I received a notification today from US Airways--DMUP01 800-mile upgrade certificates, which were purchasable with miles and also issued for free periodically to Preferred status members, are being replaced with electronic 500-mile Dividend Miles "E-Upgrades".

Paper certs can be exchanged by mail at a favorable rate (4 for 1), or in person after 5 December at 3 for 1; until 31 January, after which the rate decreases to 2 for 1.

For Gold Preferred members, 16 E-Upgrades will be earned for every 10K miles flown and 20 for every 20K--the previous rate had been 4 paper certs for every 10K miles and 8 for every 20K, so the new rate is significantly better. It is not clear how soon E-Upgrades will expire or how many will be required for cross-country travel.

On the plus side, it will be possible to request upgrades at any time, although they will only be processed within the current time limits (24 hours for Silver Preferred, 72 hours for Gold Preferred).

I called US Airways reservations today, but their computers have not yet been updated with information about these E-Upgrades, and they were not taking advance upgrade requests yet.