US Airways just devalued their miles overnight and without warning!
Yesterday, I posted details on US Airways 3rd offer in a year to share miles and get a 100% bonus. Thank You US Airways for selling miles then making them worth less the very next day. That pretty crummy!
Hat tip to Hackmytrip who explains more about the devaluation – click here to read his post. Also check out runningwithmiles post who also explains the AA side of the devaluation.
Click here to see the new US Airways award chart.
The bad news is they eliminated probably the best redemption on their award chart – US to North Asia in Business. The price went from 90k to 110k miles. The good news is that the other parts didnt seem to change — and hopefully they don't change again anytime soon.
If you were thinking about sharing points to get an additional 50k points here's what you should consider:
- If you wanted to go to Hong Kong (and Bangkok on the same itinerary like a friend of mine did) Business Class round trip, this now costs 110k miles instead of 90k. So make sure you will have enough miles if this was your goal. I was considering this but now that the price went up, I'd rather go to Australia. Or for only another 10k miles, you can fly first class, which is 120k miles.
- My main goal was to go to Australia Business Class round trip for 110k miles. This price did not change (phew!), so I may still do this myself.
Jeff, I have a different take on the devaluation:
1. Mergers ALWAYS come with some form of cost savings. Airlines spend considerable effort squeezing out efficiencies, so redemption devaluation is an obvious outcome. Anyone that did not see this coming was born yesterday.
2. The redemption chart is still pretty favorable, especially when compared against, say, Aeroplan, which wants 210K (!!) for North America to Asia in first class, or 150K in business.
I agree on both of your points. I just think maybe they should announce the deval then offer to sell you miles. So if someone did buy some miles and were planning to book a trip to Hong Kong for 90k miles and the next day they realize they don’t have enough. Some people may have just wasted some money.
And if I can still get to Australia for 110k in business, I think that’s still a great deal. Only problem is I would go Q3 2015 which the airlines wont open up anytime soon.
Oh I agree that it is a very poor business practice to devalue a loyalty program overnight with no warning.
Just think about what that means: Effective immediately, we have assigned less value to your loyalty.
But, none of us should be surprised, as this is classic monopolistic behaviour.
Yep. I’m definitely not surprised and think there is more pain to come as they merge.
Just sell your US Airways miles on a marketplace like this: http://tripmakler.com/miles/