Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Mileage disparities between AA and CX (Asiamiles)

I am a member of both the AAdvantage and Asiamiles programs, and I accrue mileage to both programs.

Anyway, I just noticed when I was going through statements that when I fly CX TPE-HKG and accrue the mileage to Asiamiles, I receive 501 miles, but when I buy H class on CX and fly the TPE-HKG route and have the miles accrued to my AA account, I am credited with only 484 miles.

Likewise, flying HKG-LAX with accrual to Asiamiles gets me 7,248 miles, while accrual to my AAdvantage account gets me 7,247 miles (okay, okay, I know it is just a measly mile in this case).

I normally wouldn't care, but this year it just so happens that I'll keep my AA Platinum status by having 50,100 miles accrued to my AA account. Sometimes it is precisely those few miles that can make or break things in terms of keeping/losing status.

We all know that different airlines will provide different mileage amounts to the same city pairs, but I can't figure out why there would be this disparity between the Asiamiles & AA programs.

The only reason I could think of is that the mileage accrued to AA is still based on miles from Kai Tak, with the powers that be having forgotten to change the distance to Chek Lap Kok. But, while that might explain TPE-HKG, that reasoning doesn't fly for HKG-LAX.

Any thoughts?

AA has a long history of imposing their own geographic view on passengers. For example Canada, the Caribbean, and Mexico are not international destinations for lounge purposes. Plus as you have printed out, the distances between cities differs with other partner/non-partner carriers, AND they change over time. On the positive side.

Shouldn't you be getting the 500 mile minimum for the TPE-HKG legs? Or do the minimums not apply for the CX flights?

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Shouldn't you be getting the 500 mile minimum for the TPE-HKG legs? Or do the minimums not apply for the CX flights?

The 500 mile minimum doesn't apply to CX/KA flights, nor to JL for that matter.

TPE-HKG v.v. exceeds 500 miles regardless, unless you are talking about KHH-HKG v.v.

TPE-HKG v.v. exceeds 500 miles regardless, unless you are talking about KHH-HKG v.v.Not according to the OP it doesn't - AA regards it as 484 miles, that is exactly his point!

As I was making a reservation with my usual contact at CX yesterday I asked her about this. She confirmed that CX calculates TPE-HKG at 501 miles and was stumped why only 484 miles would be credited to AAdvantage accounts. She suggested I call the Asiamiles toll-free number in Hong Kong. Don't have the time to wait for hours on the phone to get through to people there, so I dropped them an e-mail. Will report on the results when/if I receive a reply.

I was always under the impression that it was CX that bought the miles from American (isn't this the primary reason we have to buy up to H in Economy Class to get AA EQMs?) and deposited them to the respective person's account. So is it CX only buying and then depositing 484 miles or AA only charging them for 484 miles?

Are they still using the position of Kai-Tak as HKG?

I have encountered same issue many times. I usually fly CX on LAX-HKG-TPE-HKG LAX routes few few times a year. I always got credited 481 miles into my AA acount for HKG-TPE route instead of 501 miles as CX mentioned. I contacted AA for the shortages and was told that their computer shows HKG-TPE route is 481 miles not 501 and that's what they would post into my account.

As promised, here’s the response from CX and then AA. Nothing has been cleared up at all since CX told me it is AA’s issue (isn't it CX that buys these miles and then deposits them to my account?), while AA admits confusion, but can’t explain it.

From Asiamiles:

Thank you for your e-mail.

Allow me to explain that different airlines will have different miles
credits regulations for their flights. Although Cathay Pacific and
American Airlines are partners in the oneworld alliance, our frequent
flyer programmes remain separate and are independently operated.

On this occasion, please contact the American Airlines AAdvantage
Service Centre at your earliest convenience for assistance.

We regret that we are unable to assist you on this occasion; however, we
do hope to be of service to you in the near future.

From AA:

We're so glad you contacted us. It's always our pleasure to assist our
valued AAdvantage® elite members.

This is confusing to us as well but maybe there is an explanation for
the difference. We use TPE as mileage in our system and Cathay Pacific
may be using different airports for their mileage accumulation. I'm not
sure since I cannot see what you have earned on your Asiamiles program
to compare the cities.

Unfortunately we only have TPE programmed into our system and that is
the way the miles are accumulated in the system. If you come so very
close to the required miles, sometimes we make exceptions to the rule.
There are many qualifiers but we have done these exceptions when someone
is a few miles from the goal.

Thank you for contacting us regarding this matter. If you have any other
AAdvantage issues or questions, please do not hesitate to let us know.