US Airways and AA getting both together
 

I am thinking of getting both the US Airways CC and an AA CC in hopes that when they combine their points programs much like when UA and CO did I can easily have a quick 70k point head start into the game. I have read that it may take 18 months for the programs to fully combine, which I am OK with.

Are there any risks of doing what I am thinking of? Other then they may not combine their points programs or it may take a while for the points to merge?

Thanks for any advice.

US Airways and AA getting both together
 

If you wait to burn them until the merger of the programs you don't know what they will be worth. Miles have proven to be a depreciating asset to earn them and spend them., IMHO.

While I agree with this, a lot of us are doing what OP suggested.

You could take either route on this: earn and burn (before any possible devaluation of miles occurs) or save the miles and combine them in the near future.

Myself, I would let the mile totals combine when the programs combine; that way you'll have a significant total that will give you a lot of options for travel.

Waiting for programs to merge...
 

I'm also thinking of the 2-for-1 bonus grab (AA+US), but the key questions is how long one would have to wait for programs to merge, providing the nice fat combined balance. Past airline mergers have shown that the overall timeline can span 2-3+ years, with loyalty program merger coming at about the 2 year mark (+/-, or course, & YMMV). ~ Any thoughts from serious pt-grabbing players on further downsides to this exploit?

You don't necessarily have to wait for the merger to fully complete. There's a big possibility (based on precedent with previous mergers) that long before the two FFPs are actually merged, they will create a way to let you link your AA and US accounts together and then transfer miles between them whenever you want.

With people sitting on "fat balances", I forsee a devaluation before they combine.

I booked all the flights I wanted for 2014 with my United miles before the depreciation and now i'm sitting on a combined 350k to 400k miles in US/AA. I'm happy that the merger will take some time and maybe up to 18 months because I plan to start burning my US/AA miles in 2015, hopefully before the depreciation comes.

I would think that would happen when the new program is introduced.

People have been sitting on "fat balances" for a long time. I don't see how there's anything special about "now" with respect to that.

More relevant, I would think, is that the main competition (DL and UA) have already devalued.

Plus they don't necessarily need to devalue; they can just limit redemption availability (which AA already has done to a degree, in the past couple years compared to before that).

Seems like they devalue after they have a lot of offers to buy points, which has been the case for AA and US the past few months.

My fear is a devaluation with AA/US as well. Last summer I got the Barclay US card for the signup bonus, once we are able to transfer miles between accounts I can combine and go for that F award on Qantas. Hopefully we are able to combine and I can book before a devaluation.

Looking to cancel either my Citi or Barclay card this summer once the annual fees on both are due. I am probably going to keep Barclays unless something changes before then. The 10k annual bonus plus companion certificate while I get no annual retention bonus with Citi seals the deal for Barclay.


Although when that devaluation comes I may just say enough with airline miles and go for a travel based bank card like Citi TYP, Capital One Venture, Barclay Arrival, etc and just make the only airline miles I earn BIS miles. If airlines get too greedy with the devaluations and people move to bank travel and other cashback cards and the huge revenue stream of banks buying miles and the airlines lose that cash cow they will regret all the devaluations. If people stop using airline cards that'll learn 'em. :td:

I will be waiting for the programs to combine. Already applied and approved for the US Barclays card, 50k AA card and the 100k AA card.

This merger has been in the works for a while.

Even though it was recently completed I don't think they ever stopped working on the merger even after the courts tried to stop it.

That being said I believe you will see a transfer US miles to AA option within a year