Here's my situation - I have scheduled a June flight to Key West from Illinois - I would like to go first class from ORD to MIA - I have 6460 miles in AA and just got the first 5000 from the switch to MCI - here's the tough one - I have 4600 hanging out in Membership Rewards - but AA is not a participant - but USAir now is - my question - can I switch the 4600 from AmEX to USAir - then switch those to AA - then, will they let me purchase a first class upgrade one way??? AA charges 30K for a roundtrip upgrade (says the woman on the phone) but the membership publication does say 15K one way.

Is this going to work???? Any other ideas???

I believe this is possible. Check out the following part of US Airways' web site:

http://www.usairways.com/dividend/earn/airlines/combining.htm.

Combine your miles and you've arrived. Simply take the miles
from your Dividend Miles and your AAdvantage® accounts and
combine them for use on one or both airlines. We've streamlined
the entire process, with no paperwork to fill out or applications to
complete.

It would seem that all you have to do is put your AmEx points into your US Airways account and then combine them with you AAdvantage miles to get the award.

I hope this is correct. Let's see if some regular US Airways flyers (unlike myself) can verify this for us ...

Sorry, American miles can only be used on US Air for certain select awards, which only include free tickets, and cannot be combined toward other awards, including upgrades. Don't know how else you can accomplish this.

Djlawman

EMD: Ditto. Miles from US Airways can only be used in conjunction with AA miles for award travel, not upgrades, etc.

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Drats - foiled again!