US Airways Dividend Miles - New to this - does my strategy seem OK?

Hi all - I'm brand new to this hobby and am hoping I can get some feedback on how I'm doing. I'm currently in a gap year between leaving my career and going back to school, so I'm going to have a lot of free time but I'm also going to have to be doing a lot of traveling and hotel stays for interviews. I'm also having to spend a lot of money on applications. So I figured this is a good time to try to get some good out of all of that!

My ultimate goal is to go to Japan in the Spring / Early summer with my significant other (simply because I hope to have earned enough points by then - my timing is flexible and I can go pretty much anytime next year.) From the research I've done, it seems like US Air is the best bet for getting to Asia, so I'm focusing my efforts there.

Since I'm going to be applying for student loans next year, I don't want to do a lot of credit card applications, since I'm worried about damaging my credit. I know that significantly limits my ability to get miles, but I am more interested in simply getting to Asia than I am in flying business or first, though obviously that would be nice. I did get the Starwood AmEx and am using that for every purchase that I can.

I'm purchasing everything that I can online through the US Airways portal, when I can get free shipping. I signed up for the dining rewards program, and I plan to participate in Grand Slam for the maximum number of miles possible if they have it this year. I will try to book all the flights I have to take on US Air or a US Air partner. I'll also obviously keep an eye on any promotions that US Air runs and try to participate when it makes sense financially.

Does this seem like a good strategy that will get me to my goal? Am I missing anything major? Thanks so much for any advice or suggestions.

Not sure how you determined that us air is your best bet to Asia. Keep in mind that one main complaint of us air is the lack of award availability. My advice is to go with united. You can still credit us air flight to the united account. United has more award availability.

Good luck in the job hunt.

I may be wrong (school is becoming a distant memory), but for school loans, particularly from fed programs, I don't think credit scores are much of an issue, so I wouldn't worry too much about opening a couple cc accounts if needed. I think eligibility is determined more from needs/income,i.e. how much you can contribute to financing your education.

But, as I said, it's been a while, and non-Fed programs may be more focused on credit profiles, so cc sign-ups could be an issue there.

Good luck!

Thanks for this - I had read a lot of posts saying that the Star Alliance was the best to get to Asia. I will look into United some more.

I have not had any problems using US DM miles on *A partners for Asia. For the last 5 or 6 years, I find redemptions on Asia routes are so much easier and more readily available than Europe. As a matter of fact, few days ago, I just booked a round trip PHX-SFO-ICN-HAN-ICN-SFO-PHX on US/OZ for Nov 2012, just around two months away!

I did make a mistake a couple of years ago booking award travel to Asia on UA and I've promised myself not to do that again. The hard/soft products on TG, SG, OZ etc. are much more superior!

First, you don't need to worry about CCs affecting your student loan eligibility. But before getting a CC you need to decide which alliance you will use.

Best service to Asia is on CX (OW), JL(OW), SQ (*A), OZ(*A). So, if you live in the US, you would be choosing between UA, US, and AA. There is a small chance that US and AA merge. If they do, the resulting airline will be in OW.

To make a good decision, you need to also consider your home airport and your domestic travel patterns - some hubs are more convenient than the others.

I have managed to get award flights to Asia in business class within a couple of months of the trip on US twice. Both times I was working with fixed dates (leave on a Sunday return on a Thursday) so I would not worry about USDM availability to Asia.
US only required 90K for those trips, UA would have wanted 120K.

. . .US only required 90K for those trips, UA would have wanted 120K.

I believe you are comparing apples with oranges. *A J awards from North America to North Asia is 90k regardless of the carrier. If you try to fly on UA using UA miles, that's MP J award, not a *A J award. And, btw, DM award rates are even worse than MP's.

Why don't you (1) figure out how many miles you'll need for the trip and (2) work back from there, figuring out how many miles you'll be getting per month and for one-time things?

I'd get both an airline credit card, giving a big chunk of miles when you first use it, plus an AmEx or Chase Ultimate Rewards as well. That should give you maybe 50-60,000 or more miles.

I may be wrong (school is becoming a distant memory), but for school loans, particularly from fed programs, I don't think credit scores are much of an issue, so I wouldn't worry too much about opening a couple cc accounts if needed.

Good luck!

I can confirm that the federal loans you would most likely as a student are not credit contingent (private lenders are another story). If you are using federal loans, don't worry about the credit card application. You may want to actually get a few cards before you begin because they will be much more difficult to get when you are a underfunded student. Good luck with the last big run before school starts. From experience as someone who went back later in life, enjoy that last trip before school takes over everything ;)

I may be wrong (school is becoming a distant memory), but for school loans, particularly from fed programs, I don't think credit scores are much of an issue, so I wouldn't worry too much about opening a couple cc accounts if needed. I think eligibility is determined more from needs/income,i.e. how much you can contribute to financing your education.

But, as I said, it's been a while, and non-Fed programs may be more focused on credit profiles, so cc sign-ups could be an issue there.

Good luck!

For Stafford and Perkins loans there is no credit check, the only way a student would be disqualified is if he or she is currently in default on another federal education debt.

PLUS loans are also a federal program but does require a credit check. That being said, the APR is the same no matter what and your FICO score doesn't have anything to do with it. For PLUS loans, they're most concerned about bankruptcy, chargeoffs, foreclosures, etc... Merely having a late payment or a high debt to income ration won't cause problems.