Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - If I flew on an AA purchased ticket ...

to Asia (say Hong Kong or SIngapore) and my carrier was Cathay or Eva, etc., how would I go about getting upgraded on these flights?

Someone mentioned "Asia Miles" and well, this is rather new to me ... thoughts? I did some searches and so far no help.

Goal is to do a Milage Run to get to AA Exec Plat and a run to two runs Asia by EOY will do it for me ... and can;t afford to buy Biz class tickets ...

If you fly on CX, you need to but a full fare Y ticket to upgrade to Biz, if you use AA miles.

I don't think it's possible to upgrade EVA flights, even code shares, with AA miles.

Basically if you're an AAdvantage member you basically have not much of a choice.

You need to be flying on a full Y fare ticket, ie fare basis : Y or YO2 or YX or something like that to upgrade on CX flights. Plus its 40K even for a oneway. And then AA has to reissue the entire ticket for you. So if you have other airlines on your ticket ... prepare to pay higher than just a plain biz ticket.

You cannot upgrade on EVA. Even if it is on an AA flight number.

GO to www.asiamiles.com (http://www.asiamiles.com) for information on CX and BAEC-Asia s' frequent flyer programme.

Guy, is it possible to book a flight, say, LAX-HKG-SIN return, in S class, fare is $577. I want to emphasize that this is NOT an AA ticket, this would be CX flights, tickets, etc. Then, use Asia Miles to upgrade from that fare to business class (70,000 miles roundtrip). However, at checkin produce your AAdvantage card (assuming Canada residency) for mileage accrual.

So this is along the lines of CO/NW upgrade one but accrue miles on the other. Do you think this is possible?

[This message has been edited by tfjim (edited 08-23-2002).]

Yes it is. But as the upgrade booking codes are the same as award codes, it is best to follow this procedure.

Photocopy your purchased ticket.
Do your upgrade using Asiamiles.
(Note that Asiamiles creates another booking for your upgrade class). Advise Asiamiles that you're upgrading using your asiamiles but you'd like your miles to go to your xxx account. CX will put in the correct notes accordingly.

Basically even if you put your mileage # on the res, there might be chance that your miles will not post. Then you'd have to do the LONG way and send in your BP and advise xxx FF account that you used miles from Asiamiles to upgrade that flight.

If xxx FF account comes back and says that CX says its an award ticket, explain that it's an upgrade and send in your original photocopy of the ticket to prove it.

It will be a very long process, so make sure you know what you're doing before doing it. But it is not IMPOSSIBLE. Just very frustrating especially if you're dealing with someone like AAdvantage.

Appreciate the info dude. I've been wondering how I was going to use up some of my orphan Asia Miles. This might be a way. Especially with LAX-SIN at $490.

A couple small points. According to AA.com, AAdv upgrade awards on CX are 25k for Y->J and 40k J->F. I believe these are roundtrip too (read that on some other thread). Also, it says: "Upgrade Awards between North America Zone and Hong Kong, Asia, Japan, Africa, Pacific or Middle East" so that means it costs the same 25k to upgrade a Y ticket for (North America)-HKG-JNB-HKG-(North America) as it does for just (North America)-HKG-(North America).

Or am I reading this all wrong?

FewMiles..

------------------
[ FlyerTalkers' Resources on the Web (http://www.fewmiles.net)]
[ Unofficial Guide to AAdvantage (http://www.fewmiles.net/AA)] [ Unofficial oneworld Info Desk (http://www.fewmiles.net/oneworld)]

Edited 'cuz the link was too long and broke, so I had to take it out.

[This message has been edited by FewMiles (edited 08-23-2002).]

Few Miles, TFJim, Guy Betsy,

Aside from my bumps and bruises:

• it appears that all recommendations to get to Exec Plat status can be accomplished through AA trips to Asia on the cheap

• My goal, like any coach purchaser, would be to upgrade.

• since I am not an Asia Miles user, how would you recommend I "acquire" Asia Miles for upgrading purposes?

Or am I missing the point - again?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by nhila:
since I am not an Asia Miles user, how would you recommend I "acquire" Asia Miles for upgrading purposes?
</font>

Unfortunately the best way is to live in HK! There are loads of non-flying ways to get AsiaMiles here. I have put over 75,000 into my account in the last six weeks through a combination of:
- Citibank CX Platinum card (1 AM per US$ in HK, 2 AM per US$ outside)
- sign-up bonuses for said card and for an Economist subscription renewal
- miles on my phone bill
- miles for dinners, flowers, etc.

Note that you may also upgrade most CX fares to Biz class using QUALIFLYER points.

With that, you need to live in Europe in order to transfer miles from Amex Rewards to Qualiflyer.