Redeeming Asia Miles

[walkup]

yes, the suggestion for active CP flyers to join Marco Polo is a good one. I too managed to move from waitlist to business upgrade with only a day before the flight. Being a MP member helps. There is a reason why CP are busy. They are superior to the competition. In comparison I will do anything to avoid BA.

[Lammarite]

An interesting prologue to the story. We tried to book a flight 6 months in advance for a flight from Muscat to Hong Kong on specific dates but with a few days leeway on either side. Asia Miles came back with a flight from Muscat to Abu Dhabi to London to Hong Kong over a week out on the way out and 3 weeks out on the return. Naturally we declined for a 60 year old woman travelling on her own- an all round travle time of over 24 hours wasn't really what we were after. They couldn't really offer anything better but have wait-listed her on a flight which has a stop in Saudi but at least rids her of the London flight.
We called today again to see what was going on and the guy at the end said that we hadn't enquired early enough (6 months!) and were looking at a busy route (listed as highly possible when we started the process).
My wife then asked the operator which destination was most available in 6 months time, to which he replied: Taiwan. OK, wife says, book me a flight to taiwan in exactly six months with a return two weeks later. Tap, tap, tap from the other end. Sorry, not available. OK says wife, give me another destination. Vietnamthe operator says. OK, same criteria please. Tap, tap, tap again from the other end. Sorry says the operator- would you like to try another destination? Let's not says wife, I think we have fairly well established that the whole Asia Miles redemption scheme is a bit of a scam and wasting more of our time would be futile.

[PDLM]

Isn't that an Epilogue not a Prologue?

Since no airline flies direct from Muscat to Hong Kong what exactly were you hoping for? That they would start the route especially for you?

CX can almost never confirm seats on other carriers on the fly (you need a segment on Gulf Air I think to get from Muscat). You have to put in a request and be patient.

Personally I'm still happily redeeming 1-200K miles a year.

[Lammarite]

Do try and not be a twat at least once in the day.

[DanielandHayley]

hmmm, looks like i wasted a good 30minutes of my time registering for asiamiles at the weekend...

[fsklee]

Are you looking for economy or business class rewards? It should not be that difficult to get economy rewards on CX or KA flights.

[PDLM]

I've come to the conclusion that Lammarite is working for CX's competitors. I have just done exactly the same exercise as he described using the CX website.

For a flight to TPE 6 months from today (29 July) as a redemption in economy there are seats available on 14 out of the 19 flights. Returning on 12 August there are seats available on 17 out of 19 flights.

Ho Chi Minh is, admittedly a little sparser, particularly out of HCM in August, but there are many dates available at other times of the year (for example, both directions are available more days than not from late April through May). Business class is available most days.

[KnowItAll]

PDLM : You're probably on a different priority with Marco Polo status.

I can assure you, there is no chance in hell that Lammarite is with a competitor.

[PDLM]

PDLM : You're probably on a different priority with Marco Polo status.

I can assure you, there is no chance in hell that Lammarite is with a competitor.

Nope - the website doesn't take account of status for bookings. But just to be sure I have just logged in with an MPC Green status account and got exactly the same results.

If you don't believe me then feel free to try yourself -it's trivial for anyone with an AsiaMiles/MPC account to prove that Lammarite is spouting complete crap with just a few clicks.

[Lammarite]

PDLM : You're probably on a different priority with Marco Polo status.

Please don't inflate his ego any more than it already is- the sooner he gets his hand off it the better.