2 x oneway = roundtrip miles for full redemption?
 

[MOD COMMENT: these posts are moved from another thread hence the feeling of this starting mid-conversation. Topic is related to how points redemption is calculated when two legs of a return trip clear at separate times - is it calculated as if it was originally redeemed as a return trip?]


What;s the refund? I hate paying 2x one ways since they will only clear me flights one by one, it seems.

have had this 3x in last few months. In no cases have I gotten a refund. In one case I wrote and asked them to refund the difference between RT and 2x one way on basis that I requested a RT J -F upgrade from day on, and they said no refund.

There is definitely a refund bw the differenc of 2x oneway vs return.
I think has to be same revenue ticket
It is not automatic and you have to call to get it

Call MPO and ask them for re credit.

Can you give us the details of your flights on the rejection?

to elaborate on what correctioncx says above....the "refund" is to correct the policy where if one award cleared, and the other didn't, you basically were forced into 2x one-ways. This obviously was exacerbated when CX required nearly-immediate ticketing of award bookings.

Example 1: Waitlist eventually clears
JFK PEY to J is 45k miles round-trip, or 27.5k for a one-way. 2x one-ways is 10k more expensive in Asia Miles than the round-trip. If the outbound leg clears first and you are forced to ticket (which will deduct 27.5k miles as the one-way price, because the return sector isn't clear year), when the return sector clears it also IME deducts 27.5k miles, but then MPC will refund you back 10k miles to make the net cost to you 45k Asia Miles, aka the round-trip fee. I've had this happen automatically, but you can call them I'm sure to get it cleared up too.

Example 2: MPC waitlist doesn't clear, but Instant Upgrade does
The example above even works for an at-the-airport Instant Upgrade Award. So to use the JFK round-trip example above, say the return sector does not clear by the return date. You already flew the first sector HKG-JFK in J, your 27.5k miles are already deducted. But you still want to upgrade on the return JFK-HKG sector. You go to the airport and request to do Instant Upgrade. There is a seat left in J, and you are deducted 27.5k Asia Miles, they give you the little receipt to sign, etc. So currently your account is out 55k miles for what effectively was a round-trip PEY-J upgrade award. In this situation, I've needed to call MPC. The airport staff was clueless. Originally I didn't want to sign the receipt because I was specifically instructed by MPC that the proper amount would be charged. Eventually I signed and figured I could clear it up with MPC, which is exactly what happened.

I am not sure if they need to be on the same paid ticket or not. You might want to call and ask. But I've had both examples above occur to me and it was surprisingly easy to get it resolved. Glad CX made the change because it makes a lot more common sense now.

Was in Oct 2013. I had a J class RT ticket and upgraded both the HKG-JFK and the JFK - HKG legs to F. I could not confirm a RT upgrade at the time of doing the HKG-JFK upgrade, so I ended up eventually getting 2 one way upgrades.

I wrote to MPC ask for a refund of the mileage difference between the RT and 2 one ways

MPC's email response, in full, was:

"Having reviewed your case, we would like to let you know that we are unable to process your request to refund the miles difference to your account."

It might be too late at this point, but definitely worth asking again. When I redeemed a PEY-J upgrade under similar circumstances, when the return leg cleared they didn't even deduct the full one-way amount and then refund. They simply deducted the difference between the roundtrip and the one-way I had already ticketed, and then on the transaction summary it showed up as a roundtrip award.

It was a mistake, def ask them for a refund.
Just call the DM line and They process it.

I did an upgrade for my wife in January. She is returning early March. The outbound was available. The return was not. MPC cleared her outbound and waitlisted her on return. The agent told me that if the return got confirmed, a second one-way will be taken from my account, and I could call a few days after her trip ends for the refund. Her upgrade was cleared and confirmed. I will call MPC in March and see what happens.

I think this is a new policy started about October or November of last year. I don't know if they already had that policy when you confirmed your outbound. As others mentioned, you can call MPC again and see if they can give you a refund.

Is this 2 x oneway = roundtrip only for DMs? Or is it for all? If only for DMs this on topic. But pls let us know. Thank you.

It's for all.

2 x oneway = roundtrip miles for full redemption?
 

I just realized that if one needs a round trip upgrade using miles but only one segment clears and is issued, then another segment clears, ultimately one needs to pay miles for one round trip upgrade.

Q = what if this were an award issue and not upgrade? Does the same hold true?

Thanks.

I see...if I hear you correctly, you're asking what if you're not using an upgrade award, but rather a pure award?

I think the system works the same - they will refund the difference. I haven't had it happen yet to me personally, but I had a family member on a waitlist for a round-trip (one segment didn't clear immediately) and MPC told me the protocol about refunding the difference if/when the other segment cleared. The second segment cleared within a day before I had to ticket it, so I can't say I actually SAW this happen, but MPC told me that's what would happen. All the agents seem pretty clear on the issue of not bilking us out of 2x one-ways all the time, so I think CX must've made it clear internally. I'm glad to see the positive change.

During past CNY in Jan, I had booked HKG-YVR return in W class. Wanted to upgrade both sectors to J. When I requested the upgrade, both sectors had to be wait listed. A few weeks before the outbound flight, I hit Diamond (I was MPC Gold at the time I had made the booking), and the INBOUND flight cleared wait list a few days later. I called MPC to ticket the upgrade on the INBOUND flight, and was proactively told by the agent that he will keep me on waitlist for the outbound flight, and if that ends up clearing, then I could call back to MPC to request refund of 10,000 miles (i.e. would be ticketed as 2 x 20,000 one-way upgrades, and then a refund of 10,000 miles to effectively use 30,000 points for a round-trip upgrade).

The outbound flight did not clear prior to the deadline, but on the day of the flight, I requested an instant upgrade at the airport. I had to wait until quite close to the flight time, but eventually the instant upgrade cleared, and I was given a form to sign to confirm deduction of 20,000 miles.

After I came back to HKG from Vancouver, I called MPC to request the 10,000 miles refund, and it was processed and showed up within the hour in my MPC account as "Instant Upgrade Mileage Refund".

Do you still have your BP for the ODU you did? Does it show V??
I noticed that for ODU they have changed the system and now treat it like a voluntary upgrade which is not correct as I used miles for it!

yes....and on the plane all the FAs think you've been op-upped. Kinda sucks. I got my last meal choice a few weeks ago as a result despite paying with miles. Which is absolutely a form of payment, and with Asia Miles it's a rather expensive form of payment!

CX often does a good job of giving last meal choice to op-ups, as they should and I'm totally in favor. However, because they're reasonably good at this it sucks if you've done Instant Upgrade they all think you got bumped up.

I can't remember if it has always been that way with ODUs but I know for my last two times this year it has. In the galley my seat and name had an up-arrow next to it. Basically you're paying for substandard service. Still am glad to have the seat but makes you want to play the op-up roulette more since that would be free.

Before ODUs were not like this in Cupid. The CSO at F checkin said the PIL does not reflect anything different. But now it does I will make sure they put an additional remark stating pax is not opup