How to Crack US Airways Dividend Miles Redemption for Rewards Travel
How to Crack US Airways Dividend Miles Redemption for Rewards Travel Skip to content
Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendations have an average return of 397%. For $79 (or just $1.52 per week), join more than 1 million members and don't miss their upcoming stock picks. 30 day money-back guarantee. Sign Up Now
With all the advantages to flying with their partners, why would anyone use their miles to actually fly on US Airways? The answer is that US Airways makes it difficult to use your miles for partner awards. First, there is no online partner award booking tool. In order to find out which seats are available for awards, you are supposed to call US Airways and have their agents look through their system. But whether by design or by neglect, their agents aren’t able to search the dozens of partner flights that could get you to your destination. And asking them to search availability across a range of dates increases the challenge a hundredfold. So what’s the best strategy? Searching Partner Award Flights
Unless you happen upon a reservations agent with mountains of skill, patience, and luck, you will have to search for your award seats on your own by using another airline’s tool. Al Nippon Airways (ANA) of Japan is the only Star Alliance partner with a search engine that has access to all other members’ award inventory. To use their English language site, you must first create a free frequent flier account with them. The availability of partner seats you see via ANA is largely the same as what US Airways can book. You can also pay for access to a program called the KVS Tool that is essentially a streamlined interface to ANA’s site. The $15 I paid for a two-month subscription was well worth the time I saved using the tool to find a complex award itinerary. Once you’re set up to use one of these tools, here are two key tips to get you started: Learn how to use the ANA site or the KVS Tool. The best way to use the ANA site or the KVS Tool is to methodically search for award seats on individual flights. Research which airlines fly which routes and how long you need to make a connection. Then, use the ANA site or the KVS Tool to search for flights on partners such as Lufthansa, Swiss, or Austrian Airlines. Always start by searching for the longest, intercontinental segments as they are the hardest to find. Next, try to find connecting flights from your origin to your destination. Needless to say, you will have to become your own travel agent to find all of the different flight combinations to get you from Point A to Point B in the class of service you want.Tell a white lie. Once you have found the seats you need on the ANA site or with the KVS Tool, call US Airways and give them the dates and flight numbers so they can book it for you. Sadly, most of their agents will not allow you to do that. They will say you can’t ask for individual flights, and that they must search themselves for award seats from your origin to your destination. Since allowing them to do so subjects your travel plans to the limits of their skill, your best strategy is to say you spoke with an agent previously who found seats on these flights. By doing so, the agents will then book your itinerary flight by flight.
What do you want to do br with money
Popular Searches
Learn more about your money
Make Money
You need it. Learn how to make it. ExploreManage Money
You've got it. Learn what to do with it. ExploreSave Money
You have it. Make sure you have some later too. ExploreSpend Money
You're spending it. Get the most for it. ExploreBorrow Money
You're borrowing it. Do it wisely. ExploreProtect Money
You don't want to lose it. Learn how to keep it safe. ExploreInvest Money
You're saving it. Now put it to work for your future. ExploreCategories
About us
Find us
Close menuWhat do you want to do br with money
Popular Searches
Learn more about your money
Make Money
You need it. Learn how to make it. ExploreManage Money
You've got it. Learn what to do with it. ExploreSave Money
You have it. Make sure you have some later too. ExploreSpend Money
You're spending it. Get the most for it. ExploreBorrow Money
You're borrowing it. Do it wisely. ExploreProtect Money
You don't want to lose it. Learn how to keep it safe. ExploreInvest Money
You're saving it. Now put it to work for your future. ExploreCategories
About us
Find us
Close menu Advertiser Disclosure Advertiser Disclosure: The credit card and banking offers that appear on this site are from credit card companies and banks from which MoneyCrashers.com receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they appear on category pages. MoneyCrashers.com does not include all banks, credit card companies or all available credit card offers, although best efforts are made to include a comprehensive list of offers regardless of compensation. Advertiser partners include American Express, Chase, U.S. Bank, and Barclaycard, among others. Save MoneyHow to Crack US Airways Dividend Miles Redemption for Rewards Travel
By Jason Steele Date February 14, 2022FEATURED PROMOTION
You spend years earning frequent flier miles through travel, credit cards, and various promotions. But when the time comes to book your flight, the airline wants to redeem twice the amount of miles you expected. How many times has this happened to you? It’s happened to many US Airways customers when they’ve tried to redeem their Dividend Miles. US Airways has severely restricted their award seat availability on their own flights, while making it very difficult to find available award seats on their partners’ flights. Fortunately, there is a large community of travelers dedicated to the challenge of finding awards and they’re willing to share their secrets. Here are the insider tips and tricks to redeem your US Airways frequent flier miles.Using Your US Airways Miles for Rewards
