just curious, how often do you guys have problem with dining partners automatically crediting the miles after the transactions ? for me it's only like 50/50. for many experiences I had in the past I quite often would just forget to ask for retrocredit or lost the receipt etc, but starting lately I decided that I'm really losing out quite a lot and so decided to really follow up on getting the credit, but I'm really getting quite frustrated with one of these experiences.

in this one particular example I had the meal in late 2007, Nov/Dec timeframe, in one of the hotel restaurants in HK. as always, had 100% made sure that I have my MPO # on the receipt. and then as expected, a few months later, in Mar 2008 or so, I still haven't got that on my statement. so I faxed in the receipt + mileage request form. the first annoying thing is that for dining retrocredit request in progress, unlike airlines/hotels, they are not shown in my online account, so after a while I had to call in to make sure they did receive my request (the reason these requests are not shown online, at least they explained it, is that for most of the dining requests, actually the members forgot to give the MPO/AM card at payment time and so was ineligible for credit - so they didn't bother to put the request-in-progress in the online system, or sth like that).

After I found out that they did receive my request, I gave them the full 6-8 weeks they said they need - but it's still not showing up. Then I called and they said they are still waiting for the reply from the partner. Then I called again after 3-4 weeks and it's still the same case (because I really have no confidence of it being posted automatically anymore and I don't want to lose out anymore - although the time investment I put in so far is way more than what the miles is worth). After 3-4 calls I demanded to talk to a supervisor - but the service agent said the supervisors are busy (as always again, the supervisors never want to take calls, at least from my experience), and so the agent said he'll follow up on this personally and get back to me. now it's after another two weeks, but just now when I called they are "still waiting for the reply from the dining partner", and I frankly am not sure what the agent is doing to "follow up on this" for me.

my questions are: do some of the dining partners intentionally not send in the mileage credit info in the first place to avoid the costs ? do some of them intentionally not reply to these requests for retrocredit even when repeatedly contacted ? and in my case, my membership number is clearly shown on the receipt already - if I were CX/CPLP I would just at least credit the miles to the member first while dealing with the partner, esp in such a way-delayed case, rather than pissing off another DM member...(although frankly I don't really need the miles and the # miles isn't big at all, but I just hate the idea that I'm always losing out because the restaurant partners / CPLP are not doing their job / honoring what they have been promoting - so I will insist to get the miles this time no matter how much longer it'll take)

vs. my experience with other types of AM partners - retail usually credit quite automatically. banks too, esp the monthly from Citi and bulk transfer from HSBC/DBS, usually no problem at all. hotels usually ok too, esp the international chains, but I have had problems with smaller chains say Taj automatically crediting, but usually that got sorted out a few weeks after I faxed in the receipt.

You and I share the exact sentiments and suspicions on this aspect of the programme except I have long given up hopes of earning miles from dining partners. In fact, I now avoid going to the AM listed restaurants for this very reason alone, and besides, IMO, most of them are culinary disappointments.

In some of the cases where I used to dine at those partner rest't I find they often have offers such as 10-20% discounts to HSBC Premiers card holders and hence you don't get the miles anyway.

Would you mind sharing with us which restaurant is it that is causing you so much headache?

You may want to write to K K Leung - MANAGER THE MARCO POLO CLUB at [email protected], you may not get a personal response from him but he does effectively delegate.

I've also given up on getting mileage from dining partners. This is not an issue that's solely with HK restaurants but across Asia (i.e. dining partners in Korea & Bangkok) and don't recall ever getting the miles posted. Most of the time, the staff at the restaurants don't even have any idea when you mention you want to collect Asiamiles!

I've only tried to get AsiaMiles at 3 restaurants in the last few years.

Delaney's (and the Thai restaurant upstairs) have required one chaser out of 3 attempts (which then got the miles very promptly).

The Dickens Bar (at the Excelsior) always post reasonably quickly without any prompting.

Dozo never ever posted without a prompt to AsiaMiles but then always did without further trouble. But then they obviously decided they wanted out and withdrew from the scheme. I missed the announcement from AsiaMiles and continued to dine there a few times - the staff said, "yes" to AsiaMiles and the number was on my receipt, but when I submitted the claims AM told me that they have withdrawn from the scheme some months previously. I no longer use Dozo on principle.

So far, I've had absolutely no problem getting the Asia Miles credited to my account for dining. It might take awhile, but eventually, it will get there (in my experience, usually takes from 3-4 weeks). I frequent the restaurants at Sheraton, a few at Elements, and also at HK Airport. I even just got the points for dining recently at Kirin in Vancouver.