I have Asiamiles expiring this year as do my children.
In April I applied for 4 Biz class redemption seats to Joburg for flights in October 2008. No seats I was told.
OK, so how about August then ? No seats available was the same reply.
It seems the only way to get redemption seats is to buy Y and use the asiamiles to upgrade. Has anyone else had similar experiences ? It seems very poor practice to encourage people to earn Asiamiles which are then nigh impossible to exchange for seats.

Sadly, long haul redemption (especially for four passengers) is going to be a tough ask unless you are booking a year out.

After four years, I have used my points twice - the first time was an 'at the airport' upgrade (before the fare code changes) and most recently for a short SG return trip in business (one of the few places I travel where getting upgrades on points isn't next to impossible)

Sorry about your situation though. Watching points expire does suck

see this thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=834313

i think it's unreasonable to expect CX giving out 4 long-haul redemption tickets in J, booking only four months ahead. even if you booked one year ahead you won't get 4 J tickets. 4 Y tickets, maybe, but not J. CX has to save places for revenue customers.

try redeeming the tickets for short-haul destinations which have lots of flights - Taipei or Singapore, for example. your chances of 4 J tickets on those would be much better. and for long-haul, the more flights there are the better your chances. CX/QF/BA to london may be easier to get in J - there are more flights to LHR than to Jo'burg.

being successful in redeeming flights depends on your ability to plan ahead and be flexible - and it always helps if you're travelling alone. i've been able to redeem at least 2 long-hauls a year in J - and a RTW in J - and i find the asiamiles system to be quite fair.

the alternative is to spend the asiamiles on mobile phones, hotel stays etc. - see the asia miles website.

Understand your pain, but as said above...4 J tix only four months out is asking for a lot. You're basically asking them to give away 8% of the J seats just to you only for free in the standard 744 config. There are a.) people trying (or already confirmed) to upgrade from Y class b.) singles and doubles taking those awards tix and c.) people who book 10-12 months in advance! Imagine if CX left half the J cabin available for each flight to accommodate such J or F requests...they would not make money. Sometimes people get lucky, but generally 4 seats in J isn't that easy of a request especially at such short notice.

Regardless, usually these awards open up about 2 weeks before the flight if seats aren't sold...the qualm most people have with that is if you're booking a vacation well in advance you don't have that type of flexibility. But really it's not that bad...especially when I'm guessing there is still award availability in Y.

This is a complaint of almost every frequent flyer program out there.

By the way it's not any easier to get J seats via upgrade from Y.

It is easier getting upgrade. It is more so now with the higher mileage requirements, higher booking class requirements and confirmed ticket requirement. I suppose people are concerned about buying upgradable tickets but not able to get upgrade. In the end, they do not buy upgradable tickets and there is no way to do mileage upgrade.

That's very insightful, thanks cxfan1960. I have been wondering why upgrades have been more available recently!

I too think your problem is with 4 tickets, not the program itself. I earn a lot Asiamiles and I burn them just as first and have had no issues redeeming them. CX availability is not bad, even in F, provided you don't ask for 4 seats.

Try to redeem your awards as 2 X 2. I mean, if possible, try to redeem 2 Biz awards per flight, there you might get a much better chance of getting it. Of course, that may mean you'll have to travel separately but it may get you to South Africa within 24 hours of each other, which may be the only way to get a family of 4 to JNB in business class awards.

Later on, if the flight opens up more seats, you may be able to travel all on the same flight. @:-) It can happen closer to the departure date. But it is not realistic to expect CX to release 4 business class seats for award in one shot.

thanks for the advice above. Actually I needed just 3 J tickets as I will buy my own and I cannot split 2x2 as my children are too young to fly alone. CX came back and confirmed me 3 x J redemption tickets to JNB in August but waitlisted on return. Damn.

So you can see it is not that hard to get redemption seats. You are getting 3 x J seats long haul during the peak summer season. Yes I know you haven't gotten the return yet, but what you have received so far is already quite a feat.

Dont you know, loyalty programs are a way for airlines to make more money

As long as they are issuing more miles than they are redeeming, they'll be in good shape. I have almost 200k AM... I book economy for all my flights and would be lucky to redeem even myself to J.

You can, but (i) you need to be flexible on the flights, (ii) J redemptions are easier on short hauls and regional, and (iii) upgrades are easier than full redemption.