Fly BA plus other oneworld airlines? US Airways has the ideal promo for you

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Tomorrow is the day that US Airways quits Star Alliance and joins British Airways in the oneworld alliance. I will be doing a full article tomorrow on the new redemption options that will be available on US Airways.

In the meantime, US Airways has launched an interesting promotion that – for European flyers – is not so tricky to achieve.

US Airways promotion

The promotion is easy to follow. You need to sign up at any point between tomorrow (March 31st) and 30th June.

At the end of the promotion, you will receive a bonus based on the number of different oneworld airlines you have flown:

1 airline – 0

2 airlines – 500 miles

3 airlines – 2,500 miles

4 airlines – 5,000 miles

5 airlines – 15,000 miles

6 airlines – 25,000 miles

Note that US Airways does NOT count as a participating airline, although all of the other oneworld airlines do (the full list is here, affiliates are included.) Each airline only counts once, however many times you fly it.

You must obviously credit your flights to US Airways Dividend Miles to take part. Dividend Miles will merge with the American Airlines AAdvantage programme at some point in the next year, so this promotion is especially interesting if you have an AA account with some miles in it.

Personally, I would only bother with this if I was likely to hit 5 or 6 airlines. I would also want to be doing it on relatively short flights, in order to minimise the number of miles I need to commit to US Airways. (And, if you have BA status, remember that you will probably earn fewer miles in US Airways than you would with Avios, which drags down the value of the bonus.)

Five or six oneworld airlines is not an impossible target to achieve for a business traveller, though, especially as you have three full months to do it. Definitely worth thinking about if you are a serious road warrior.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

oneworld alliance partners

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Jo says:

30 Mar30 March 07:03

Do redemptions count or only full price cash tickets?
- Sandgrounder says:
  
  30 Mar30 March 08:12
  
  I would imagine they really shouldn’t but nothing would be lost by changing your FF no. after choosing seats etc.
- Rob says:
  
  30 Mar30 March 12:20
  
  Presumably cash tickets – although you would have nothing to lose by crediting a redemption to them, just in case.
Phillip says:

30 Mar30 March 07:44

Don’t forget TAM also joins OW formally tomorrow.
- Rob says:
  
  30 Mar30 March 12:19
  
  True. I haven’t given that much attention because it isn’t one a lot of people use, but I will do something in a couple of days. Bigger piece on US Airways tomorrow.
  - Londonbus says:
    
    30 Mar30 March 20:30
    
    TAM now makes South America a whole lot more do-able on Oneworld…
  - Phillip says:
    
    31 Mar31 March 06:55
    
    Agreed, but the reduced/non existent Fuel Surcharges are great. LHR-GRU in business is 60,000 Avios and £213 compared to BA’s 60,000 Avios and £393. Of course, my favourite redemption on TAM is JFK-GRU in FIRST at 75,000 Avios and £1!!!!
    - Phillip says:
      
      31 Mar31 March 07:02
      
      Also, flying out of Madrid or Frankfurt on TAM, only costs £22 or £55 respectively one way in taxes for redemptions in business. Even better than AB!
- John says:
  
  30 Mar30 March 12:32
  
  Wonder if there is any substance to the rumours of QF leaving.
  - Raffles says:
    
    30 Mar30 March 15:50
    
    Would be surprised. Emirates is not in an alliance so they won’t be following them anywhere. The EK relationship is also not going too well by all accounts. Why leave oneworld to be alone?
    - Phillip says:
      
      31 Mar31 March 06:58
      
      I think the recent changes to the QF Frequent Flyer, slashing the tier points earnt by flying with partners, particularly BA, CX and QR are an indication that they have no plans of leaving the alliance, but will try and make it unattractive for their members to fly other airlines particularly where QF flies the route.
Singing Dwarf says:

31 Mar31 March 11:17

I wonder what the cheapest combination of flights would be, in order to hit the 25k bonus….
- Phillip says:
  
  31 Mar31 March 19:05
  
  Depends on flexibility and time to spare – if indeed subsidiaries count, I would go with a routing along the lines of:
  
  LON-BCN (BA)
  BCN-MAD (IB)
  MAD-FRA (LA)
  FRA-VIE (HG)
  VIE-DUS (AB)
  DUS-LCY (BA CF)
  
  With the right combination, I reckon it can be had for £350-400. For example, you can get VIE-DUS-LCY on one ticket for £90.
  - Rob says:
    
    31 Mar31 March 21:11
    
    Very clever! I will try to work this into a post later in the week.
  - pazza2000 says:
    
    31 Mar31 March 23:14
    
    Really, that cheap for all of these segments? Certainly interesting…
    - Phillip says:
      
      1 Apr1 April 06:48
      
      LGW-BCN can be had for £45, while BCN-MAD for £39. The only issue is, if this will be a mileage run, you need to look for a date where most of those sectors are available at their lowest price.
Phillip says:

1 Apr1 April 09:37

I also managed to get 6 airlines for £380 over 16-19 May as follows:

LGW-AGP (BA)
AGP-MAD (IB)
MAD-FRA (LA)
FRA-HEL-BUD (BE Nordic and AY)
BUD-TXL-LHR (AB/BA)

If someone wants to plan a trip around Europe by June this is one great incentive to see a load of places and get a bonus at the same time. Each of the above sectors need to be booked separately to get the price, apart from those I listed together (AY/BE and AB/BA).

You can play about with Iberia and Iberia Express given that they will be classed as two separate airlines. Air Berlin and Niki often have connections that can get you from one airline to the other and the same with Finnair and Flybe Nordic. That’s already 6 airlines before you bring in BA. Remember that prices in Southern Spain are very competitive as both IB and AB have strongholds. IB express also fly from Madrid to Dublin so a short BA hop to come back to the UK. You can easily hit 5 airlines from just doing UK-Spain.

The big question is, do award tickets count???
- shorthauldad says:
  
  3 Apr3 April 14:50
  
  Are we certain that IB and IB Express count as separate airlines for the purposes of this promo?
  - Rob says:
    
    3 Apr3 April 15:30
    
    No. The wording is poor, when I first got it I couldn’t decide if affiliates were separate. I doubt it, though – I doubt US could tell BA Cityflyer from a BA flight for example.
    - shd says:
      
      4 Apr4 April 11:46
      
      In fact, more broadly, do we have any idea if what counts is purely the operating carrier?
      
      If I book a BA operated flight via an AA codeshare, will that credit correctly as BA (for the purposes of this promo)?
      
      What about an AA operated flight sold as a BA codeshare?
      - Rob says:
        
        4 Apr4 April 12:09
        
        Rules seem pretty clear that it is based on operating carrier, and this is – more broadly – what you find with oneworld in general when it comes to promotions and miles earning.
        
        To confuse things, Star Alliance often bases promotions on marketing carrier ….
shorthauldad says:

3 Apr3 April 13:25

Do we think that an IB marketed flight operated by VY would NOT count towards this promo?
- Rob says:
  
  4 Apr4 April 12:08
  
  Technically it shouldn’t because Vueling is not an affiliate of Iberia and it is based on operating carrier.
  - Phillip says:
    
    4 Apr4 April 13:28
    
    There is a clear note in the T&Cs that if the operating carrier is not a member of OW then it doesn’t count, regardless of the marketing carrier, and Vueling is not a member of OW.