percysmith

(SL is in GR's redemption group)

My colleague (SL) made a booking for a redemption ticket two weeks ago. We planned to use my miles (GR). We called MPO together, held the ticket, told MPO that the miles will come from my account (both I gave my GR MPO number and my SL colleague gave his) and we were told we had four weeks to confirm the booking.

My miles got credited a couple of days ago so I and my colleague called MPO again to confirm the hold booking. This time, the agent said he cannot proceed with a redemption cos my colleague (who has the hold) is a SL but the miles have to come out of my GR account - such cross-MPO class redemptions are not allowed. The agent said he'll release my SL colleague's hold booking but there's no guarantee we will get it again.

I and my colleague freaked out.
- during the initial booking two weeks ago, it is quite clear my SL colleague has nowhere near the needed number of miles;
- I gave my number;
- no mention of the MPO class required was included in the hold booking itinerary sent by MPO after the initial booking.

The agent contacted his supervisor on his own initiative (we would have had he not done so). 5 minutes later he was able to confirm my colleague's redemption ticket.

Well it's good that all well that ends well but we were rather blindsided by the "rule". Has anyone else been tripped up by the "rule"?

Is it mentioned anywhere in cathaypacific.com / asiamiles.com?

christep

There's no such rule. The only rule is that the person must be in the redemption group. You just got an utterly clueless agent.

kaka

agreed. when redemption booking made using AM from your (GR) account, ur mate's SM status make no difference what-so-ever. I often make redemption using my dad's account for me myself, and i had been Silver or GR.

percysmith

That's strange.

When you're SM and you're using your dad's miles, you make the booking right?

If that is the case then my case is identical to yours.

ChrisLi

I think the agent hear that SM is having MPC member and he / she assume you are drawing miles from both account / pooling, which is no.

For me I have no problem redeeming 4 tickets at one time, which everyone has their respective MPC account (which I don't even bother telling the agent, as we are all GR, having MPC or not has no different)

percysmith

Agent told SM that if I was SM as well, that would be fine. SM can only redeem off other SM...

kaka

exactly. tried calling again?

percysmith

Well the agent escalated the issue to his boss before we did and it came out fine. And the miles were deducted off my account already this evening so everything looks fine.

Anybody else have a different view? My colleague and I are ready to call this a one-off fluke.

IC6A

I suspect it is one system issue. Here are two redemption story:

1>, When you call MPC, you tell them your name and your membership number when the reservation is made. Before it go through the payment option, the system automatically pick up member's Asia Miles and would not give the option of being paid by other members.

2>, When you call MPC, make sure that the people redeem the Asia Miles to talk to the agent and start from the begining with his/her own account to make the redemption booking until payment is done.

What happened to the OP was the first story. The agent follow the normal booking process and stuck with payment option since the system logged into SM's account rather than the GR account. Once the system confirmed SM's account it is difficult for MPC agent take out the miles from GR account. Because the dominate account now is the SM rather than GR. I hope my description make sense.

So what OP should do is when confirm booking always let the dominate account holder to talk to the agent unless you are very sure you make the agent understood the implications.

But if this happen it is simple to solve. Start again but start with the dominate account, in this case the GR account.

percysmith

Good theory...

But I can't fit it into the story of my previous redemption.

Two weeks ago I redeemed tix for three school mates to come over (all non-Asia Miles/MPOs) out of my dad's, my mum's and my own MPO accounts. I was dominate, and my parents were not involved (I had their personal details to authenticate the redemptions (plus their permission obtained earlier)).

If I6CA's theory holds then shouldn't I encounter the same difficulty trying to withdraw from my mum and my dad's account?

Starting again would be our nightmare scenario as the agent told SM and I that there is no availability on system for the flight SM has previously booked.

ernestnywang

I have never encounterd any problem when initiate a redemption booking in my account for me and, before the ticket time limit, call MPO and ask them to take miles from my father's or mother's account. I think at one point I was only an AM member while my parents were either GO or SL. (I reckon that "SM" means something different...)

IC6A

Now if you understand my theory right. It only involves with those nominees with CX/Asia Miles membership and quote their own membership number at begining of the reservation to talk to the agent.

I assume when you make the booking you did not use your classmates' account at all. Then there should be no problem as you experienced. But when you start to talk to the agent, and quote your classmates' CX/Asia Miles number then you will encounter problems or delays on the line.

percysmith

Well...when SM made the booking, he did take advantage of the fact he's SM and has higher priority in the MPO queue than I do by keying in his number at the phone prompt instead of mine.

I wonder if it's a class thing - usually lower-grade MPO members take miles off a higher grade's MPO account (like ernestnywang, who also presumably used his number to make the booking on his dad's miles), whereas my SM is trying to do the opposite?

IC6A

There is nothing to do with the @class@

Let us start with it again.

You made your provisional booking for your friend. And you friend call up the CX to confirm the booking.

OK, let ms use SM as your friend. GR as you. CX as the agent. AM as the Asia Miles.

SM called up CX. He was asked his information. Properly at the beginning of the call he was required to key in the membership number and pin number in system.

So for CX, the information he/she had in his/her screen is the info logged in by SM's account.

Now SM is confirming the booking which was not paid yet. CX confirmed the booking. But the AM account it linked to was SM's, not GR's. So this booking can not be processed because of the wrong AM account. This booking can not be paid because the linked AM account was not the original dominant account.

If when GR made the booking and confirmed at the time of the booking. You should have no problem.

If when GR made the provisional booking, and not put in SM's MPC number; and when SM called CX did not give out MPC number and PIN, you should have no problem of issuing the ticket.

For the security and other commersial reason it not possible for MPC members sharing the balance of their AM together. When you make redemption booking, you can book for your friend. If you confirm the booking at the time, no problem will be experienced. But if your confirmation process is against the normal practise and procedure (this is mean, when the nominee use his own CX/AM account to confirm the booking made by dominant MPC members) you may experience what you had experienced. As other MPC members had pointed out they did not had any problems before it was because they had the correct procedure, or their friends were not MPC members, or they confirmed the booking at the time of reservation. I hope that is clear.

percysmith

Well, how come if you substitute in ernestnywang for GR, ernestnywang's_dad for SM, you get a different outcome?

Ernestnywang "initiate a redemption booking in [his] account for [him]" and "ask them to take miles from [his] father's or mother's account". Unless ernestnywang clarifies otherwise, it is ernestnywang's MPO number that was logged in and dominant, CX would be looking at ernestnywang's info during the booking. ernestnywang's_dad's account that was used to pay - this was stated at booking.

CX would verify ernestnywang is on ernestnywang's_dad's list and ask for ernestnywang's_dad's DOB to ensure ernestnywang has authority to debit out of ernestnywang's_dad's account. ernestnywang can then make the booking and subsequently confirm the tickets on his own.

I know what ernestnywang did should work cos I have done similar redemptions for myself with my dad's account. But we're both GRs.


The agent also didn't make a fuss that the paying account wasn't SM's own account that was the problem - the agent said if SM can find another SM to debit the miles out of, he will be happy to process. This suggests CX isn't too concerned about the person making the booking as dominate is the person who has to cough up the miles.