Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Marco Polo Club and Asia Miles suddenly cut service hours

I was surprised to realise that as of today, which is neither the beginning of the week, month or year, the telephone hotlines for Marco Polo Club 852-27475500 and for Asia Miles 852-2747-3838 will be *temporarily* (according to the recording) changed so that instead of 24 hours' service, only 12 will be offered, that is, from 8 am to 8 pm. This is very strange. Any insight?

???

Is that HKG time?

It will certainly affect people calling from other regions to time themselves around the new service times.

In fact, why bother having a toll free line from most overseas areas where CX flies to when it is inconvenient to call?

Maybe res agents are calling in sick because of SARS and they are short-staffed?

Yes, Hong Kong time. I agree with GB that the silly part is that overseas passengers will not have any decent time to call. Also, CX flights operate some 18-20 hours in Hong and their Club hotline is closed when flights for London, Sydney, Paris etc leave? Or when they arrive? This is crazy! I called their general no. THey said they could NOT book redemption tickets on behalf of MPC or Asiamiles. THe flu is not a good reason since it is only phone service. It cannot be that everyone at night has become ill suddenly!

It is appalling that CX Marco Polo Club and Asia Miles service centre does not let their members know about the changes. Having to hear such news from a discussion forum is not the correct communication channel from an airline that prides to be the best in the world.

Although I think Cathay Pacific is one of the best in the world for inflight and ground services, the loyalty club and FFP can be improved further.

I made a call to the centre and they informed me that the service centre hours was reduced as one of their staff was infected with SARS and that they needed to limit the spread of this disease to other staff.

I hope this clarifies the matter to others.

Isn't it interesting that CX forum is not like the Starwood Forum where an employee of CX contributes to Flyertalk. It continually amuses me.

Called today to make some changes.

It seems the message have changed. When I called, instead of announcing the change of hours, they simply said "we are experiencing extremely high volume of calls" message which I never heard before. But more interestingly, 5 seconds later, the agent answered my call.

I think this new message is to hide the fact that their operating hours changed without announcement. So that if someone calls after 8pm, they would wait so long that they would give up. (most members who are not Flyertalkers not knowing that operating hours have been slashed)

This seems to be a dirty trick, and I don't think it's fair. They would be better off simply acknolweding no-one will be there to pick up the call.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by fakecd:
So that if someone calls after 8pm, they would wait so long that they would give up. (most members who are not Flyertalkers not knowing that operating hours have been slashed)

This seems to be a dirty trick, and I don't think it's fair. They would be better off simply acknolweding no-one will be there to pick up the call. </font>

Uh... I don't think it's a dirty trick. If you just wait and maybe you have to wait patiently, your call will be answered.

When IncyWincy posted his first message, MPC was shut down after 8 p.m. and if you called, your call was just hang up, after you key in your MPC number ....

MPC now even mentions it's SARS that's affecting their service disruption on a taped message.

I also got this today via email. I am sure other MPC members also did.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Reduced Service Centre Hotline Coverage

Our lines are very busy at the moment as a result of the impact of the SRS Atypical Pneumonia sickness and we regret that it will take longer than usual to answer your calls.

We recommend that you go to our web site www.cathaypacific.com (http://www.cathaypacific.com) where a wide range of online services are available or you can try our self-service phone options. We apologise for any inconvenience and thank you for bearing with us during these difficult times.</font>

They are resuming 24 hour service again today - in less than 7 days. Apparently, they had to shut down to half scale as one of the agents had been infected and therefore those who had had close contact with him/her had to be off work. Their task force was therefore slimmed drastically.

I received an email from marco polo today about the change, even though I'm just a lowly green card holder... think they would email you about it if they have your email address on file and opted for them to send you information like that...

and they released it April 1st, so it is the beginning of the month

I found different experssion between Japanese and English in Asiamiles Breaking News.

English:
Our lines are very busy at the moment as a result of the impact of the SRS Atypical Pneumonia sickness and we regret that it will take longer than usual to answer your calls.

Japanese:
Our lines are very busy at the moment as a result of inquiries about the SRS Atypical Pneumonia sickness and we regret that it will take longer than usual to answer your calls.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by tfung:
I received an email from marco polo today about the change, even though I'm just a lowly green card holder... think they would email you about it if they have your email address on file and opted for them to send you information like that...

and they released it April 1st, so it is the beginning of the month</font>

Their email went out the day the *resumed* normal 24 hour service, not when they started it. Mind you, this is not a complaint. They have always tried hard and unfortunately, an agent happened to be hit with an unexpected disease.

Bumping an old thread,

.... I'm having trouble getting through to Asia Miles at every number listed here http://www.asiamiles.com/en/about/contact/1,,117568,00.html that I've tried and was wondering if there is a number that will be answered at this hour and that can be called from a US number. 011-852-2747-3838 is not working for me ... just keeps ringing and then drops.

The help is appreciated, thanks.

Edit: Sri Lanka number has me on hold. :)
Edit: Sri Lanka number worked. :)

Thanks. :)

I don't think the problem is with CX. I was trying to call my colleagues in HK from USA but the phones were not even ringing. I also have very difficult time going to some of the web sites in HK, including my company's web site.

I suspect that may have to do with the earthquake in Taiwan. There are problems in some areas in Taiwan.

I don't think the problem is with CX. I was trying to call my colleagues in HK from USA but the phones were not even ringing. I also have very difficult time going to some of the web sites in HK, including my company's web site.

I suspect that may have to do with the earthquake in Taiwan. There are problems in some areas in Taiwan.

Yes it does...(have to do with the earthquake in Taiwan)

Asia communications hit by quake


TAIPEI, Taiwan - Telecommunications across Asia have been severely disrupted because of damage to undersea cables caused by Tuesday's earthquake near Taiwan.

Banks and businesses in Taiwan, South Korea, China and Japan reported telephone and internet problems. ......

See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6211451.stm
or
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061227/ap_on_re_as/asia_quake

A lot of our telephone problems were definitely earthquake related. Thanks for the timely info.