As of Dec 4th one class upgrade rule guts CX Asia Miles
I am a Marco Polo Club Diamond Tier status member.
Below is excerpt of letter that was faxed to the CEO John Slosar, COO, and Manager of MPC as well as Director of Asia Miles:
On Dec 9 I purchased two K Class tickets for my wife and myself (YVR->HKG->DXB return, YVR->HKG return) with the intention to be able to upgrade to Business Class with my MPC Asia Miles.
On December 21, I called MPC Call Centre and tried to upgrade these tickets to Business Class with my Asia Miles and to my surprise was advised that as of Dec 5, the upgrade rules had changed, and that I would only be able to upgrade one fare class now, to Premium Economy. Should I wish to upgrade a ticket to Business Class, I must purchase a Premium Economy ticket.
I specifically booked K class tickets at a premium in order to be able to upgrade to Business class tickets. I received no notification by email or otherwise of this very significant redemption award change for the Asia Miles / MPC programme.
I spoke to the eServices call centre and after a 15 minute hold time, was advised that the cost to upgrade my ticket would be 4,000 USD. And that I was able to only upgrade the whole ticket, not specific sectors.
Essentially what this drastic rule change does is almost completely devalue Asia Miles points in this situation.
By creating the Premium Economy Class, which is an modest improvement on Economy, but nowhere even remotely close to the Business Class experience, and the one fare class upgrade rule, it has grossly devalued the Asia Miles / MPC programme. I would estimate that Asia Miles are now devalued by 75% or more, by forcing me to purchase a Premium Economy Class ticket in order to upgrade to Business Class.
I don't want to start another topic, so I post it here (not a reply to OP), has CX ever allowed two-class upgrades with miles? Has any airlines in the world that allows that? For example: 45K to upgrade from Y to Y+ but 90K will get you Y to J.
Why won't CX (or anybody else) do multiple-class upgrades if they can just charge extra miles?
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I don't get the OP's dilemma. Upgrades on pretty well all airlines are one class of service. CX has 4 classes in total, and three, I assume Y, Premium Y and J, on the aircraft so he gets upgraded to Premium Economy. Seems simple. Should have bought the right tickets. PE tickets.
And haven't PE seats been around a long time, e.g. prior to December 9 when the tickets were purchased? So one COS upgrade would have been in effect for quite a while.
I guess CX should have read the OP's mind and e-mailed him before the transaction, unless there is something on MP that says upgrade from coach to Business. If it says that, there's a good case.
AA says one COS and I doubt others say differently.
the change effective 5th December was well announced on asiamiles website. It's not CX fault that you didn't know the rules. Unless ticketing agent said to you that K class allows upgrade, and u can prove this is why you paid extra, I don't see how CX owes u anything
to be frank it's your own fault and you are making a fuss? i like the new rules, keep up front more exclusive.
I actually don't think it's a massive devaluation. I think upgrades are now more accessible to more people by reducing the miles required for upgrades (ie Y>J for JFK is 80000 before, Y+>J is now 45000), not everyone has that much miles to burn.
At the same time it should be easier to score these upgrades as you're now theoretically only competing with 30 other Y+ passengers, instead of 200+ Y passengers.
I actually don't think it's a massive devaluation. I think upgrades are now more accessible to more people by reducing the miles required for upgrades (ie Y>J for JFK is 80000 before, Y+>J is now 45000), not everyone has that much miles to burn.
At the same time it should be easier to score these upgrades as you're now theoretically only competing with 30 other Y+ passengers, instead of 200+ Y passengers.
You're always competing with a hand full of frequent fliers anyway, casual fliers don't accumulate up to 45K miles easily either. Anyway, to answer my own question, airlines see miles as pure lost of revenue, and thus this may be why they don't allow two-cabin upgrades.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Central90210
At the same time it should be easier to score these upgrades as you're now theoretically only competing with 30 other Y+ passengers, instead of 200+ Y passengers.
I would imagine many Y+ passengers are traveling on E fares and are therefore not eligible for upgrade redemption to J. So there will be much fewer than 30 Y+ passengers competing for upgrades.
This gives me an opportunity to rant about my recent trip of XMN-YVR-XMN. I took advantage of the fare sale back in Aug and purchased an E class ticket. Right after the ticket was issued, I called MPO and requested an upgrade redemption. As usual I was only waitlisted, but the CSO said there was a very good chance to get the seats. When the new redemption rules rolled out in Nov, I called MPO again. They said they should be able to confirm the seats by the deadline which is coincidentally Dec 5. They also claim that in the worst scenario, I could ask for instant upgrade at the airport since the new rule will be just in effect for a few days. Naturally I made that request at the airport and told them I am willing to burn 40k miles for one way i/o 20k, but the CSO just said it could not be done. So I was stuck in PEY for the whole trip. It was not too bad since I got first row and they blocked the seat next to mine.
This is not true - as airlines sell miles to other providers like banks, shops etc for them to get more business by giving miles away. Actually this is a real cash-cow. There was once an item - I think it was on CNN Business Traveler - talking about the loyalty programs of airlines and one of the directors didn't answer any questions about the margins they get. At the end other buy the miles but not all of them get converted. So that's part of the profit.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cathay Boy
I don't want to start another topic, so I post it here (not a reply to OP), has CX ever allowed two-class upgrades with miles? Has any airlines in the world that allows that? For example: 45K to upgrade from Y to Y+ but 90K will get you Y to J.
Why won't CX (or anybody else) do multiple-class upgrades if they can just charge extra miles?
FWIW - the word "Double" does not work well with airlines.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ricktoronto
I don't get the OP's dilemma.
My 2 cents.
Let's assume OP is YVR based.
If OP was a AC Top Tier (probably Super Elite), even though he could upgrade with Y/B full fare only with miles - 25K one-way (or eUpgrade in most fare classes), he would still get true flat bed experience.
For CX, with the same condition (pre-Dec 5 and after Dec 5), OP "lost" the flat bed experience. OP might see it as a devaluation of miles - you are getting less for the same.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sl00001
This is not true - as airlines sell miles to other providers like banks, shops etc for them to get more business by giving miles away. Actually this is a real cash-cow. There was once an item - I think it was on CNN Business Traveler - talking about the loyalty programs of airlines and one of the directors didn't answer any questions about the margins they get. At the end other buy the miles but not all of them get converted. So that's part of the profit.
Yes. Airlines earn a lot from selling miles to partners (not customers). That's why you can see in the last couple of years, it has been more difficult to redeem CX F, as Citi has been buying tons of miles from AA and giving them out as opening bonus (100K as the highest offer, which is 30K short of CX F, without YR).
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Don't mean to be disrespectful to the OP, but for a MPO DM member not knowing that CX has changed its upgrade policy to "One-class upgrade" since Dec 2012 sorta makes me wonder whether OP really deserves to be a MPO DM.
Don't mean to be disrespectful to the OP, but for a MPO DM member not knowing that CX has changed its upgrade policy to "One-class upgrade" since Dec 2012 sorta makes me wonder whether OP really deserves to be a MPO DM.
