Interested in going to any of the following? Afghanistan, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Mongolia, Russia, S. Korea, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan?  What about to Europe?

US Airways is currently having a promotion awarding double miles for all miles purchased.  Normally I don’t recommend purchasing miles because the purchase rate on miles is abysmal and availability of award seats can be spotty.  However, with the benefit of this promotion the value proposition changes greatly.  While that doesn’t do much for inherent nature of limited availability on award tickets; it does become possible to get a real cheap business class ticket if you have some flexibility in your departure/return dates and routing.  Remember, the key for any award ticket is to be FLEXIBLE.

A roundtrip USA-North Asia (and vice versa) ticket using US Airways miles on a Star Alliance carrier is currently 90k miles + tax.  Currently each mile costs $0.0275 and due to the promotion, the cost is cut in half.  The offer is limited to the first 50,000 miles purchased (which can net you a maximum of 100,000 miles).  So the math for a RT Asia ticket is as follows:

(90,000*.0275)/2= $1237.50 plus sales tax and ticketing taxes for a Business class ticket from the USA to the aforementioned countries!  Normally a business class ticket to Asia would go for about $3000!

Now, if your desired destination is another country in the Southern Asia Pacific region, you can fly into Hong Kong, Taipei, or Macau and fly elsewhere using a low cost carrier such as Air Asia or Tiger Airways.

If you want to fly into Europe, the mileage cost is 100k miles or (100,000*.0275)/2= $1375+taxes.

Now while using miles to purchase a coach ticket is a waste, using this promotion to snag a premium class award ticket makes this promotion a steal.  Essentially to fly to Asia, you’re only paying a few hundred in premium for a round trip ticket to fly business versus a paid coach ticket.  The premium –for me– is well worth it.   My jetlag is reduced because I can actually lay out and sleep and add to the fact that I probably can drink my body weight in champagne and scotch makes this a steal.

Here is a link to the current award chart to see if you can find any other deals.

Enjoy the champagne and don’t forget to write me postcards