US Airways (convert to American) and Miles & More ‘buy miles’ bonuses – any good?
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Two new ‘buy miles’ promotions have launched in the last couple of days.
The first, with a novel format, is from US Airways.
It is offering a mystery bonus. You will receive a bonus of either 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of your miles. Luckily, you are told (once you have logged in via this page) what bonus you will get before you need to commit!
The key thing to remember is that US Airways has now merged with American Airlines. At some point during 2014, you will be able to convert your US Airways miles into AA miles. You may therefore see this promotion as a cheap way of buying American Airlines miles, assuming you don’t need them immediately.
Assuming you get the 100% bonus and buy the maximum 50,000, you will be paying $1,881 for 100,000 miles, so 1.8c each.
This article explains the ‘sweet spots’ in the American Airlines award chart. However, as it may be another year before your US Airways miles merge with AA, it would be a little risky to place a bet on the AA chart remaining unchanged. Of course, as US Airways is still a Star Alliance member until 30th March, you may see this as a way of booking a cheap Star Alliance redemption instead.
The deadline is March 26th.
Secondly, the Lufthansa deal.
Until the end of March, Lufthansa is offering a 20% bonus when you purchase Miles & More miles.
You can only buy up to 12,000 Miles & More miles per year, so this promotion is only useful if you are topping off your account to reach the amount you need for a reward. Given that Lufthansa is not a American Express partner, this may be a convenient way of getting the miles you need.
Technically, you could convert from Amex to Starwood Preferred Guest to Miles & More. The conversion rate of 0.5 M&M per Amex point is poor, though. It would rise to 0.625 M&M per Amex point if you converted 40,000 Membership Rewards at a time.
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