Hi,

I'm new to the forum and I'm looking forward to contribute in the future. I have a question regarding Asia Miles redemption.

My sister has 65,041 Asia Miles in her account and some 14230 Miles will be expired at the end of this year. She would like to redeem them before they expired.

I understand that it is by no mean easy to redeem flights nowadays but I couldn't quite believe her when she told me she couldn't find one single flight for the next year. She just wants to go from Melbourne (Australia) to Hong Kong on an economic seat with Cathay Pacific, preferably sometime in late February/ early March. Cathay flies three times daily from Melbourne to Hong Kong.

I'm not sure whether there is a special way to check availability but I just did it on the Asia Miles website. There is absolutely nothing available from 28th of October this year until 14th of March next year. No first class, no business and no economic seat at all. I didn't bother to check before 28/10 or after 14/03.

I did search the forum and found someone was having a hard time looking for 4 business seats to travel in a few months. And he did find three seats at the end!

Am I doing anything wrong here? Is it easier to call them instead of doing it online?

I did try searching for flights that depart today and in the next couple of weeks and there are plenty available. Is waiting until the last minute the only way to score a seat? Also, she's not a Macro Polo member and I'm sure she would join if it helps her but I don't think it would from the description of it.

Thanks,
Alan

Did you know you can pay a small fee and renew those points?

Yes I know that I can. But I'm just after one economic seat, six or seven months (flexible) out on a zone C distance (45000 miles required for returned economic), with Cathay flying three times a day. I don't think it is too much to ask. And if I can't even redeem it then I wonder there is much point to pay and renew all the points.

redeeming upgrades are much easier than redeeming tickets

I think OP meant there was no availability even for economy award bookings.

Nothing is available for a upgrade from economic to business for the entire February and March either.

Have you tried to use the miles for a flight on Qantas instead?

Hello yangry, welcome to our little forum on FlyerTalk!

Yes CX seats are hard to come by as it is, and even more so in the peak travel months of Feb and March.

You would have to call Asiamiles for assistance to look for seats as the online engine is not reliable. You may also want to try routing via Singapore, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane for onward connection to Melbourne. You may also want to consider Qantas.

Asiamiles also would like you to waitlist for the flights, and in due time, they will clear. That is one major advantage to be on Asiamiles.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I haven't tried checking Qantas because I don't think you can check it online with Asia Miles, unlike Cathay Pacific.

I knew it will be hard to redeem a ticket but I didn't think it will be that hard! And I had no idea Feb and Mar are peak travel months. I thought Dec/Jan are the peak season.

Normally Feb is peak season for Hong Kong and China as we have the long Chinese New Year Holidays! ^

I would have thought a single economy class ticket would be real easy to get!

Especially considering that from 28/10 to 14/03 is a rather long period of time.

Exactly, that's why I'm not sure whether I'm doing anything wrong.

I checked departing from Sydney (to Hong Kong) as well. I checked for the period from 1st of November 2008 to 14th of March 2009. There are 4 available flights departing Sydney: 4th, 5th of November and 10th, 29th of January, but none of the flights departing Hong Kong is available.

Cathay flies three times a day from/to both Melbourne and Sydney. Surely there gonna be ONE spare seat from Hong Kong to either Melbourne and Sydney in a period of nearly five months.

I think going from/to Sydney is as far as she's willing to travel. Brisbane, Perth or Singapore is just too much of a hassle. I don't think late Feb, early March is Chinese New Year and I think the price of a flight is reasonable low, she might just have to cough up $1000 or something.

Must say I'm very disappointed with Asia Miles. We try to fly Cathay whenever possible. Yes I know redeeming for flights is hard but six months out only wanting an economic seat on a route that's being serviced three times a day surely isn't too much too ask.

Asia Miles points are pretty much worthless if such simple request can't be fulfilled. I know other people have successfully redeem for flights without issue but I just don't understand why it is so hard. Can anyone please check with your Asia Miles account and see whether any flights is available for you?

Alan

I tried to redeem J ticket to Sapporo as well and availability can be found in next 2 weeks but not later or even 1 year later. Trust that CX releases the seats when closer to the date. Just my observation.

Make that 4 times a day to Sydney from late October.

frankly, I don't think CX has made that much efforts in really trying to release seats for redemption. supposedly they have tons of past historical data to estimate potential loads and what # seats can be available etc (afterall I thought that's a key capability of an airline). and given there's always many redemption seats being released within ~2 weeks of departure, I really doubt CX's system really showed a few months ago that all these flights will be booked solid by revenue tickets eventually and so could not release any seat earlier - if so they really have big problem with their yield management system.

instead of really using the data to do some reasonable forecast and at least release a few seats for redemption, they choose to almost always not release anything until ~2 weeks within departure (this is a bit extraggerating of course, but close). well, their computer might tell them there's a 1% chance of a flight getting full eventually, but what they do is to bet on this 1% and want to maximize as much as possible so keeping every seat, instead of acting more rationally on the 99% probability that there will be seats available and that they could release a seat or two...

well, as a DM I feel less pain about this. but I just feel the pain to the more general public...yes, we understand we need flexibility in redeeming tickets - in terms of timing, routing, class of travel, etc...but if there's really nothing no matter how flexible you are, then I think the program will just more and more gradually be considered a scam...