Asia Miles linking or transfer failures [Consolidated]
 

I need help.

I attempted to transfer 70000 AMR points to my asia miles account to book award travel. After three days, nothing. I called asia miles and they said it could take up to a week, and they held the ticket for me.

Fine, 7 days goes by and the points are back in my amex account - the transaction was cancelled. I freaked and called Cathay Pacific this time. They said my name was backwards in my asia miles account. They said they would hold the ticket for me for another 5 days. 36 hours to change the name on my account (it's not at all clear if first or last name goes first), transfer gets initiated again, and STILL NOTHING!?

The hold period is now over, they won't extend. What should I do? Who should I complain to?

Just to add, it has been 7 days since trying to transfer again.

Work with AM with your name on the account.

Unless the name issue has been fixed, all transfer will continue to fail.

Repeat of http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...asiamiles.html

Frankly this sounds more like an AM issue than an Amex issue. Dealing with AM is about as fun as pounding your head against a brick wall

It's an AM issue. 8 days... nothing. I'm done using an amex card if this is how a points transfer goes to a valuable partner. Chase Sapphire only from now on.

Long time lurker, first time posting.

I am going through the same issue. I xferred 65,000 MR points on 3/8 and another 65,000 on 3/11. Still nothing. The other day after pondering why this is taking so long, I noticed that my name was backwards in my AM profile. I called to enquire and i was told that my name was correct.

Last night, I came across this feed and decided to contact a friend for a screen shot of his AM account. Sure enough his first name was listed 1st whereas my last name was listed 1st. I logged in to CX site to see my name correct there. After several phone calls my name was fixed so that it showed correct in AM profile and on CX site.

I then called MR to enquire if my transaction would now go through. I was told by the agent that approximately an hour before my call she received a call from a gentleman with the same issue as me with a transposed name that required fixing. After CX fixed his name, he followed up with Amex. The agent claimed to me that he transferred his miles back on 3/6 and they still did not come through. She informed me that she contacted CX while remaining on the phone with the customer and was told by CX that the issue was not the man's transposed name. CX claimed to the Amex agent that as of the beginning of last week they updated their system to only pull in MR points every 6-8 weeks due to there being high demand. How does this make any sense??? Basically i was told I have to wait it out. I have a booking on hold that will expire in two days and as it is, CX has extended that hold an additional 2 days already. I can't be bothered calling AM as they have been completely unwilling to help with the MR issue when i called them twice about it. Any thoughts? I would think if the 6-8 weeks thing was true, flyertalk would be in an uproar by now but I see nothing on here about that.

Sorry for the long post.

Welcome to Flyertalk, and thank you for the detailed report. If you look at membershiprewards.com you will see that American Express seems to be aware of this possibility:

This is not new, it is noted in the Wikipost at the top of this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...fer-times.html

There is no uproar because, in practice, transfers have been faster.

I understand that the terms and conditions say UP TO 90 days. Previously, I transferred MR points last month and transfer took a day, a friend around the same time transferred and 1 day. Any thread on FT that people share their experiences with AM seems to show the actual typical transfer time at 3 days or less. Jump to online blogs. All of them state terms (as you noted) but then state their personal experiences which are a week or less, with most stating that the transfer usually happens within 24 hours. I have yet to find evidence anywhere online of people saying the real world transfer time was more than a few days, unless there was some other problem....

Such as an error in one's name.

Thank you for the update though.

I'm the poster of that other thread ("Less than stellar first experience with Asiamiles").

As Percysmith noted, and as I've written about in the linked thread, I had a similar situation as I'm seeing in this thread by Adam Goldsmith. The story that I detailed in that thread is apparently common. There is an ongoing name transposition issue with signing up online for an Asiamiles account. While certain systems will have your name in the correct order, other systems may not, up to and including the ticketing system.

In my case, the data in my online profile looked correct, but the name was transposed on tickets and for points/miles transfers.

For my case, the fix was basically as follows (shortened here, see my other thread for long version):

1. Email Asiamiles and explain that your name appears wrong on your account and get it resolved, which will likely involve sending a scan of your passport.

2. Once Asiamiles emails you back that the name is fixed (in my case, in about one day), call Asiamiles and verify that it is actually fixed, and if so, place an award ticket on hold, verifying again that your name is now in the correct order on the actual held ticket.

3. Hang up and promptly initiate another transfer from Amex, which in theory would eventually go through now that you've fixed your name -- but perhaps not in time for your hold.

4. Within a day, the transfer should show up in a back-end Asiamiles system (i.e. the right Asiamiles reps can see it sitting there in limbo, but it isn't actually complete yet). At this point, reply to the same email thread you already have going with Asiamiles and explain that you now have a pending miles transfer to cover your held ticket, and you need the transfer to complete before the hold expires.

5. Cross your fingers and hope they move the transfer along quickly, which in my case, they did.

Your mileage may, of course, vary.

Thanks for the post bkguy. Independently I went through the steps you suggested, and I'm on day 9 or 10 with no miles in my account.

I think AM just has a crap system, and you have to deal with it. Huge bummer though, as I lost my 70,000 mile first class ticket.

Aaaaaaaaaaand, the miles hit. Too many miles because I tried other transfers. I now have 120,000 miles in my AM account and only one leg of my trip is available. Unbelievable.

I'm gonna post in the AM forum and ask for advice. I can book an economy ticket with miles and upgrade... or should I pay cash for an economy ticket and maybe upgrade? Or should I just sit and wait and hope to get in off the waitlist?

Ugh, that's a bummer.

On a note of personal opinion, I don't know if a business cabin award is available for your flight, but if it is, I would consider giving it a chance. I just flew LAX-HKG in business on Cathay (via the very Amex-to-Asiamiles award situation I had discussed in my post) and was very pleased with the flight experience itself. It doesn't achieve your exact goal, but I think subjectively speaking, I could make an argument that it's a reasonable compromise for lack of a better option.

If there's no biz availability either -- super bummer. :(

Well everybody, there's a happy ending to the story. I just got off the waitlist and am now 100% booked roundtrip JFK/YVR in F for 70,000 miles. Thanks to everybody who replied with suggestions, knowledge, and sympathy.

Through this nightmarish process, I've acquired some decent knowledge on the AMR --> Asia Miles transfer process. Here's what's I've learned:

1. Phone reps cannot help you, either at AMR or AM.
2. Don't think of the transfer time as an average wait. From doing multiple transfers over a few days, it seems clear that once every two weeks, AM updates their system and pulls in the AMR points.
3. Make sure your freakin name is correct. Your family name is your last name.


Thanks again.

Adam,

Glad it worked out for you in the end. Top advice! :D