Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - How do you get through to Asia Miles!!!!

Trying to call AsiaMiles regarding availability and ticketing on partner airlines. I've used them often by transferring Starwood points and flying on British Air. It's always taken 10-15 minutes on hold. Yesterday I was on hold for 45 minutes and had to give up. Called hours later and they picked up after 40 minutes, kept repeating that they could not hear me and finally hung up. :mad:

Is this what everyone is experiencing. Do they acknowledge a problem and are they promising to do something about it? Is there a preferred time to call when I can minimize my wait time?

Many thanks!

By MPO status. If you have no status try calling during non HK office hours.

I've also been trying to get someone to pickup at their call center for the past few days to no avail.

So I submitted an award request on Monday for award on AA travel from JFK-LHR-TXL (LHR-TXL on BA/AA codeshare). This morning I got an email response saying that BA handles this route. The email presented me with an itinerary all on BA flights, with a record locator/confirmation number, asking me to reply by email by May 2 to confirm.

This is my first time to redeem Asiamiles. Does this mean that I am already assured of seats on this itinerary if I confirm the reservation?

I replied to their email asking for the total cost for taxes/fees. I also have to top-up to get to the required mielage. I'm short of 900 miles. I'll have to decide whether to use my Asiamiles for this trip, or use my Thank You points for a fixed point travel reward from Citibank.

Just out of curiosity, I entered the record locator given in the email in the "Retrieve your booking" section on the CX website. The BA itinerary does show up with "Confirmed" status and to "Issue Ticket by:02 May 2008, Friday1800".

I just find it strange why the agent did not give me a quote on the taxes/fees associated with this award in the email.

But I'm pleasantly surprised I got this confirmed award reservation on my first attempt for my preferred dates. And also pleasantly surprised that Asiamiles does bother to reply to the online award redemption requests on their website.

The lay-over in LHR before going to TXL is pretty long though, 12 hours overnight, so I'll have to sleep in the airport. Not yet sure if I'll have this reservation ticketed as I'm wary that the taxes/fees will still be high.

So to the OP, you can try submitting your request online, and cross your fingers that somebody would reply --- if no still picks up at their call center.

Confirmation is not final - remember to ticket by deadline (keep in mind the time zone difference too). You will have to pay the taxes, surcharges and top-off fee.

The difficulty in getting through on the AM or MPO hotline is reaching record levels. In fact it is more difficult to get through than US/European carriers' lines. This does not reflect well on CX or Asiamiles and is indeed a letdown. Whereas CX excels in most aspects, this aspect needs immediate improvement. It is very un-Hong Kong and very discouraging to customers. It does not work for only elites to have reasonable access, by definition, all members should have reasonable service. How are people expected to grow with CX if they are treated this way?

Unfortunately without status this is the case, has been for some time in fact and doesn't look like it's going to improve.

Unfortunately without status this is the case, has been for some time in fact and doesn't look like it's going to improve.

The least they could to do is equip their call center with a system that advices the caller of the average wait time for someone to answer. Asking the caller to wait indefinitely might well be considered "cruel and inhuman". :mad:

The least they could to do is equip their call center with a system that advices the caller of the average wait time for someone to answer. Asking the caller to wait indefinitely might well be considered "cruel and inhuman". :mad:

Yes, advising the calling of the expected wait time will be nice.

I'm trying to get an estimate of the taxes/fees for the JFK-LHR-TXL-LHR-JFK reservation Asiamiles had e-mailed me. As usual, I can't get in touch with anyone using their US phone number. The email reply I sent 5 days ago was only automatically acknowledged 2 days ago, and still no update.

The flights are on BA. I'm trying to get the fare/taxes for a similar flight sked on the BA website (Can't get exact sked since Asiamiles offered one with a long layover in LHR).

When choosing flights on the BA site, the outbound is given a fare of about $407, the return flight $437, with a note at the bottom:
# Taxes, fees and charges for the entire journey are approximately $157.23.
# Prices exclude the$2.50September 11th Security Fee for flights departing the USA.

$157 seems reasonable enough for me. So after choosing the flights, the total
becomes $ 1,000.23. That seems to be correct ($407 + $437 + 157.23). But in the final price breakdown, this is what BA gives me:

Price: $595
Taxes/Fees/Surcharge: $405.23
Total: $1000.23

So which would Asiamiles charge me? $157.23 or $405.23?
I have a feeling it would be the latter.

BTW who are British Air?