US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Does Southwest's arrival in PHL further devalue our US DM mileage?

Now that we all are glad that WN is coming to PHL, let us get to the serious subject of the miles in our DM account!

I feel that the WN arrival in the PHL hub of US will further devalue my US mileage. At least in the near future ( that is the 2nd half of 2004) US will try to compete on the WN fares. It is quite possible that the value of PHL-LAS will be $198RT. At 25,000 miles(non-winter travel), that would mean that my miles will be worth .8 cents a mile as opposed to 1.6 cents a mile.

I think I will try to use the DM miles for non WN routes and cash them ASAP. I am not even sure what will happen by 2nd quarter of 2005.



[This message has been edited by MSP2000 (edited 10-29-2003).]

Yeah, but is this development far outweighed by US joining *A?

You're right, domestically, awards might not be worth as much, but think of the miriad of new international destinations that are going to be available for DM awards very soon.

Also look for double and tripple mileage bonuses on WN routes out of PHL. They will do this to retain customers

2x or 3x miles, plus US being forced to match Southwest fares on selected routes would be a very tasty proposition for US fliers indeed. PHL-LAX for $198 RT, plus 12,000 miles?

Get it while it's hot, because that won't be helping their liquidity one bit. Heck, I'd even fly US for that kind of fire sale.

I agree with dcmike. Save your miles for international routes. I jusr got a free biz ticket to Buenos Aires on United for March to burn 80K miles. Given that it's a 6600 dollar ticket and the flight is almost 11 hours, I am pretty happy.

You don't get perks like that on WN......

I would be more concerned about mileage evaporation than devaluation. In my opinion US is pretty much stuffed, cooked and ready for the fork. SW in PHL is the fork. Im suddenly not at all comfortable with hundreds of thousands of miles on US in my account.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by GadgetFreak:
I would be more concerned about mileage evaporation than devaluation. In my opinion US is pretty much stuffed, cooked and ready for the fork. SW in PHL is the fork. Im suddenly not at all comfortable with hundreds of thousands of miles on US in my account.</font>

You and me both! But what to do with the miles? We have a vacation planned for next year but it will still leave me with 200k miles. Looks like I put them up for bid on e-bay.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Tino:
PHL-LAX for $198 RT, plus 12,000 miles?
</font>

I was getting BUF-LAX at $189 in 2001, well before 9/11. This is not new.

Now SFO for that kind of money ...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by GadgetFreak:
I would be more concerned about mileage evaporation than devaluation. In my opinion US is pretty much stuffed, cooked and ready for the fork. SW in PHL is the fork. Im suddenly not at all comfortable with hundreds of thousands of miles on US in my account.</font>

you said it! horrible peak-quarter financials, AFTER ch. 11, followed by WN assaulting your prestige hub?
ouch. it becomes an end-game question of remnants-- who will buy the DM program and what value would the miles have in that scenario?

Not selling my miles on e-bay.

Question to everyone. Do you think if I made award reservations on LH or UA and US went Ch. 7, whether LH and UA would honor the tickets?

Also, from what I understand there are federal regulations requiring other airlines to honor tickets (for a nominal fee) from an airline that has ceased operations. If that is the case, does the operating airline have to honor them in the same class they were booked??

Any Ch. 7 experts out there??


<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by sassamanlaw:
You and me both! But what to do with the miles? We have a vacation planned for next year but it will still leave me with 200k miles. Looks like I put them up for bid on e-bay.</font>

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by NeoOfTheCRS:
Not selling my miles on e-bay.

Question to everyone. Do you think if I made award reservations on LH or UA and US went Ch. 7, whether LH and UA would honor the tickets?

Also, from what I understand there are federal regulations requiring other airlines to honor tickets (for a nominal fee) from an airline that has ceased operations. If that is the case, does the operating airline have to honor them in the same class they were booked??

Any Ch. 7 experts out there??


</font>

Randy has addressed this several times in Inside Flyer. It is not at all clear that AWARD tix need be honored. He actually wrote some Fed officials and they either blew him off or gave an ambiguous response. So there is no guarantee award tix would be honored IIRC.

I know this has been rehashed many times, but U gets no sympathy fropm me as it goes down the tubes - just where it sent my favorite, Piedmont.

I can tell you that I will be burning my 100K miles just soon as possible.

I wonder where the 'EA' Shuttle will end up? G*d forbid, not with UA. Those on the Coast know what a UA 'shuttle' flight is like!

Looks like the 'Six' will soon become 'Five'.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by NeoOfTheCRS:
Not selling my miles on e-bay.

Question to everyone. Do you think if I made award reservations on LH or UA and US went Ch. 7, whether LH and UA would honor the tickets?

</font>

you may wish to search the UA forum. I seem to recall talk when UA was more on the brink that said if your ticket is physically on the partner's ticket stock, they have to honor it, and if on your program's ticket stock then no. but that was back in December/January/February.



[This message has been edited by martin33 (edited 11-03-2003).]