MPC hotline - in queue for 95 minutes !
 

Okay, I am after all a lowly Green MPC member.

I'm booking complicated multi-leg free reward flights all the time (I get all my miles from credit card purchases) and so I need to call the MPC hotline in Hong Kong quite frequently. I use the web-based redemption service whenever I can (for short flights), but I'm booking a RTW business class to South America via LHR and back to HKG via JFK ... which means I'm forced to call the hotline.

It was easy to get through before - I'm talking about 5 years ago - with very short waiting time to get through during office hours.

Lately, this is what I've been experiencing :

• office hours : either and engaged tone, or if the call goes through, it tells you to leave a message (sometimes the mailbox is full and it hangs up automatically)
• from 5pm - midnight : at least a 30 minute wait, usually around 45 minutes
• from midnight till 3am : sometimes shorter than 30 minutes, but quite variable

Today I called at 23.30, my call got answered at 01.05. That's 95 minutes. Listening to the "I can fly....... I can fly........" really drives me nuts!

The level of service once the call is answered, however, has remained excellent. And the service centre seems quite busy even after midnight HK time - lots of background noise (sometimes you can hear what the conversation quite clearly ... heard someone explaining what an "open jaw" was ...)

I know that those Diamond members out there face a very short waiting time once the call is answered. But I'm sure some Diamond members out there have faced a busy tone when they call during office hours? Has anybody reflected this to CX management? I think I'm not the type of client CX really needs to please (I only pay for 1-2 CX holiday packages a year, but I redeem 3-4 business class longhaul trips a year on CX) - but the waiting time is really not acceptable.

What do you all think?

Well it's a good thing that you're a Psychiatrist then, hehe...:p

I suspect you're seeing the usual woes of outsourcing and downsizing.

My status is with AA and have also had pretty long wait times - I usually just hang up and try my luck, sometimes have gotten shorter waits. Kinda like trying to time the lines at Disney properties, if you ask me!

Good luck! ;)

You are not alone, people have written to readers' column in newspapers (SCMP, Appledaily?) to complain about how difficult it is to get through to their call centre and how it is nigh on impossible to redeem miles. I am sure some have already complained to CX - but so what? This doesn't really stop people from spending $ with CX on revenue tickets, right?

Call me cynical but I think CX has achieved its objective. Get you hooked (they call it loyalty :rolleyes:) and go out of your way to collect millions of asia miles and then... erect barriers so you can't use them. And unlike BA, VS et al, there is a 3-year life on the miles. :mad:

I think you should tell us the trick to collecting so many miles!! :D

p.s. I am a diamond member so I never had such annoying experience but I do sympathize others out there.

I am hooked on this Asia Miles program - I wouldn't be able to travel so much if it didn't exist. I'm definitely not the type of person who would pay (real money) for business class tickets (I really don't mind economy because I'm able to fall sleep anywhere).

I've got Amex Centurion (3x points for the first HK$312,000), Standard Charterd Amex (4x points for the first HK$120,000), DBS Black Card (2x points for local, 3x points for overseas), and HSBC Premier Card (last year they had a 4x points for HK$50000/month for 6 months = HK$300,000).

Bought two (nice) cars fully paid by credit card, plus other purchases. I keep my points in my credit card until they expire (Standard Chartered and HSBC points have an expiry date). I only transfer them over to Asia Miles after making an award redemption request. I usually call 9 months or more in advance, so getting availability is not difficult.

But I'm in the queue for so long these days ....... and I really hate it! I only travel for leisure and so it's impossible for me to get to even Silver status. Having said that, I was silver once, long long time ago when I was at university ... that was before CX changed to the current brushwing logo.

My better half just signed up for MPC late last year as her travel would increase this year.

Now we are having second thots on continuing with Asia Miles as (1) the miles expire even with account activity and (2) the long wait times on MPC hotline.

I am green MPC member as well.collected lots points from credit cards.
Never attach silver.I usually call MPC at 3~5 am HK time.Thne turn to speaker.Maybe you can use AMEX concierge ask them call MPC change your itinerary?

I was wondering can the CX website desk handle mileage upgrades/redepmtions? They are shorter waits for the CX website desk and they are a lot more knowledgeable about changing/using a ticket. They are really helpful.

My itineraries are usually rather complex ... and quite flexible as to dates and routing. I'm usually searching for flights (using the oneworld program) at the same time as the MPC person! It'll be too difficult for the AMEX people to handle.

For example, I couldn't get HKG-JFK-LIM (on CX+AA) this time, so I changed to HKG-LHR-MIA-LIM (on BA+BA+LA) ... and then back to HKG by MIA-JFK-YYZ-HKG (AA+CX) ... I found that the Oneworld chart offers a better deal - my whole itinerary will require 160000 miles in business, whereas just a business class HKG-JFK-HKG is 145000 using the CX chart.

