US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Mileage balance

Out of curiosity, anyone carrying muti-millions of miles in their bank.

The AA forum got into a discussion of outstanding balances and there were several with millions of miles in the bank. Some AA folks are at 5-7 million miles lifetime (yikes).

I should hit a million this year.

Currently at a little over 880 K.

My problem is I keep earning and don't do any burning.

Burned 250K in the last 6 months....have about 500K in the bank.

BURN BABY BURN!!!! Why hold on to those miles? They aren't gaining mileage interest. I've burned 300,000 this year already. I have very grateful friends too.

Once USAirways joins the *Alliance the current low award redemption we enjoy is going to increase. So why not use your miles now and get more for them? Because those same trips this time next year are going to cost you more miles.

I personally try to earn and burn moderately and when I need to take the trips. I currently have about 500K in my US acct (feeling safe about these right now...) my UA account is about 50K, and my DL acct is at 250K.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by trvlr64:
Once USAirways joins the *Alliance the current low award redemption we enjoy is going to increase. So why not use your miles now and get more for them? Because those same trips this time next year are going to cost you more miles.

</font>

The only place we know it will increase is for domestic awards, right? From 20 to 25K. And based on the *A award chart, there are airlines that have lower mileage redemption levels within their home region (for example, itineraries wholly on BD w/in Europe) so it's not impossible that US awards might stay at 20K.

I'd argue the opposite in fact, that this is NOT the time to burn US miles just to get rid of them. With *A, there will be a huge world of mileage redemption opportunities that provide far more value to those of us w/large mileage balances.

For example, I just booked 2 120K business class awards using my UA miles as follows:

- LH PHL-FRA-MAA (Madras, India)
- SQ MAA-SIN-HKG
- SQ HKG-SIN (one day layover in SIN)
- SQ SIN-CDG, US CDG-PHL.

For those who know how good SQ's Raffles class product is, you know what amazing value this award is.

It's a lot better use of my miles than buring them all on domestic tickets or even tickets to Europe... For those who fly to many corners of the world, it's worth thinking carefully about BURNING too quickly. Even if you do get out more, the miles are painfully earned. It's not worth throwing them away.

Remember, if all goes well, you'll soon be able to use your miles on:
UA, LH, SK, BD, OS, TG, SQ, NH, OZ, VG, NZ, and I'm sure some others that I've missed. That's a lot better than the current world!

[This message has been edited by kv99 (edited 04-18-2003).]

kv99......what I find curious is why would anyone have over 1 million miles and not use them? I used to watch my miles accumulate and get a sort of giddy high knowing how much I have flown over the years. But lord, I woke up! Having 1 million dollars is preferred to a million frequent flyer miles!! What do they get for you sitting in some computer at the airline? Besides when USAirways went into BK I started to get worried I'd loose all those miles. Now that they are out, great! And with *A around the corner even better. But until that time, I have decided to use my miles for myself and friends and family and we have already and will continue to enjoy some very nice free trips (internationally of course).

And with the current state of affairs with USAirways here at PIT, I am going to enjoy redeeming those miles on the *A partners knowing I gained them all by flying USAirways.




[This message has been edited by trvlr64 (edited 04-18-2003).]

About 1M lifetime, but only 220K in the bank. I'll burn most of those when I redeem some Star alliance rewards. They'll be worth waiting for.

&lt;message deleted&gt;

[This message has been edited by RichS (edited 04-18-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kv99:

I'd argue the opposite in fact, that this is NOT the time to burn US miles just to get rid of them. With *A, there will be a huge world of mileage redemption opportunities that provide far more value to those of us w/large mileage balances.
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That's my current perspective also. Even with burning 450K last year, I have 1.2M.

I couldn't even justify flying the family to SAN for July 4th with miles when flights were only $195 each, so there's an opportunity lost.


Once *A goes through, we'll be looking for vacations around the world. For example, MrsGP was in Shanghai in November, Norway in Feb, and has to be in Stockholm/Latvia in June. US Miles do me diddly-squat for taking a long weekend to join the tail end of these trips. (I don't think I can use US miles on a US codeshare with SAS) If US joins *A, I'm assuming I can enjoy at least some of these mini-vacations.

Ch11 worried me a bit, that I might lose all those miles, but I'm now happy I held on to them.

about 370k in the bank; burned 110k in the last six months.

planning to burn most of the rest of them when *a materializes

In the past two years, I've burned thru almost 500k miles.

This has been in a combination of Envoy awards, US20s aplenty before I became CP, and bankruptcy paranoia. I burned down to about 100k at a point.

I can very easily see running up to a million miles. I'm glad I burned thru mine when I did, regardless of the fact that US made it out of bankruptcy (for now).

------------------
Saving the world, one clue at a time.

I haven't burned any of my 350K miles.

#1 - I am not flying that much this year, so, to hold on to CP status for next year when I will be flying again, I am paying for several vacation trips out of my own pocket.

#2 - I do give up my seat when I can and get vouchers. I do use those as they do expire.

#3 - Between #1 and #2 there is no time left right now for using miles. I am really enjoying being HOME for awhile. I bet this is the biggest reason why heavy business travellers do not burn miles much. But I sure do intend to, one day :-]

I got a last second upgrade (you know, the kind where they wade back into a crowded, sweaty Coach and say, "Mr. Producer, would you like an upgrade?" and then you TRY to humbly walk through the stares of jealousy. Those make it all worthwhile). Anyway, the guy next to me in 1C said that miles you have in the bank are one of the tiebreakers when you're on the list w/ other CP's.
Since then, I'm in less of a rush to burn.
I LIKED that walked from 12A to F, and, if my 500k might help pull me out of Steerage again, I'll keep the account increasing.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by producer:
Anyway, the guy next to me in 1C said that miles you have in the bank are one of the tiebreakers when you're on the list w/ other CP's.</font>

I've never heard that. In fact, I've been told it had no impact.

