US Airways Dividend Miles? Use those miles

[Diamondbacks2004]

JAN. 31 IS THE CUTOFF DATE
US Airways frequent flier? Use those miles
Dormant time allowed drops from 3 years to 18 months

STEVE HARRISON
courtesy of Charlotte Observer newspaper

Attention occasional fliers: all your US Airways Dividend Miles will expire after Jan. 31, if you haven't had account activity in 18 months.

Airlines such as Southwest have long had true "frequent flyer" programs, where passengers had to fly frequently to fly free. Now, legacy carriers are instituting similar rules, though the good news for US Airways fliers is that "activity" is loosely defined.

US Airways quietly announced the change earlier this year. Previously, the dormant period was three years, a change made just a year ago to much consternation among customers.

Delta Air Lines has also changed its frequent flyer program, flushing miles from someone's account if it hasn't had activity in two years. It used to be three years. Northwest may also close an account if it's dormant for three years, and Continental may close an account after 18 months of inactivity.

Here's what the new US Airways sunset period means for its sporadic customers, of which there are hundreds of thousands in the Charlotte region.

• The most obvious way to get miles is to fly on US Airways or one of its partner airlines, such as United or Lufthansa. But your flight must occur before Jan. 31 to keep your account alive. Booking in January for a flight in February won't count. Certain hotel stays and rental car bookings can also count. But there can be a delay in posting miles from hotels and rental cars, so they might not show up before Jan. 31.

• If you have a US Airways Dividend Miles credit card, any purchase -- including gasoline or groceries -- will count as activity.

• And there are a number of relatively inexpensive ways to keep your account going. You can earn two miles by downloading a song from iTunes for 99 cents, as long as you go through the US Airways Web site. (From the home page, click on "Dividend Miles," then "Earn more miles" You'll find the iTunes offer under "Dividend Miles Shopping Mall.") You also can buy other items through the US Airways shopping mall. Sending someone flowers through FTD also energizes your account.

• You can also redeem miles for a trip, or make a minimum donation of 1,000 miles to a charity.

If all else fails, you can pay a fee to keep your account alive and to keep your miles. But it's not cheap.

You can call the Dividend Miles Service Center at 800-428-4322 and pay a $50 fee and $.01 per mile to reactivate your account. If you had 25,000 miles -- enough for a free domestic ticket -- that will cost you $300.

You could probably get the ticket cheaper just by paying for it.

For more information, you can visit the US Airways Web site at http://usairways.com/awa/content/dividendm...stayactive.aspx . If a US Airways account is dormant for 36 months, miles are discarded and can't be retrieved, even for a fee.

 

[SKY HIGH]

Attention occasional fliers: all your US Airways Dividend Miles will expire after Jan. 31, if you haven't had account activity in 18 months.[/quote]

sky high states: Ok, this is probably an unpopular OPINION with some frequent flyers, but what's wrong with trying to manage your (future) DEBT?



ONLY stating opinions

 

[JAXPax]

Well you'd be mostly right since the dirty little secret is there are way more miles given out then there are reward seats available.

What I find a bit decietful, is the continuing lie that FF programs are a "Cost" when in fact they are one of the airlines larger profit centers.

So while your observation that what US and others are doing is indeed prudent for them, they are really just raising profitability of an already profitable segement of their business.

I've no problem with it other than I hate the ongoing lie regarding the program.

They aren't a "cost" per se, but more of an accounting liability on the books of the company. They didn't make it up, some idiot in government probably did. While they are a great source of revenue (all those incentive miles, especially), when the miles sit, the company has to carry them somewhere and treat them like a loan or something.

Unfortunately this isn't something you can just blame on the sandcastle. It's accounting practice. Miles are an accounts payable, I'd figure.

Anybody who hasn't had account activity in 18 months to keep the miles is an infrequent flyer and not really of any use to US Airways. There's got to be very few people who really have many miles in danger of being lost. The number of people total in the DM program holding a balance worth anything (like say, two tickets to Europe) that are in danger of forfeit (and actually care, or would miss it) probably isn't even in the triple digits.