This means lots of calls to the MPC hotline (because I'm booking 11 months in advance, I need to wait for some flights to be released into the inventory - I call exactly 330 days in advance for AA flights...). The long waiting time is driving me crazy!

I thought reward seat release 355 or 360 day advance?(I am sure between 355~360)

btw how long take diamond member waiting MPC line?

About 5 sec.

AA (and JL) are 330 days in advance. It's 330 days even for AA members redeeming via AA website/call center. BA around 350 (unpredictable). CX : 370 days or so (the online facility is around 360 days. Better to call the service center especially for difficult to get flights like HKG-JFK, HKG-CDG).

Do tell us what cars you bought! We'd like to know! :D

I agree this is totally unacceptable. It is just about the most inefficient and unsatisfactory service (in terms of access) in an efficient city such as Hong Kong. Just imagine if someone is facing a tight deadline for issuing tickets or need to change/inquire urgently, what is this person expected to do?

This might just be one of the ways they deal with the lack of inventory for redemption!

And for CX gold it's not bad either. Longest I've waited is about 2-3 minutes. But because I call from New York, it's usually the middle of the night in HKG, which helps.

I was also thinking along the same lines. Btw, how does CX ensure that top tier customers get their e-mails answered first or is it first-call-first-served?

I am afraid not. When calling the e-service hotline one of the recorded messages during menu selection was that redemption bookings need to be made through MPO.

I also have some very similar strategy, trying to maximize miles on every single transaction / promotion, using a combination of Amex, DBS Black, DBS Plat, HSBC etc depending on each circumstances, and keeping them in the banks' accounts unless they expire (HSBC, SCB). e.g. DBS Plat 3x for all dining/overseas, Amex 10x for some specific merchants/restaurants, HSBC recent promo of 4x overseas without cap, etc are really some very good ways of earning points.

I also like keeping them in DBS/Amex until I need them because they don't have expiration. Having some ~1M Asia Miles balance now...I don't see a need to use my 8-digit DBS/Amex points balance yet and it's great that they don't expire... :) that's also why I didn't use the old Citibank-CX card at all, not really good earning rate + points automatically transferred to Asia Miles every month.

my colleagues always ask me why I seem to have an unlimited supply of Asia Miles (and the fact that I'm DM also means it's relatively easier for me to use them), I always tell them I really maximize each purchase with the right credit card / Asia Miles Dining promo / 4x-10x promo / etc. e.g. in one of the recent business dinners with a ~HKD 10k bill, the admin person paying was using a Citibank-CX card (which most people are using and thought it's the best way of earning AM, although I repeatedly told people about DBS Plat etc), and getting ~1250 miles...vs. using DBS Plat it's 2500 miles. then I also reminded her it's an Asia Miles dining restaurant, and it's another 6250 miles...she didn't bring her MPO card with her all the time, and so another colleague immediately took out his card and earned that 6250...without me there it's another 6250 miles "wasted"... :) and in many dinners with friends etc...usually they pick the restaurants, and quite often for some reason they always pick some with Asia Miles affiliation without knowing it...and it always ends up I'm the one who carry the MPO/AM card and I always get the miles... :)

well, at least you actually fly on paid tickets - and you must fly a lot (being a DM is no small feat - you're clocking up at least 120,000 AM by actually flying)! i rarely fly on paid tickets and i've never bought a business/first class ticket on any airline. all my AM are from credit card purchases. but with the credit card spending i'm able to fly 3-4 longhaul flights in business. my job doesn't involve any flying around and so all the trips i make are holiday trips.

your remark about dining is very true - and it is definitely a good way to earn miles. as for the following question

suffice to say that one starts with a letter J and the other starts with a letter P ... i did have to pay a surcharge (to the car dealer) to charge the whole car to my credit card. plus a large deposit of money into the credit card in advance. the surcharge wasn't a small sum, but when you think about all the miles, it's worth it. HK$1.5 million / 6 = 250,000 miles.

Argh, I see you are into Indian cars then :p :D

Assuming the surcharge is 3%, that's HK$45,000! You can buy 2 discounted J tickets to LHR or YVR for that money or one RTW in J, both options would cost ~250,000 miles. But more importantly, you get to earn miles on if you spent the HK$45,000 on revenue tickets. There is no way round it guys, the actuaries in Asia miles's back office always win!!!

I would really like to maximise my mileage earning too (I spend around $1m each year) but it's all too rather complex and time consuming. After spending 10-15 minutes every day on this forum I don't have much spare time to understand credit card earning rules ;)

I only paid an extra 1% service charge. Got the (official) dealer to pay the rest out of their pocket. Forgot to say that there was no service charge for the first $300,000 deposit (usually $100,000 but I argued $300,000 :D). So the service charge paid was $12000. And the 250,000 miles got me 2 x LHR in J when it used to be 100,000 miles (connected BA Club Europe to other European cities with those) with 50,000 left over.

