Using AsiaMiles on MH Flights
 

I have a bunch of AsiaMiles accumulated pre pandemic. I receive a regular email from AsiaMiles and during the lockdowns they sent one saying they had a new policy of removing the expiry of AsiaMiles. Great news.
But this week I received an email from them telling me half my AsiaMiles will expire at the end of November. First off, I think it's pretty outrageous that they just arbitrarily reversed their previously stated policy. These points are basically a Cathay Pacific rewards system, and CX are in pretty bad shape thanks to the Hong Kong quarantine rules killing tourism in and out of the city. But still....rather a nasty rug pull on their customers!

The AsiaMiles website lists a number of 'partner companies' including Malaysia Airlines, and IIRC I've used my AsiaMiles to help pay for MH flights in the past. But looking at flights now I can see no way to book and pay using AsiaMiles. I spent about 10 minutes on queue with MH Customer Service and when I finally got through the young lady had no clue what I was talking about. She put me on hold for another 10 minutes only to come back and say they know nothing about it and I should call CX.

I duly did so. They have a local number in here. The quality of the line was atrocious, breaking up and constantly blanking out. I queued for some time before being responded to.
The lady also had no clue how to resolve my problem but said their 'points people' would have to call me back. She took my number and finished the call. I never heard another thing from them. Two hours wasted.

Has anyone out there used AsiaMiles recently to book an MH flight? Or has any idea what's going on with using these miles? CX have no flights to Malaysia, and I don't want to do another hotel quarantine to get into HKG to use these points before they expire!

FlyGuy330 Welcome to FT
With CX part of the Oneworld alliance (as is MH) you can do award flights are many airlines. But subject to availability.
Going to Hong Kong or only on CX flights is not needed.
https://www.asiamiles.com/en/redeem-...ard-chart.html
https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...ht-awards.html
https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...rogrammes.html

Flying an Asia Miles redemption on MH in a couple of days. Booked via the Cathay website two and a half months before the flight. The new website is reported on other threads to have bugs, haven’t tried it since it changed.

Not possible to use Asia Miles to reduce the cash price of an MH flight. Has to be full redemption.

If I remember correctly, the removal of expiry date for Asia Miles was always only those earned after Jan 2020.

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...sia-miles.html

Hi Mwenenzi, thanks for the welcome and your response. I had visited the Flight Awards link before and found it allowed me to go through the booking process but falling at the last hurdle with the error message: "Notice There was a problem fetching Miles for your trip."
However I just had a flash of inspiration and tried using the Edge browser instead of my regular FireFox browser. This time it worked! So it was just a browser compatibility problem.
Thanks for your reply, your suggestion was half the inspiration I needed.

MH flights can probably be booked on the Cathay website, but that will probably be the biggest dog's breakfast you have ever come across. There are drop down boxes. There are pages that appear to be complete but when you scroll down you get more offerings. For example on the opening page there is the word Flights. Click on that and you get Book your flight All Destinations which leads you to a plain there and back cash booking. If you click on timetable you will be offered Search the full flight list for the coming 12 months. Click on that and you can book cash, redemptions, multi stops but NO TIMETABLE. Back to the opening page if you scroll down you have a different booking option. This offers flights, flights with hotels, pay with cash, pay with miles. If you want to use a redemption to go somewhere without a direct flight (Manila to Bangkok for example) you have to enter each sector separately and specify the airline you wish to use which is then ignored. Then you may be offered a crazy route. (Trying to book Manila to Bangkok and return on CX I was booked MNLKUL/HKG on MH and same day HKG/KUL/BKK, also on MH. For the return, also specified as on Cathay, I was booked BKK/KUL/HKG on MH and HKG/TYO/MNL on JAL. The whole thing is an illogical nightmare. It must have been the work of a bunch of drunkards late on a Friday night. Then they will probably tell you that it was specially curated for you to elevate your experience through an array of further enhancements. GOOD LUCK.

CX does fly to KUL these days, 3~4 flights per week lately. If you are just transiting in HKG, you will not need to be quarantined.