My Experience Using a US Airways Card Companion Certificate

Most people just sign up for the Barclays US Air Card, make one purchase to get the sign up bonus, and then throw it in the sock drawer never to be seen or heard from again (until cancellation time of course). While I must admit that I’m somewhat like that, I recently used my care to redeem the little used companion certificate that comes annually with the card and thought I’d share my experiences here.

Options for getting from Boston to Charlotte

Our family was looking to take a trip down to Charlotte for a few days. We had a few options:

1) Pay with cash

2) Book an award ticket using British Airways Avios on US Airways flights

3) Use the Barclays US Air card’s companion certificate

To be honest, I was hoping to use Avios to get down to Charlotte, since it would have cost 15,000 Avios + $10 per person (or we could have done a cash + Avios booking). Unfortunately, there were no direct flights available on US Airways so that option went out the window since Avios are strictly distanced based. Taking a connection would not only have cost more miles, but it also something we didn’t want to consider since we are taking Baby M along.

So that left the choices down to paying with cash or paying with the companion certificate. Ultimately I chose the latter, and as of this writing, it saved me a few bucks, although there is of course always the chance that the price will drop before we travel. Since our travel date is pretty soon I’m not too worried about that but it’s always a possibility.

Details of the companion certificate

Here are the details of the companion certificate, which enables you to pay for one full price round trip ticket and fly two other people for $99 each plus taxes:

1. There is a “book by” date and a “travel by” date, this is indicated on the physical certificate that is mailed to you.

2. The companion certificate is only valid on roundtrip flights within the continental United States.

3. The ticket is only valid if you’ve used your card before (which you should have done if you were trying to get the sign up bonus).

4. Ticketing must be 14 days before departure, so no last minute usage.

5. Stay requirements are a minimum of 2 nights and a maximum of 30. Blackout dates apply and are listed on the certificate. For 2014 the blackout dates are May 22, 23; Jun 19, 20, 22, 26, 27; Jul 6, 7, 27; Aug 3; Oct 10, 19; Nov 30; Dec 1, 19, 20, 26, 27, 28. There are also some city specific blackout dates.

6. The fare before taxes must be greater than $250.

7. Once booked, the tickets are non-refundable and subject to a $200 change fee. I was also told the 24 hour cancellation policy did not apply to companion certificates although I didn’t get a chance to confirm this because I didn’t try to cancel.

8. Miles can be accrued for Dividend Miles only (US Air). I got my certificate before the merger so I’m not sure about AA yet. It’s also not clear to me whether the companion accrues mileage.

9. You can only fly on US Airways metal for the entire journey.

With the details out of the way, booking the companion certificate is fairly straightforward.

Booking the companion certificate

To book the companion certificate, you must call US Airways Reservations at 1-800-428-4322. When I finally was connected to an agent, she seemed quite familiar with how to do this. You first start by discussing the city pairs you are flying between. My agent asked me if there was a particular flight I wanted to be on – I’d recommend you do your research beforehand to save time. I knew which flight I wanted because I had found it on ITA Matrix beforehand. To search US Airways flights only on ITA matrix, just use the advanced routing code “US+”. That tells ITA matrix to search only US Air flights with any number of connections.

After you have searched, you need to look for flights that cost MORE than $250. This gets complicated, because the fare ITA Matrix gives you includes taxes and fees, but for the companion certificate to be valid the fare must be greater than $250 BEFORE taxes and fees. I didn’t know this beforehand, so the flight I fed the agent actually wasn’t expensive enough (by one dollar!). We ended up finding another one with better timing that was only $20 more expensive but it still was a bit of a bummer. Anyway, to find the fare before taxes and fees, just click on the details of the flight that you want to check. You basically want to add up the sum of “Fare 1” and “Fare 2”.

In this example, the fare before taxes and fees is $107.91 + $107.91 = $215.82 so it is NOT eligible for the companion certificate. Taxes and fees generally seem to be about $30-$40 so you are looking for a fare in the $270-$280 range minimum. But honestly, you want to find as expensive a fare as possible to maximize your value!

Once we had agreed on the flights, everything was pretty straightforward. There is a SHARES Reference Code and a certificate number on the certificate that you need to give to the agent. They also confirm your name and Dividend Miles number. I was also forced to pay the fare with my US Airways card – I had read elsewhere that sometimes agents let you get away with using another card but I wasn’t able to.

There was one final hoop to jump through. You have to physically mail in your companion certificate the next day! I’m not sure what they would have done if I hadn’t, but it’s kind of old school to mail like, a letter. I dug up a stamp and sent it along, so add the cost of a stamp to the total cost!

Did I save any money?

As of right now, we saved a few dollars. In the end I paid $428, or $214 per person. The cheapest flights we could book now (due to time constraints) are $245 per person, so we saved about $31 per person. Not bad, but I could see how you could save a lot of money on say a $400 fare to the west coast.

Final Thoughts

Although it involves talking to a human on the phone, one of my least favorite things ever, redeeming the US Airways card’s companion certificate is relatively easy. For $99 plus taxes and fees per companion, I think it could be a good deal in a lot of situations. So don’t forget about it if you have the card!