garykung

Actually, that's correct for now. Studying abroad, as well the impact from BN(O) Visa, has been driving the U.K. traffic. If the HKSAR Government does not ban the flights in the name of COVID-19, it would be more busy.

jeremybe

Was supposed to go on an Asian cruise this Feb which was just cancelled (unsurprisingly) - Have 6 one way tickets that were booked - 3 BOS to HKG and 3 Singapore to HKG - Close to 500K miles - They're asking for $720 in cancellation fees to reinstate the miles -Of the 500K miles 4K will be expiring Sept 30,21 and the remaining miles will be expire on Sept 30, 22- Flights currently booked aren't until Feb 13, 2022 and Feb 26, 2022- I have an Asia trip I'd like to book for Feb 20,23 - Do I have any options other than absorbing the $720? I have 70K miles in wife's account - Can I use that to pay fees if needed? Any help is appreciated - This is second time this has been rebooked and i've been hit with fees

gnomey

just wait for the airlines to cancel on you. are bos-hkg and sin-hkg even operating on a regular basis? if not then the cancellation likelihood is higher

i believe if flight cancallation happen after mileage expiration, the miles will be reinstated with new expiration. so the 4K doesnt actually disappear down the blackhole

no idea what's the policy for AM but technically i think airlines should allow full refund without penalty if guests cannot enter country.

however, i also understand if airlines stop doing that if at the time of booking, the policy of no-entry was already in place.

just stop booking. i dont quite understand why people continue booking trips again and again to destinations that are not allowing foreigners in. how can it be worth it to guarantee J seats months ahead, continue paying more miles and $, but with the unknown clarity of traveling? anytime you trap miles in such booking, you preclude yourself from traveling to other open destination

percysmith

No such concession.

gnomey

good to know. will actually stop a lot of speculative bookings if all airlines do that. but i guess airlines also want the revenue as interest-free loan in the meanwhile.

i cant imagine the administrative work required especially when cancellations are not automated. they will also be eating the credit card fees over time everytime refund happens.

percysmith

But then again if we don’t keep booking and cancelling (with cancellation fee paid for by miles) 12 months out, we cannot redeem tickets when it is certain entry restrictions are lifted.

300,000 mile round trip to Japan in Y scenario.

P.S. doing this booking and cancelling also helps keeps extending those miles into next bracket - reduces the number of engineered cancellation bookings we have to do. I am planning ahead into 2022 and 2023, the number of miles we will have to extend in the 2023 bracket is massive.

gnomey

it's going to take a while for commercial flying to pick up even after borders have reopened.

many are still not traveling out of US these days even with US having relatively open borders.

main barriers for most people are
- home country require testing -> tested positive -> cannot board plane to return home
- home country doesnt require testing but mandatory quarantine -> $$$

if no such obstacles, then i can imagine people will be more relaxed in traveling.

in any case, AM is the winner here. get free loan, and on top of that people are liquidating miles (aka liability) to pay fees

Ozchinois

When I rang today to ask, I was told that I would get the 18 months extension (no strings attached) because of my status but the extension will start from the month you made the request.

beach86

18 month extension for expiring miles? When were they expiring? What is your status? I have 180k expiring in Jan 22.
Thanks

Ozchinois

Mine are expiring at the end of Oct 2021. I am Diamond. Try calling them to check if you can extend for free.

ftrichard

Can I ask a quick question to people who have successfully extended their expiring Asia Miles.

Did you call Marco Polo Club or Asia Miles and what was the process that you went through?

I have miles expiring at the end of October so going by the advice in this forum I waited until now to contact them. I am Gold and just called Marco Polo Club in Hong Kong. The guy couldn't extend the expiry date there and then but has raised a request and said it may be done by the middle of next week.

However he's just called me back... I've never been resident in HK but am currently kind of trapped here as a visitor after leaving my job and residency in Shenzhen in March. After I spoke to him I realised that my Marco Polo contact details were still in the mainland so I changed them to HK. However the guy called me back asking me to change them back to Shenzhen while they submit the extension request. I tried to do this but cannot because the Marco Polo web site does not allow me to submit a mainland post code right now for reasons so I cannot change the address back. So I've changed to address to the UK.

I've read about people who have got extensions simply by calling. Hence, my question: who did you call and what was the process.

Thanks.

Sandeep1

I used Live Chat, as have many on this thread.

garykung

It is a reward issue. So your first POC should be AM, not MPC. While MPC may be able to do it, there is no such suggesting as such.

mr_botak

Live chat. Took about 2 minutes to convert expiring miles to activity based expiry.

ftrichard

Just to update: After starting with MPC, I tried AM Live Chat and the agent could see that I'd raised a request already so he said I should wait a week and it would be done.

Naturally, more than a week later, nothing has happened apart from my Asia Miles expiring on October 31 as you'd expect.

So I got on to to the AM Live Chat again today and asked a different agent for an update. She could see that my miles had expired on October 31. She reinstated them immediately and they appeared back on my account while I was chatting with her.

Quite why they couldn't do this last week is a mystery but the moral is that Live Chat is indeed the first port of call.