Should I Get The Barclaycard US Airways Mastercard In Anticipation Of Converting US Airways Miles To American Miles?
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TPG Twitter follower Jay Gatsby tweeted me this week with a question on a lot of readers’ minds:
“@thepointsguy What do you think about opening the Barclays US Airways card – will miles convert 1:1 to AA soon?”
It’s a very good question that a lot of us are wondering about since the American-US Airways merger officially went through on Monday and Doug Parker, who was the CEO of US Airways is already managing the new combined airline, and we should start seeing changes coming down the pike soon.
However, it’s possible that Barclaycard could consider offering the US Airways Mastercard for a while yet, and we haven’t heard anything concrete yet, but to my thinking, Citi will continue to offer the range of American Airlines cards and Barclaycard will continue to offer the US Airways one for a while as the airlines continue to operate as separate airlines.
That said, at some point in time the US Airways Dividend Miles program will cease to exist as we know it, and will become part of American AAdvantage, and all those Dividend miles will become AA miles.
In fact, around January 7, you should start to be able to earn and redeem US Airways miles on American, and vice versa, and then at the end of March, US Airways will officially exit Star Alliance and join Oneworld on March 31, 2014, so you won’t be able to redeem US Airways miles on Star Alliance carriers at that point, but you will be able to redeem on Oneworld airlines like British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas.
That’s the general timeline, but if you’re thinking about getting the US Airways Mastercard, I would recommend doing it now while it’s still available for sure, because though it might be around for a little while, it may not be around that much longer. There could also be a point at which Barclaycard and US Airways still honor the card and its mileage earning, but will not be accepting new applications, so that’s something to keep in mind.
So the card is still out there and earning US Airways miles for now, but just keep in mind that those miles (as well as any you earn by flying) will eventually become AA miles as more details of the new airline come out and the merger progresses.
For more information on the merger, its progress and what you can expect, check out these posts:
Official US Airways Oneworld Join Date – March 31, 2014
A Rundown of Things to Come With the New Post-Merger American Airlines
Official American US Airways Merger Announcement and What It Means For Consumers
How To Prepare for a US Airways American Airlines Merger
Maximizing a Potential US Airways American Airlines Merger
The Potential Winners and Losers of an American Airlines US Airways Merger
American Chooses Citi As Post-Merger Credit Card Partner
Top 10 Reasons I Don’t Want a US Airways American Merger To Go Through
US Justice Department Suing to Block American US Airways Merger
DOJ Settles With American: Merger Moves One Step Closer to Approval
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