US Airways eliminating paper upgrade certs (DMUP01)
Nov 18, 2002 | 8:56 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Western NY
Programs: US Silver, United Premier
Posts: 43
US Airways eliminating paper upgrade certs (DMUP01)
I received a notification today from US Airways--DMUP01 800-mile upgrade certificates, which were purchasable with miles and also issued for free periodically to Preferred status members, are being replaced with electronic 500-mile Dividend Miles "E-Upgrades".
Paper certs can be exchanged by mail at a favorable rate (4 for 1), or in person after 5 December at 3 for 1; until 31 January, after which the rate decreases to 2 for 1.
For Gold Preferred members, 16 E-Upgrades will be earned for every 10K miles flown and 20 for every 20K--the previous rate had been 4 paper certs for every 10K miles and 8 for every 20K, so the new rate is significantly better. It is not clear how soon E-Upgrades will expire or how many will be required for cross-country travel.
On the plus side, it will be possible to request upgrades at any time, although they will only be processed within the current time limits (24 hours for Silver Preferred, 72 hours for Gold Preferred).
I called US Airways reservations today, but their computers have not yet been updated with information about these E-Upgrades, and they were not taking advance upgrade requests yet.
Paper certs can be exchanged by mail at a favorable rate (4 for 1), or in person after 5 December at 3 for 1; until 31 January, after which the rate decreases to 2 for 1.
For Gold Preferred members, 16 E-Upgrades will be earned for every 10K miles flown and 20 for every 20K--the previous rate had been 4 paper certs for every 10K miles and 8 for every 20K, so the new rate is significantly better. It is not clear how soon E-Upgrades will expire or how many will be required for cross-country travel.
On the plus side, it will be possible to request upgrades at any time, although they will only be processed within the current time limits (24 hours for Silver Preferred, 72 hours for Gold Preferred).
I called US Airways reservations today, but their computers have not yet been updated with information about these E-Upgrades, and they were not taking advance upgrade requests yet.
Nov 18, 2002 | 10:27 pm
#2
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: DCA
Posts: 291
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum51/HTML/003754.html
P.S. Welcome to Flyertalk!
[This message has been edited by davohuang (edited 11-18-2002).]
P.S. Welcome to Flyertalk!
[This message has been edited by davohuang (edited 11-18-2002).]
Nov 20, 2002 | 7:18 am
#4
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Roanoke, VA US CP, Marriott Platinum , HH Gold, UA Prem
Posts: 25
Here's an even better side to this. I have a load of paper upgrades that recently became unnecessary when I hit Chairman level. I was going to turn them in for 500 miles a piece. Now, and I confirmed this after speaking with a US Air rep, I can send them in and get the 4 for 1 deal. So my upgrades multiplied from 35 to 140. Come January, you can then cash in unexpired e-upgrades for 500 a piece. This will give me 70,000 miles for 35 paper upgrades that would have been worth 17,500. One thing to be aware of though is that if you were already Chairman, you may not be offered this because, again according to US Air, Chairman will not have e-upgrade accounts. I may have just gotten lucky with my timing of promotion. I hope this can help out some of you.