A few times (years ago), I asked gate agents if they could look up my mileage balance, and they said they didn't have access to it. Things may have changed as I know they switched systems a few years back.

Anyone know?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by producer:
I got a last second upgrade (you know, the kind where they wade back into a crowded, sweaty Coach and say, "Mr. Producer, would you like an upgrade?" and then you TRY to humbly walk through the stares of jealousy. Those make it all worthwhile). </font>


I had that happen to me once. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by producer:
I got a last second upgrade (you know, the kind where they wade back into a crowded, sweaty Coach and say, "Mr. Producer, would you like an upgrade?" and then you TRY to humbly walk through the stares of jealousy. Those make it all worthwhile). Anyway, the guy next to me in 1C said that miles you have in the bank are one of the tiebreakers when you're on the list w/ other CP's.
Since then, I'm in less of a rush to burn.
I LIKED that walked from 12A to F, and, if my 500k might help pull me out of Steerage again, I'll keep the account increasing.</font>


The guy in 1C may have meant well but he is dead wrong. Upgrades from the standby list are prioritied first by status and within status by time of checkin.

I recall a time back when I was Gold and the gate agent told me that, because I was at 62k currently and the other Gold on the list was at 57k, I was higher on the list.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by producer:
I recall a time back when I was Gold and the gate agent told me that, because I was at 62k currently and the other Gold on the list was at 57k, I was higher on the list.</font>

That reminds me of an incident I had in CLT a few years ago. There were MX problems with the plane we were scheduled to depart on. They changed it from an A320 to A319 which decreased F/C by 1 row. Of course I was assigned to 4C. They agents informed the PAX that since it was a change of a/c they would have to reseat some of us. Well they forgot about me until it was boarding time. When the gate agent boarding the plane looked at my ticket his eyes got real wide and he asked me to go to the gate agents to get reseated. No problem. When I handed my ticket to the agent behind the counter she stopped and said to her coworker that there was a problem. He asked what was wrong and she pointed out that the lady he was working with and myself were both to be seated in F/C. He looked up our DM profiles and said......"he pays the rent, she's just going along for the ride".

You should have seen the evil eye I got from this other PAX when she walked past me as she headed towards coach. OUCH! LOL




[This message has been edited by trvlr64 (edited 04-20-2003).]

Absolutely incorrect. Upgrades, as gardener says, are definitely by status and then check-in times. I've been on the list above other equal-elite passengers (colleagues) with more miles than me and still made it to the front while they went to coach. I also had the discussion with the agents before who confirm mileage has nothing to do with upgrade queue.

If it did, they should be looking at lifetime mileage rather than what's in the bank. What if I had 2M lifetime mileage, but also a moderate burn rate and only had 25K in the bank?! Not a very true representation of my lifetime business with them, and thus, not a good way to judge which CP/GP/SP gets ahead of the other.

I have 900K in the bank and am burning them as fast as I can. The problem is, about 50K new ones show up each month.

Once I get to 300k, I burn....

Then when I get to about 125k... I earn.

Ended my mileage-earning balance on USAirways at around 900k. I am currently at about 120k, and like geo, I am holding those. Even with mileage inflation I figure I can get two people somewhere domestically in an urgent situation using those miles.

Besides as a fallback my wife has 350k USAirways miles of her own, not to mention 700k I have on American. Stil earning faster than I can burn them, which is better than the other way around http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Burned 300K within the last year. Sitting on 320K. I wish US did lifetime miles so I could be permanent Gold http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif.

Have 180K in AA and 38K in UA.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by producer:
I recall a time back when I was Gold and the gate agent told me that, because I was at 62k currently and the other Gold on the list was at 57k, I was higher on the list.</font>

This is bogus -- I've never heard this about US.

There are cases on UA in some of their Asian stations, however, (HKG is esp. known for this), where they will look at YTD status miles to break ties.

In any case, it would NEVER be based on how many actual miles you have in the bank.

This is true. On the day of departure if there are 2 CPs waiting for an upgrade...it is supposed to go to the member who has more miles.

Not only was I told this by a supervisor, I had it hapen to me.

I sent an email to Mike Isom(Director of Marketing Programs at USAirways) at 5:56pm EDT today with this very question. He wrote back at 10:43pm with the response that mileage balance has NOTHING to do with upgrade priority.

Firstly, I'm VERY impressed and pleased at his prompt, late night response. Especially because I had gotten back an earlier auto-response that he's out of the office until 4/23. Maybe he responded via a Blackberry. Maybe he keeps his email on when out of the office so he doesn't get too far behind upon his return. Maybe his Admin. Assistant(assuming he has one) responded on his behalf. In any event, it impressed the he11 out of me.

More importantly, his response confirms what many of us believe - mileage does NOT enter the equation on the airport upgrade list.

I did suggest to him that the agents are made aware that mileage balances should not be a deciding factor in any way, shape or form when a decision comes down to two equal-elites. I, personally, haven't had this issue. But some of you apparently have run into this issue, so now you can refer them to their Director of Marketing to ignore mileage balances......

The CP package stated in the terms and conditions that "Standby priority is based on membership level and time of check-in. Thanks PHL for getting the info from the horses --umm- mouth.