Update: A US Airways rep reached out to notify me these dates are wrong, but unwilling to provide correct ones.
According to this report by Frequent Business Traveler, US Airways will be leaving the Star Alliance on March 1, 2014. The airline is set to merge with American on January 7, 2014 and will be joining One World in April 2014.
This is certainly much later than I had anticipated, but it’s good news nonetheless. It offers plenty of time to take advantage of the 90,000 business class award ticket to Asia/Europe, and an opportunity to wrack up some points before the two award programs merge.
I personally will be booking Star Alliance awards, rather than waiting for the miles to be converted to AAdvantage. There are plenty of ways to generate AAdvantage miles nowadays. Through several credit card products, transfers from the Starwood Amex card, brokerage accounts, and debit cards. Meanwhile, Star Alliance awards are becoming slightly more difficult to book due to the United devaluation.
How will you put your Dividend Miles to use now that US Airways is scheduled to leave Star Alliance in March?
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What debit card are you using for AA miles? and how much do you spend on it?
The UFB Direct Mileage debit card. I’m not using it a whole lot these days, but used to buy money orders to pay off Chase cards.
Why did you stop buying money orders? Why did you go for UFB Direct Mileage debit card instead of BankDirect checking account?
Is there any web site with a good review and comparison between the two
I’ve just been slacking off. My VR source got shut down and I’m not paying off $40k in credit cards anymore. Plus I hate going to Walmart, though thanks to Squarecash I don’t have to do that anmore. Before the Alaska card gets discontinued in May, I will definitely milk it for what it’s worth.
The BankDirect card doesn’t actually earn you miles. Keeping money in the checking account does. Though that whole thing has been devalued lately. I should cover all these things in a post…
What has your experience been with SC limits? Thank you for such great content!
I’ve been doing $1k at a time with no issues so far, so I think that is a safe amount.
Good news for these dates. I just rushed 🙁 to book two 90K USA miles award 2 days ago. I should wait for your article 1st. 🙂
Hey, you’ve got a 90k business award. That is so not wasted any way you look at it. By the way, do you have the US Air card? Cardholders were recently targeted for 25-50% off award redemptions in the form of a rebate.