New US Airways Credit Card Competes with Old US Airways Card
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US Airways and credit card issuer Barclays today announced the launch of the US Airways Premier World MasterCard with Dividend Miles Select – from Barclays Bank Delaware, which allows cardholders to earn free US Airways flights. What’s particularly noteworthy about the announcement is that US Airways already has a Dividend Miles credit card, issued by Bank of America.
When US Airways and America West Airlines merged in 2005, a new credit card deal was struck with Barclays Bank, even though Bank of America had previously been contracted to issue credit cards in partnership with both of the merging airlines. While Bank of America has pursued legal action to stop the arrangement, US Airways has moved forward with its new partner, while at the same time continuing to have Bank of America issue the US Airways card for the next two years.
Based on the particulars of today’s announcement, and the side-by-side benefit comparison at the US Airways site, it’s easy to see that the new card issued by Barclays is preferred by the airline. The Dividend Miles World MasterCard is offering no annual fee for the first two years (the US Airways Visa from Bank of America has a $90 fee), 1.5 miles on every dollar charged, plus triple miles on US Airways purchases (compared to 1 mile per dollar and double miles on airline purchases with the Bank of America card), plus a bonus of up to 10,000 miles on balace transfers.
In addition, the new World MasterCard is offering a 50-cent flight promotion to lure in new customers, or have existing customers switch cards. Fifty-cent flights will be available on a first come-first serve basis and only to US Airways World MasterCard cardmembers. According to today’s press release, details of that promotion can be found at http://www.50centflights.com, but that URL returned an error page on our visit.
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