Hi,
I just got the latest issue of InsideFlyer where it talks about the Asiana Airline credit cards on page 29.

I've had the Asiana Visa for about 4 years and the newer Asiana Amex since about April of last year, 08. As a drawback, it lists for all the cards that there is slow posting of miles that may take 1-2 billing cycles. I just did a quick search of my Asiana account and my miles have been posting like clockwork. My billing cycle closes on the 11th of every month and my miles for that billing cycle post on to my Asiana account by the 19th. This is before my bill is even paid, which is usually due around the 4th of the next month. I searched my account quickly since July, the 1 year search option and I have consistently without missing a single month or date, recieved my miles on the 19th of every month. So I don't know where that rumor came from but it doesn't seem to be true.

Also, the second drawback is the extra miles for grocery stores. If you read the fine print, they say select grocery stores and those stores unfortunately are a select few Korean grocery stores in the major Korean communities around the US. Not a benefit for most but for those that can use it, it is an extra mile that don't need to offer. That would be a total of 3 miles per dollar at those Korean markets. Which I have verified works at the HK market in Los Angeles's Koreatown a couple of months back.

I guess I will let the cat of the bag. The biggest draw of the Asiana Amex is the 2 miles per dollar offer. Does Asiana have high redemption rates? Yes they do, they are very high but with the 2 mile per dollar offer. If you want to spend your way to a trip to say a business class ticket to Europe on a *A carrier. You'd need to spend $52,500 for it, which I believe is the lowest for any biz class ticket for any credit card. A *A ticket in the 10001-15000 mile round trip costs 115,000 miles. The Amex gives you a 10,000 mile certificate bringing the total miles needed to 105,000, divide that by 2 and you get $52, 500 spent on the Amex for a RT biz class tickets.

Now my only hope is that a huge amount of people don't sign up for this card and they decide the card is popular enough and downgrade the card to a normal 1 mile for $1.

Alex