Recent Additions to the Front Cabin Can Save Up to 74%
Here’s a great deal on First Class that is the result of more seat inventory and a new mileage upgrade program.[aside headline="American, Continental / United, and Delta Mileage Members" alignment="alignright" width="half" headline_size="default"]Even if you don’t have US Airways miles, you can take advantage of this increase in First Class inventory by transferring credit-card points from Starwood, or by buying miles directly from US Airways—which oftentimes has sales that amount to 1.75¢ per mile, or only $88 on one-way for shorter-haul upgrades![/aside]
For example, US Airways has added 26 First Class seats on its Newark and LaGuardia-Charlotte flight. Let’s take a March 5 departure: A First Class ticket is $1,258 including taxes. Under the new US Airways mileage upgrade program (as of Feb. 15) the flight miles for this route are 1,076 round-trip. For a First Class upgrade award ticket, that translates into costing 12,000 miles round-trip, a $100 co-pay, and buying an economy ticket, which currently starts at $228 (including taxes). You’ve just saved 74%—and it’s within reach: Our re-search shows that this route has favorable upgrade odds over the next 11 months in both directions.
The Back Story
On Jan. 9, US Airways announced that it had completed First Class installation on 110 regional jets. That added more than 900 First Class mileage seats to the domestic market. This means more upgrade and award inventory and more opportu-nities for elites to receive a free upgrade.US Airways now offers nine First Class seats on Embraer 170s and Canadair Re-gional Jet 700s and 900s, and eight First Class seats on Embraer 175s.
US Airways now offers nine First Class seats on Embraer 170s and Canadair Re-gional Jet 700s and 900s, and eight First Class seats on Embraer 175s.
US Airways Dividend Miles mileage mem-bers now have something to smile about because this notice came out shortly after the carrier announced that it was changing its upgrade award chart from zone to flight miles. The increase in seats and the change to flight miles, which means a decrease in mileage cost on many shorter domestic routes on which these regional jets fly, gives US Airways members more domestic First Class seats at a lower upgrade rate.
Link for more information on US Airways Express routes and US Airways New Upgrade Mileage program: