Redemption resulted in foreign transaction fee.
 

I just go off the phone with the agent. (connection time less than 1 minute both times, check the other post for more details :) ) Basically this is my first time redeemed a ticket and had to pay like $450 USD for the tax and fees (Normally I use miles to upgrade). But when the credit card bill came, I noticed there there was foreign transaction fee since the charge was in HKD. I questioned why when I purchased a ticket directly from the website, the whole charge was in USD, but when I redeemed ticket on the same website, the charge was in HKD. The agent gave me some lame excuses about they have no redemption center in the US so they have to charge me in HKD, and there was nothing they can do.

It's not a lot of money (About $15 USD), but if I had known about this, I would've use a CC that doesn't charge foreign transaction fee.

All CX award tickets are issued in HKG, and thus are charged in HKD. When you purchase a ticket from say, USA, the ticket is issued in the originating country when travel begins so is charged in USD.

Next time, just make sure you use a cc that doesn't have the foreign transaction fee.

Oh well. Guess now I know.

I had always purchased tickets from SFO -> HKG. None of the tickets resulted in any foreign transaction fees. But this time I redeemed the miles ticket from SFO -> HKG as well. That's why I was not expecting to be charged in foreign transaction fee.

Anyway, I was just kinda disappointed that
1. Took me like 2 weeks to figure out how to contact an agent
2. For such a small amount, they can't compensate me anything.

MPC handles almost anything other than revenue booking and ticket settlements for her members. I normally go online for redemption. If I have trouble getting an award, I will call MPC.

Anyway, award redemption is a very small part of their revenue. In addition, foreign transaction charges for redemption (on taxes and surcharges only) are very small compared with revenue tickets, esp. J and F. CX is unlikely setting up AM charge centres around the world.

sorry but are you saying Asiamiles/CX levied the "foreign transaction fee" in their favor? I would assume any such fees are levied by your Card Issuer so if you like any remedy you have to consult your card issuer.

don't forget to complain about the unfavorable USD/HKD FX rate when you call :p i'm not surprised if you are ripped off nearly 1% on the FX even though both currency are supposedly 'pegged'

when does CX really charge your CC? I redeemed last month and the charges are in HK $, converted to USD $400.. I called my credit card company and there is indeed a $400 floating transaction.

then after a while, the floating charge disappeared so CX hasn't billed me yet.. but my ticket is confirmed and the miles were already deducted..

my award flight is still in Sept.. and wondering when CX will charge me for the taxes and fuel surcharge of $400..

CPLP/Asia Miles can charge you in USD in HK. I've tried it - when I had to reset my redemption list.

If you're upset enough, you do have a case to dispute. Get your bank's equivalent of this http://www.ogs.state.ny.us/purchase/...spute_form.pdf , select "Other", dispute the billing currency.

I'm not too upset since it's such a small amount. But I called in to ask to charge to a different CC but was denied. I just have to remind myself to use a CC that does not charge foreign transaction fee for all CX purchases. The problem is you won't know until you check your CC transaction.

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Merchants don't bother to amend payment once they have it.

That's why bank chargeback is important to correct misrepresentations.

Tell me about it, the whole back office is a veritable CF. I bought an I-fare ticket on the web that would have put me over the credit limit on my credit card. So I called the credit card company to get a temporary line increase so I could then buy the ticket on CX.com.

Then I buy the ticket, the transaction did not complete, but they charged my credit card in the meantime. So my card was now over the limit, which means I couldn't use it for anything else. So I call up the credit card company, get a second credit line increase and try the transaction again.

Second time it goes through, but the reversal (from the first failed attempt) has not been booked: it doesn't show up as a charge on my credit card, but it is eating up into my credit line, a "floating" charge, it seems. This has been going on for days now.