Called MPO again today regarding my South American flights .... on hold for 45 minutes (called around 2am HK time).

HSBC 4x promo?
 

Is there such a HSBC promo? Is it still on? Is it by invite only? And is it limited to overseas spending only? Would appreciate details. Thank you.

see posts #51-53 here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...=806198&page=4

HSBC does lots of targeted promotions. The best so far : last June I received a mailer stating that I can get 4x reward points for all spending, capped at HK$50000 per month for 6 months. $50000 x 6 x 4 = 1,200,000 reward points = 100,000 miles.

I'm the only one in my family to get it - and we have 3 Premier cardholders in the family - all 3 are primary card members with separate bank accounts.

I didn't receive the overseas spending one though ...

HSBC outside HK is a different thing altogether. I have a Premier card too but unfortunately it doesn't credit into Asiamiles!

You can fix that to some extent - if you're Premier anywhere you can open a Premier account in any other country, so as a Premier in, say, Canada, you can ask them to open you a HK Premier account and get a HK Premier Credit Card which would enable you to get AsiaMiles. By default obviously that will bill in HKD, so there's an exchange cost there if the bulk of your transactions are in some other currency. I think you can also get a HK-based USD Premier credit card.

This is exactly the same problem I had last year and I posted here about my experience as well. It shouldn't really be too difficult to have enough people manning the phone lines.

I think the queue for the Cantonese speaking service is not that bad. ;)

Hum. Japanese speaking lines are difficult to get even as a diamond member in some peak hours.
Once, an English speaking representative picked up my call to the Japanese line after long waiting time.
So, I usually call an English line.

Three months back, to arrange for a tour with CX Holidays, I spent more than 4 hours in total over 7 phone calls listening to that infuriating "I can fly..." music. My longest wait was 1 hour 20 minutes!

Being a process re-engineering consultant myself, I've personally written to Tony Tyler giving no less than half a dozen suggestions on how to shorten waiting time. Far from using my letter as a rage-venting tool (and believe me, anyone would've been in rage-venting mood after waiting for more than 4 hours) my letter was polite, objective and proactive.

Unfortunately, CX has no courtesy to even send back a reply...

I think you still have to have legal residency status to open bank accounts do you not? At least I know that the last time I enquired at HK they wanted to see my HKID card first! The same would apply for say, UK Premier credit cards? But back to the asiamiles question.... not every Premier CC credits to asiamiles. Which it should cos what, HSBC is somehow associated with Swire, and that in turn owns part of CX?

I've been calling the Cantonese one all along .... :(

No, absolutely not. Once you are HSBC Premier in one country HSBC Premier will open a Premier account for you anywhere that they have the Premier service.

Talk to your Customer Relationship Manager - he or she can tell you all about this. You can also view all your HSBC bank accounts online in a single view under your home login.

I am HK Permanent Resident and that's my home country for HSBC Premier, but I have recently opened an account in HSBC Jersey (where I have never been) and am in the process of getting one in HSBC Philippines (where my wife comes from). This is all very straightforward.

No wonder you have that much miles without flying.

Regarding to the brand P,do they accpet AMEX for paying deposit or even the whole car?

Unless you really spend a lot in a month,otherwise bonus point does not benefit much. I'd prefer saving some time to rest and concentrate on work to get more $$$$.

Zungfu does only accpet the first 80K payment by credit card:td:. I have to pay the other half by cheque.

It is really a pain to call Asia Miles without a status,you might try some off-peak time like early morning (0700-0730??).

I try to call to MPO during the office hour,so I have never spent more than 5sec to speak to the CSOs after being a DM.

HK people (or at least myself) still prefer paying or issuing something on call or face to face instead of doing them online. I feel it is safer.:D

Many Japanese who are not HK residents have bank accounts in HK.
However, Banks require term deposits for credit card issueing.
IMHO, HSBC Premier account in HK requires a term deposit for credit card issueing for a non-resident.

I've all but given up on trying to get hold of them. Tried last night at 9:45pm and gave up when 10:45 rolled around and I was on the 100th cycle of "I can fly".

Question for the clever types: How do I book a redemption flight online using two members' airmile numbers? It keeps rejecting me on the grounds that I don't have enough miles, but I want to input two Asiamiles nos in there - one for each passenger.

Online you'd need to make two separate bookings. You can only make a redemption booking when logged in as the account that you wish to redeem from. You can't (quite reasonably) pull miles from someone else's account.

Fairy nuff. I was hoping that I could do my bookings and my spouse's bookings at the same time, but I guess I'll need to try and get through to them later on tonight.

I wonder if the Asia Miles call centre is outsourced to iCable...

Actually in fairness, the Asia Miles people are extraordinary helpful. It's such a shame that they're so elusive.