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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Customers anticipate US Airways' death knell, if last year's run on frequent flier miles in any indication, a newspaper report suggested Monday.
The struggling company's frequent fliers flooded it with free-trip claims, a signal that its best customers have a dim view of the No. 7 carrier's future, said a USA Today report.
"I began to feel like I had a half-million miles that I might not be able to use if I didn't use them quick," Dan LaFountain of Rockville, Maryland, told the newspaper.
Free reward trips jumped 25 percent in 2004, the largest rise among major U.S. airlines; and the free trips accounted for about 8 percent of total mileage flown by US Airways passengers, the report said.
"People are reading in the media that (US Airways) is in danger of shutting down and are thinking, 'Gee, I'd better cash in my miles,'" Jay Sorensen, president of industry analyst firm Idea-Works, told the paper.
Frequent fliers claimed 14.7 million free trips industrywide, down 2.1 percent in 2004, Idea-Works told USA Today.
Only discounter AirTran Holdings (up $0.23 to $8.26, Research) had a larger percentage jump in free miles issued, up 53.5 percent from 2003, the report said.
But a company spokeswoman told the newspaper the rise in free trips was because of an unspecified number of trips given to loyalty club members of airlines in the 15-member Star Alliance that US Airways joined in May 2004.
The bankrupt carrier has lost $4.5 billion since 2000 and has been cutting costs to keep flying, the report said.
In its latest earnings report, US Airways repeated plans to exit bankruptcy in the middle of 2005.
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