Wongo

And my uncle join the SCB Bank with deposit targets, and will be given 1.6m of AM,. Guess that 1.6m will worth less once he get them in 6 months time.

cyster2007

FlyPointyEnd

If AM will devalue, CX should also charge more for redemptions made by partners. I remember planning to redeem when Washington DC was announced last year. MNL to IAD on CX was only 100K miles for AS redemption but AM was already at 135K.

marcommm

When compared to BA Avios in short-haul, Asiamiles is already not that competitive. And BA seems to have notice the Hong Kong market and do quite a number of promotions recently to make it known to more people. The strength of Asiamiles is in long haul premium classes and OW awards but both usually require more than 100k to make good values. Of course, this is not much for most of us, it is quite a lot for the general public. Coupled with the insanely long waiting time of the hotline for redeeming anything apart from simple return tickets, it is a stupid idea to weaken its only strength. Not to mention sth callled AS exists.

But anything could happen. I hope it would just be adding PEY into OW awards and slight devaluation in J and F in ultra high miles range.

fakecd

knowing Cx they will probably do a PR stunt by reducing economy redemption chart so they brag their "enhancement"

expect them to almost make it impossible to redeem the lower threshold standard award, with further ENHANCEMENT that more prioriy awards (which, will have stealth increase in points) be made available, to an extent priority level 2 will be redeemable provided economy ie available for sale (except priority 2 to.cost more than bizzo award)

Nicc HK

In fantasy land: Merge Air Miles with MPC into a single programme, then create a professionally managed business.

In CX land: Screw the loyalist proles, because they will never defect, then follow fakecd's suggestions above.

kaka

percysmith

sscywong

A popular post in fb today is how to make good use of the 2 stopover and the openjaw, like 30K miles for two trips: HKG-oKIX-oHKG-TPE//KHH-HKG

Guess more and more people will make use of this rule if short haul redemption cost more...

IncyWincy

I thought that for the example above (HKG-oKIX-oHKG-TPE//KHH-HKG) the turnaround point would be HKG so the outbound will determine that the award be zone C which is 45,000 miles for Economy?

Also, I am not sure if they allow HKG to be the beginning, turnaround and end points. Is that allowed?

Cathay Dragon 666

As many has said, it's only a matter of time, and the last change was 10 years ago so Cathay management may feel it's time for an "enhancement"

I would also concur that this will undo all the right Cathay was trying to do to win frequent flyers back (offering better food, redo the points system). You are just starting to show people you care about frequent flyers, and you are now giving a big m finger to what is one of the benefit that any frequent flyers would value the most - accumulation of miles for future redemption.

This can seriously be my last straw of stopping to fly Cathay as a preferred airline (downgrade from what was the ONLY airline I fly in the past). I still look up Cathay first and if the price is within reasonable range, I wouldn't mind paying a some extra fares to fly Cathay. Simply because I got my Cathay Visa and I want to keep accumulating miles to redeem an upgrade booking from time to time. Paying for R and upgrade fees to their C class in itself is sometimes even more expensive than buying another flyer's C class directly, but I still do it. If Cathay is making it more costly, then it's time to drop Cathay to just another airline to compare with.

As for some people claiming Cathay is throwing away miles that's why the tightening up of redemption. Where? I guess I have to be in Hong Kong, but I can't imagine Cathay throwing away miles the way AA is doing. I just earned 500K AA miles the past few months simply by doing some household transaction that I needed to do anyway. Also, AA is still very generous in throwing miles to higher tier fliers and higher ticket fares, something Cathay are not (150% miles for a F ticket at their price is just a joke, 125% for C tickets too).

All in all, this is another suicidal cost-cutting move made by accountants that have no idea what Cathay flyers want (or don't want), and cutting expenses at all of the wrong places. But hey, you get a little better food now.

sscywong

It should be

HKG-KIX
KIX-oHKG-TPE
KHH-HKG

And seems according to the rules HKG can be all of the start, turnaround and end points.... At least per that fb post it's ok...

IncyWincy

How can it be 30K miles? According to what?

Maybe you can post the fb link here?

percysmith

Great Circle Mapper 2,041+413 < 2,500

marcuslai

Really not a surprise given how asiamiles are given away like candy on every banking transaction. Would not mind a sensible adjustment but wish they would increase award requirements more from non-asiamiles programs.

Only advice is spend quickly !!