suspire

I am new to US Airways, so I apologize if this is an obvious question. I tried to search for information, but I didn't see any clear answers.

I'm trying to travel from Newark, NJ to Indianapolis, Indiana on August 13th and returning on August 19th.

US Airways has it as 12,500 miles going and 30,000 miles returning for a total of 42,500.

However, via United I see I can do it for 10,000 each way.

Since I have US Airways miles, I can I book the flight through US Airways on United for the 10k each way award ticket (total of 20k miles)? If so, do I just call US Airways to book the ticket?

I did notice that US Airways lists its partner award tickets at 25,000 for domestic economy class. Is the locked in as 25,000 on all available partner award tickets? And is that round-trip or each way?

Sorry for the newbie questions and I appreciate the help in advance.

FlyIgglesFly

Nope. The mileage requirements are different for each airline. It may be 10,000 each way using UA miles...but using US miles it's 25,000. And that 25,000 is round trip on US, as they only do round trip awards. On UA you can get one-way awards.

suspire

Okay. But I can book the flight on United via US Airways? And it'll cost me 25,000 US Airways miles? Because that'll still be cheaper, mileage-wise, than if I booked it on US Airways itself for 42,500 miles.

FlyIgglesFly

You have two choices here: Use UA miles at the prices listed for flights on their site, or use US miles at the prices listed for flights on their site.

treznor

suspire: The reason the US flight is more is that they offer more seats at the higher levels. The 25k option on another carrier would only have availability for whatever flights have the low level awards (as set by that carrier). Still, if you can find availability on UA that's a decent option.

Also, if this is something you do often, the US credit card would be a good option for you. It gives you 5k off per award booking, regardless of its a 25k domestic award or if its a 150k international first class booking. 5k off of 25k isn't too shabby

whytravelsomuch

Not completely correct. The OP can use US miles at US mileage levels to book the UA flights which would be a 25,000 mile award.

suspire

Thanks! Does this also apply to award flights booked on Star Alliance? So in the scenario where I want to us US miles to book a US flight, would it then cost 20k US miles rather than 25K?

whytravelsomuch

The discount only applies to US Airways awards only

FlyIgglesFly

Yes, but my point was you can only book with US miles at US prices, not US miles at UA prices.

Heels05

Yes, it sounds like it would be better to book on UA metal. It also sounds like low level availability is bookable. I'd call US Airways and say you want to book an award ticket. Give them the UA flights you want and you should be charged 25,000 plus tax.

Superguy

To keep it short:

US miles can be used one of two ways: for US awards and Star Alliance awards.

US has multiple levels of awards. They tend to be stingy on the low side, favoring medium and high awards. As others have said, the DM MC gives you a 5k discount.

UA is more generous with availability, and can be booked thru *A awards. They can only be booked by phone, so expect to be dinged the call center fee plus any other fees if you're not gold or above (and at that point, is using miles really worth it?).

IME, US tries to dump people on to UA flights domestically so they can sell the seats instead of giving a freebie.

If you have UA miles, I'd suggest using those for this trip instead of US miles, as it'll be cheaper for you.

USAIRCHAIRMAN

When you book codeshare award tickets with US, it is flat milage price. Therefore: Tickets available on UA for 10k/ew cost 25k RT and tickets that cost 50K on UA are STILL just 25k. Its a flat price. There are no high/low days

USAIRCHAIRMAN

This is a tricky topic. Please note that if you dont have UA miles, you CANNOT book with UA. You MUST call US. MUST. And as I said theres no high/low days, its a flat rate. Thus, it'll be 25k miles to use US miles and fly UA

suspire

Thanks for all the good advice guys.

McSam18

Not to highjack the thread, but I have a question about mileage prices when redeeming USDM miles for UA flights.

For instance, the UA flights I'm interested only have 50k one way Standard Awards available. Does that mean I'd be coughing up 100k USDM miles for a roundtrip Standard Award on UA?