US Airways is officially a OneWorld member airline as of today, March 31, 2014.
This is simultaneously exciting and sad. They have a heck of a premium cabin award chart for travel on partner airlines, so on one hand it’s sad that Dividend Miles are no longer redeemable on Star Alliance carriers, but on the other hand it’s exciting that US Airways Dividend Miles can now be used for travel on OneWorld.
Anyway, one of the awesome aspects of the transition to OneWorld actually has nothing to do with redeeming US Airways miles for travel on OneWorld flights, but rather with redeeming OneWorld miles for travel on US Airways flights.
Specifically, British Airways has one of the most lucrative award charts for short-haul travel, given that it’s distance based. While they don’t formally publish a chart (instead they have a “calculator” on their website, the cost per award segment is as follows, depending on the distance you’re flying:
| Distance in Air Miles | Avios Cost in Economy | Avios Cost in Business | Avios Cost in First |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-650 | 4,500 | 9,000 | 13,500 |
| 651-1151 | 7,500 | 15,000 | 22,500 |
| 1152-2000 | 10,000 | 20,000 | 30,000 |
| 2001-3000 | 12,500 | 25,000 | 37,500 |
| 3001-4000 | 20,000 | 40,000 | 60,000 |
| 4001-5500 | 25,000 | 50,000 | 75,000 |
| 5501-6500 | 30,000 | 60,000 | 90,000 |
| 6501-7000 | 35,000 | 70,000 | 105,000 |
| 7001-10,000 | 50,000 | 100,000 | 150,000 |
No fuel surcharges for transatlantic US Airways flights
British Airways charges just 20,000 Avios for one-way economy class or 40,000 Avios for a one-way business class ticket for a segment of 3,001-4,000 miles, which covers virtually all of US Airways’ transatlantic routes to Europe (since they’re all out of their Charlotte and Philadelphia hubs).
Considering that US Airways charges 60,000 miles for a round-trip in economy, or 100,000 in business class, and doesn’t offer a discount for one-way redemptions, this can be a spectacular value.
The catch with redeeming Avios is that they do impose fuel surcharges on award tickets, so if the operating airline imposes fuel surcharges on revenue tickets, so does British Airways.
US Airways doesn’t impose fuel surcharges on tickets, so they’ll be a great option for transatlantic travel using British Airways Avios. The only other transatlantic partners on which British Airways doesn’t impose fuel surcharges are Aer Lingus and Air Berlin.
Meanwhile redeeming Avios for travel on an American transatlantic flight would incur fuel surcharges. This can be a bit confusing, as American doesn’t levy fuel surcharges on AAdvantage award tickets, but there is a fuel surcharge component to their revenue fares.
For example, a one-way New York > Zurich flight would cost you 40,000 Avios plus $448 in taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges.
And while I don’t find US Airways to have very good service internationally, they do have a really solid hard product, especially if you can get onto one of their A330 aircraft featuring the Envoy Suite.
US Airways Envoy Suite
Avios for short-haul redemptions are an amazing value
As I mentioned above, British Airways has a distance based award chart:
| Distance in Air Miles | Avios Cost in Economy | Avios Cost in Business | Avios Cost in First |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-650 | 4,500 | 9,000 | 13,500 |
| 651-1151 | 7,500 | 15,000 | 22,500 |
| 1152-2000 | 10,000 | 20,000 | 30,000 |
| 2001-3000 | 12,500 | 25,000 | 37,500 |
| 3001-4000 | 20,000 | 40,000 | 60,000 |
| 4001-5500 | 25,000 | 50,000 | 75,000 |
| 5501-6500 | 30,000 | 60,000 | 90,000 |
| 6501-7000 | 35,000 | 70,000 | 105,000 |
| 7001-10,000 | 50,000 | 100,000 | 150,000 |
What’s especially lucrative is their award chart for flights under 1,151 miles.
British Airways charges just 4,500 Avios one-way for an award of less than 650 flown miles, while they charge 7,500 Avios for an award between 651 and 1,151 miles one-way.
Due to the location of US Airways’ hubs on both the east coast (Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Washington) and out west (Phoenix), this opens up a ton of award opportunities at a reasonable cost.
Below are a few maps showing the cities within 1,151 miles from the hubs. The lighter circle are the airports within 650 miles, while the darker circle are the airports within 1,151 miles.
Here’s the map for Washington Reagan/National:
Avios Ranges From Washington Reagan/National
Here’s the map for Philadelphia:
Avios Ranges From Philadelphia
Here’s the map for Charlotte:
Avios Ranges From Charlotte
And here’s the map for Phoenix:
Avios Ranges from Phoenix
As you can see, that’s an amazing number of destinations that can be reached for a reasonable number of Avios.
Still best off using aa.com to search for US Airways award space
While the British Airways award search tool is probably the most thorough in OneWorld, it’s also one of the most cumbersome to use.
In general I’d recommend using American’s website to search US Airways award space, since they’ll show a calendar view of availability, and you can search routes for a month at a time (you can search an entire year of availability on a route in just a couple of minutes).
Then once you’ve found space you can go to ba.com to book, as availability should be the same.
Still some glitches on ba.com with displaying US Airways space
US Airways’ transition to OneWorld is just happening today, so not surprisingly there are some glitches with the transition.
Not all US Airways award space is showing up on britishairways.com yet, in particular for transatlantic routes. That being said, I expect it to be fixed soon, and the space should be bookable via the call center, for what it’s worth.
Also, rather amusingly, ba.com shows the Royal Jordanian logo next to US Airways flights on the award search tool, which I’m sure they’ll fix soon as well.
Bottom line
While the thing I’m most excited about with US Airways’ transition to OneWorld is being able to redeem Dividend Miles for travel on OneWorld carriers, it’s also really exciting to be able to redeem British Airways Avios for travel on US Airways.
Not only does US Airways have so many “sweet spot” routes, but the lack of fuel surcharges on transatlantic routes makes them a great option for transatlantic Avios redemptions as well.
(Tip of the hat to The Flight Deal for compiling the original list of US Airways routes | Maps generated by Great Circle Mapper)
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