Is there a forum where I can try to trade 80,000 UA miles for 80,000 UA Air miles. Since my kids right now have 100,000 US Air miles + 80,000 UA miles, if I could find somebody to trade their 80,000 UA miles for US Air miles then we can book them business class seats for their honeymoon. Probably impossible but I thought I'd try anyways.

There is NO forum on FlyerTalk for this. As a matter of fact, FlyerTalk prefers this type of trade not take place here since it is clearly against frequent flyer program rules.

Not quite as good as a trade, but if you have the time you can buy up to 20,000 AMEX Membership Rewards points per calendar month for a 2.5 cent per mile fee (i.e. all 80,000 would run you $2,000). You could buy 20k in each of November, December, January and February. Even with the expense of $2,000 you'd still be doing pretty good with two business class seats.

Buying AMEX points is a good idea (actually I'll only need 60,000 if we use US Air since we already have 100,000 miles); also finding the cheapest fare then using points to upgrade is also good advice.

Thanks all for your help.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by quiambao:
Buying AMEX points is a good idea (actually I'll only need 60,000 if we use US Air since we already have 100,000 miles); also finding the cheapest fare then using points to upgrade is also good advice.
</font>

You can't upgrade the cheapest fare! You need to buy at least a certain fare class, which I'm not sure what it is on US to be honest. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

How does one purchase AMEX points? Can it be done online?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by zrs70:
How does one purchase AMEX points? Can it be done online?</font>

No, it can't be done online. Take a look at these FT threads:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum69/HTML/000657.html

and

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum69/HTML/000657.html

There is a forum on here that loosely handles what you are trying to accomplish - the Coupon Connection.

What you need to do is basically say you have 80,000 UA miles that you're willing to 'donate' to someone. Since the airline FF program rules don't prevent you from issuing an award ticket in someone elses name, this is perfectly legal.

In return, you need to be comfortable that the other party will issue the 80,000 point USAirways award ticket for you, in your kid's name.

It's a gentleman's agreement, and you have no recourse, other than to flame the person on the boards, if they take your 80,000 UA points without returning the "favor" of issuing you tickets on US.

PHL

I did post a note on the Coupon Connection and I got an offer today which I responded to. Maybe we can use an intermediary or third party that we can send the gifted vouchers (???) to and if both don't arrive, then the exchange won't go through? I've asked for ideas on the Coupon Connection forum. It sounds like some people got taken with someone not honouring their end of the bargain.

Hope we can make this one work properly so as not to give a bad name to people who truly want to help.

Thank you for your help.