You’ve accumulated a lot of US Airways Dividend Miles, but what can you actually do with them? Unlike other programs where miles can be used for hotel stays or car rentals, US Airways miles can only be used in one of two ways: for travel entirely on US Airways, or for travel on one or more of their many airline partners.Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendations have an average return of 397%. For $79 (or just $1.52 per week), join more than 1 million members and don't miss their upcoming stock picks. 30 day money-back guarantee. Sign Up Now
How to Book with Your Awards on US Airways
You can book travel with your US Airways miles on their web site. Unfortunately, trying to book online will only give you access to round-trip flights operated entirely by US Airways. One-way flights and multi-city flight itineraries must be booked by calling their reservations department. Moreover, the rewards system is subject to a four tier award system as well as inconvenient blackout dates. The result is that it can be extremely difficult to find award seats at any of the lower two mileage redemption levels. To help you out, here are two tips to book an award flight operated entirely by US Airways: Get Around High Mileage Rates. If you need multiple seats on one flight, you may save miles by booking flights individually. If only one seat is available at a lower mileage redemption level and you search for two seats, they will both show up as available at the higher level. By booking each seat on a separate itinerary, you can at least use fewer miles on the first seat.If You Have to Call, Search Online First. If you have to call the reservations center to book a one way or multi-city itinerary, search online first. Look for round-trip tickets that include the legs of your travel to find out how many miles each leg will require (just ignore the “return” portion). That way, you will know which flights have award availability at the lower redemption rate before you call. This eliminates the possibility that their call center won’t search as thoroughly as you would like.How to Book with Your Awards on Partner Airlines
US Airways is not a tiny airline, but they are the smallest domestic airline left among the majors. Fortunately, they partner with 26 other airlines in the Star Alliance, which includes giants (and merger partners) United and Continental. Beyond their Star Alliance partners, you can travel with Virgin Atlantic (economy seats only), Hawaiian, and Bahamasair. Your miles can take you to hundreds of airports that are not serviced by US Airways. But even if US Airways does offer a reward flight to your destination, there are several reasons to consider a partner flight instead. Partner awards are not subject to blackout dates or the multi-tier pricing scheme, so they typically cost fewer miles than an all US Airways award. In fact, the US Airways partner award chart shows that these awards require fewer miles than all but the lowest level awards on US Airways. You may also find that other airlines, like Swiss and Lufthansa, are significantly better than US Airways in comfort and quality. Many partner airlines will even offer first-class seating for fewer miles than all but the lowest level awards on US Airways. LimitationsWith all the advantages to flying with their partners, why would anyone use their miles to actually fly on US Airways? The answer is that US Airways makes it difficult to use your miles for partner awards. First, there is no online partner award booking tool. In order to find out which seats are available for awards, you are supposed to call US Airways and have their agents look through their system. But whether by design or by neglect, their agents aren’t able to search the dozens of partner flights that could get you to your destination. And asking them to search availability across a range of dates increases the challenge a hundredfold. So what’s the best strategy? Searching Partner Award Flights
Unless you happen upon a reservations agent with mountains of skill, patience, and luck, you will have to search for your award seats on your own by using another airline’s tool. Al Nippon Airways (ANA) of Japan is the only Star Alliance partner with a search engine that has access to all other members’ award inventory. To use their English language site, you must first create a free frequent flier account with them. The availability of partner seats you see via ANA is largely the same as what US Airways can book. You can also pay for access to a program called the KVS Tool that is essentially a streamlined interface to ANA’s site. The $15 I paid for a two-month subscription was well worth the time I saved using the tool to find a complex award itinerary. Once you’re set up to use one of these tools, here are two key tips to get you started: Learn how to use the ANA site or the KVS Tool. The best way to use the ANA site or the KVS Tool is to methodically search for award seats on individual flights. Research which airlines fly which routes and how long you need to make a connection. Then, use the ANA site or the KVS Tool to search for flights on partners such as Lufthansa, Swiss, or Austrian Airlines. Always start by searching for the longest, intercontinental segments as they are the hardest to find. Next, try to find connecting flights from your origin to your destination. Needless to say, you will have to become your own travel agent to find all of the different flight combinations to get you from Point A to Point B in the class of service you want.Tell a white lie. Once you have found the seats you need on the ANA site or with the KVS Tool, call US Airways and give them the dates and flight numbers so they can book it for you. Sadly, most of their agents will not allow you to do that. They will say you can’t ask for individual flights, and that they must search themselves for award seats from your origin to your destination. Since allowing them to do so subjects your travel plans to the limits of their skill, your best strategy is to say you spoke with an agent previously who found seats on these flights. By doing so, the agents will then book your itinerary flight by flight.