ccm241

Anyone ever book through this? I am looking at honeymoons the week of June 20th somewhere in the Caribbean (top choice right now is probably Punta Cana - seems pretty affordable and the Teeth of the Dog golf course is a short ride away). I am not 100% clear on the exact mileage benefits of booking through the USAir site. Can anyone help here? Thanks!

apeortdz

I have done it a few times. Price it out both ways - sometimes it is a good deal and sometimes you are better off doing it separately (air and hotel). I believe that you do not get double miles on your credit card purchase through USV.

caseylalonde

I agree with ccm241. Price out all options before choosing to go with a USAirways vacation. Their trips to Vegas are usually priced well, but other locations I don't find real savings. I would go so far as to check against Expedia / Travelocity / Priceline, etc. AND with separate bookings for flight, hotel and car.

ccm241

Thanks for reply. Pricing on the trip seems to be pretty much a wash (no real benefit through USV). The kicker for me will be the miles. Anyone know what the mileage benefit would be if I book through USV and pay with my USMC?

aztimm

If you live in a major city, check out your newspaper's Sunday travel section. They regularly run ads for deals off of packages.

And if you're a Costco member, they use USV, so you get the Costco pricing AND you can usually work in the Sunday paper discount.

This is one time when it doesn't hurt to call either. They don't charge for vacation bookings...but they may try to upsell you.

I booked a Vegas vacation through them. For air + 3 nights at Bellagio, it was about the same as what Bellagio wanted for the nights alone. Was a no brainer.

neotope

I did the same but stayed at the Wynn and the deal was amazing. If I booked through the Wynn for four nights and through US for the airfare I would have paid double what I paid for the Vacation.

HereAndThereSC

Add me to the "great deal for LAS". I've priced air+hotel for cheaper than air alone at times.

HTSC

McGowan06

Pardon what is probably a silly question, but can I use Dividend Miles to book a hotel through US Airways Vacations? And assuming I can, is there a way to see how many miles I'd need to use on-line? Their site only seems to display pricing.

My fianc� and I are going to Maui for our honeymoon and would prefer to use miles for our stay (as we will have just paid for our wedding and funds will be relatively tight). We have already booked flights, so we don't need a full package.

I looked on Delta Vacations and it seems pretty easy to use miles to book on their site, but I would prefer to use US miles.

Thanks for any guidance.

GAC

Is it possible to select seats? Starting doing a reservation but backed out before payment because I did not see the option.

May just book the hotel directly and flights on their own so I can select exactly what I want.

Is going through Vacations going to be cheaper?

ekardz

i went to punta cana in may through the us vacations site. it was a good deal. if I priced around many different sites and combos, it came out to a max of $125 cheaper, but i DID GET double miles using my us air credit card. my girl and I both got upgraded to first class on the flight. I am platinum with US. airport transfers were included as well. I thought it was well worth it for all the amenities received.

ericcheung

if you are an elite and have the discount codes, very worthwile to use in an area where you would have booked off of expedia or hotels.com. painful to use site, but worth it if you can save a good amount of money.

Biggie Fries

Agree completely with ekardz and ericcheung ... You can get some worthwhile savings. I was seeing some stuff for this Fall 2 nights LAS 5-star hotels for 2 from PHL at like $660ai (with coupon).

As for seating, my recollection is that the issue is that US doesn't actually ticket the flights until about 10 days out. What this means in practice is that you should use regular booking to look inside cabin to make sure that things are not disastrous (no preferred seats if you are preferred, and so on). But the air prices through Vacations mimic for the most part the regular airfares, which means that if you are getting a low fare it is from a low fare bucket and seats are still plentiful. Anyhow, as soon as you book, you will get a confirmation e-mail; keep it somewhere so you have the confirmation number, because it will be useful in calling US to get them to give you seat assignments. They will do it right away -- no need to wait until official ticketing.

The ticketing thing means that the reservation does not show up in your US profile, but with the confirmation number (or even the flight number) you can look it up through Manage My Flight and be certain you are in the right seats. I think you can even move seats around.

Also, worst case: You buy the vacation and follow my steps, but I am mistaken, or you goofed up, or US is strangely truculent on seat assignment ... You can still cancel for full refund within 24-hr booking window (which functionally means through end of next day).

ellinj

Can you do mileage upgrades to F on these tickets? Also, are these tickets eligible for auto upgrade?

beachbrew

yes,
ive done auto upgrades on them before, but you have to call to get ticketed to assign your seats. I assume you can use miles as well, but dont know for certain

Shopfranceinc

Hello,
I couldn't find anything on this. We booked and fully paid for a trip to the Caribbean months ago. Today is my 7-day window for Chairman's upgrades. I called the desk and our flight reservation has not even been ticketed.
We have a US Airways Vacations confirmation number AND the separate actual flight record locator..but we have not been ticketed for the flight.
The agent told me they have their reasons for holding back on ticketing, but he wouldn't tell me what they are.
I asked him when he thought I'd be ticketed and he thought "about three days out"
That means a ticketed Platinum or Gold would get their upgrades first if they are available.
Does anyone have insight?
Thank you in advance.
Safe travels to all.