’m really excited about the off-peak South America dates for 2014 (Feb 3 – Feb 13 & Mar 17 – Apr 3). Flights to both Rio and Sao Paulo double the long haul availability, and Brazil is starting to look like a great choice for a winter escape/spring break. The South America off-peak awards were always the most tempting for me, but South America in the winter sounds irresistible.

  8. Dan said,

    How early does US open up their off-peak inventory? I’d love to use some miles for the wife and I to South America next year.

  9. Travel Bug said,

    @ Dan – 331 days in advance. I just put reminders on my calendar to look for available flight March 10-March 20 for the February dates, and April 21-May 8 for the March/April dates. Brazil is fabulous! The wonderful thing about flying into Rio is that you can have a diversity of experiences (city, beach, nature) without that much travel. I checked availability a lot this year – but didn’t jump on anything. The availability was decent going from Charlotte to Rio. The hurdle was finding availability from NYC to Charlotte.

  10. Seth Miller said,

    Glad that the new South America dates work for you, Travel Bug. The cynic in me notes that the number of available dates in 2014 is about 30% lower than the number in 2013, so the window there is shrinking.

  11. Gardy said,

    Ditto JohhnieD’s comment. Wife and I got our RT to Paris last feb for 110k also. Looks like we were part of the last group that got in on that awesome deal!

  12. US Airways cuts off-peak business class awards to Europe with no advance notice - One Mile at a Time said,

    [...] (Tip of the hat to The Wandering Aramean) [...]

  13. Why in the World is US Airways Increasing Award Prices NOW? - View from the Wing said,

    [...] saw this first over at Wandering Aramean, US Airways has made the following changes to their award [...]

  14. IPG said,

    In retrospect, is this really surprising? It seems only a matter of time with all the huge discounts/bonuses on buying Dividend Miles.

  15. ken said,

    This change is very abrupt. I was looking at first class saver award rates on Monday or Tuesday. The 30,000 was available CLT to Rome, Madrid and Paris for this February.
    I have been trying to convince my girlfriend to go in style for a few days. Time to drop that idea.
    The lack of advanced warning is the most unsettling part of the change.

  16. DaninSTL said,

    Ouch. They hit my favorite award, business class to Europe for 60k, RIP

  17. stephan said,

    Really bad. It makes you wonder what else is coming down the pipe unannounced with the merger. Don’t like the tone of this especially with absolutely no warning from US.

  18. stephan said,

    Seth, Are you the only one who is clued in today? Where is everybody else on this???

  19. Seth Miller said,

    I’m pretty sure I saw a post by Gary about it, too. And, quite frankly, I’m not too surprised that people aren’t posting too much about it. Though I suppose there would be an opportunity to put in a plug for a US Airways CC if they wanted. ;)

  20. I Need To Work On Being More Observant… | Traveling To… said,

    [...] inclined to agree with Gary:  The change’s timing defies logic.  Wandering Aramean has the two charts side-by-side, but the practical impact seems to be that off-peak business class awards to Europe are dead.  [...]

  21. Tracy said,

    Gah – I just got my bonus from work and part of it was going towards buying enough miles to go FC to England again in Feb 2014 like we did when I went home last year becuase I received the notification that I could buy double miles unti teh end of feb.

    I guess we will be going cattle coach.

    This sucks.

    22. Add A Comment

home top