Cathay Pacific Airways review: Don't trust asial miles, they are big hoax and scam! 85

I completely agree with this post Cathay Pacific should be a shame! I am in the same situation, If I buy the ticket I can find plenty of seats, if I try to use the miles all the flights are full for months...

Asian Miles , Are in fact a big hoax and scam and I will make this time once I get back to the US people know about it.

same problem, redeems points, but want to change to 2 days later, but i cant, its full. but there are plenty of seats if i buy a ticket!

now on the phone with there customer service, been half an hr, still waiting

The worst of the Asia Miles is: we cannot to purchase some Asia Miles in order to extend the expiration date. They will give you another expiration date for the miles that we purchased (not all the miles we will have). The original miles would still be expired at the designation date. No matter- we purchase or donate! shame on you, Asia Miles.

I have used Asia miles several time to fy from LAX to Manila in First Class but you have to know the tricks. You have to buy an additional ticket in case you can not get a seat but I have never had disappointment. I always got a seat last minute. You have to try two weeks and keep on calling every day or chack every day on Cathay Paciifc.com. I have more than 1,8 million Asia Mile and have ALWAYS gotten a seat in First Class. If you can not a seat, please let me use your miles and I will be happy to by you a ticket with my own money.

Email me at mdnitrous@gmail.com. I will be happy to help you. I can assure you that there is no scam. CX is one of the best Airline and it is hard to get a free ticket like any other five star airline.

BEEN CALLING ASIA MILES FOR 5 FREAKIN DAYS NO ONE IS PICKING UP THE PHONE! WORSE TOLL FREE IN THE WORLD!

Seriously, the toll free numbers don't work unless you use a land line.

Also, whatever they have on their website as Asia Miles Hotline in HK, that's not the correct number. I feel bad for the girl who answered my call and said "this is not Asia miles. They put the wrong number in their information." I wonder how many billions of calls she's got for Asia miles...

I just need to figure out my username or even my PIN. the website doesnt allow me to create a new account and now i'm stuck without being able to redeem my miles...

This is so far the worst mileage club I've ever had though I like flying with CX. Asia Miles sucks...

I am from Hong Kong, i have the same feeling, cathy pacific is really bad service, after calling 1 hours, they still hold me the line without directing to the customer service.

I cannot agree more with the comoments.. I bought my parents tickets using Asia miles, and now we need to change the return leg. I have been on the phone for 8 hours since last 3 days, and NO ONE is picking the phone.. This is rediculous.. I have never experienced such horrible customer service with any airlines, especially United or American. They need to add more lines for sure atleast to pick up phones..

Very poor customer service. The first time I called the 800 number in the US, I was on hold for an hour until I gave up. The second time I called, 45 minutes before someone responded. I redeemed points a month and a half ago and was told that I will receive the hotel voucher in TWO MONTHS! They said they cannot do anything at the moment since it was already in transit. This is ridiculous. VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE. Too bad, since Cathay Pacific is supposed to be one of the best airlines in the world and the frequent flier service they are associated with is probably one of the worst. Gives ASIA a bad name.

Cathay Pacific's Marco Polo has a different hotline than Asia Miles and it looks so much better, I even bet it picks up the phone...

No matter what time I call Asia Miles in HK they dont pick up no matter what language I choose.

I need my account number and PIN and why can't they just give it to me!

Asia Miles is just so crap.

NO airline makes it easy to use frequent flier miles. This post could have been written about almost every airline! Cathay Pacific is one of the best airlines in the world in terms of service on the ground and in the plane - in business or economy class. I've been able to use my miles for business class tickets and upgrades. I've also used Cathay miles on American and Quantas with no problem.

Try calling Asia miles or Marco Polo in Australia and Hong kong and the phone is always busy, you leave messages to call you back and nothing, i have been waiting 7 days for someone to call me back. This is absolutely disgraceful service and i have never experienced anything like it before! It's no wonder Cathay has lost it's 5 star ranking through airline quality.

CATHAY PACIFIC THE NEXT 3* AIRLINE

I read all the message which are complaints, but no reply from Cathay Pacific. Doesn't Cathay Pacific has anybody who can respond to this, or give us some improvement actions ? I last redeem CX on 2003, and it went well. I will redeem again in the near future, and I wonder it will be as bad as what the readers comment. Anybody who has just made redemption in year 2008, could you share your experience ? Thanks.

For ALL of you who can not use their miles, please letme use your miles and you can use my miles. I will get you a ticket anywhere you want to go and Iwill use ASIA miles. Please email me at mdnitrous@gmail.com or call me at [protected]/ I can assure you that I can help you use ASIA miles or can get you a ticket using my other airline miles. Please do not be frustrated and let me show you. It does not cost you a nickel and you are under NO obligation to do anything. I fly to ASIA once or twice a month and I make enough money NOT to worry about helping any one but I see that people are losing miles for no good reason. I will let you know the tricks for free. Just email me.

Parvez Gondal MD

PS. I agree that ASIA miles sux and that you have to call several times and be put on hold for hours before you can talk to them. CX should do something before they lose their clients to Singapore Airlines. I love CX and SQ but SQ mileage program is thousand times better than ASIA miles.

its really very hard to get through with asia miles costumer service
Im satisfied with their though
maybe CX need to focus about this issue

Asia Miles sucks big time. I'm changing to Singapore Air.

Totally agreed with all the posters here. I called and called and called with nobody picking up the phone. Also, how many seats are they allotting anyway ? I tried to book 6 months in advance and it's already full ? F*ck that, they might as well close the shop. They need to wake up & realize that there are other airlines offering better service out there. I've terminated them. I feel like playing with some bozos out there, just like when you try the cheap calling card and can't get through.

its a no brainer that anything free is subject to confirmation. you're such a whiner! its a freakin freebie! of course the phone lines are jammed! imagine all the people around the world trying to claim their freebies, and its not like the airline will hire an entire department to assist all the freeloaders of this world... i have claimed asia miles before, with difficulty - yes, but in the end, i still got to fly for free - i just had to be really flexible on my travel dates.
try krisflyer miles and northwest, and you'll be thankful that you're with asia miles! Just a tip : dont ever plan last minute if you intend to fly with your miles.

the biggest scam of it is, if you try to book a return flight!
they put you on a wait list, then 2 days before your flight they confirm the "departing" flight.. then once you are on your trip they contact you 2days before your "return" flight and confirm that upgrade.

the reason they do this is because to book say a return flight from YVR to HK in business class is 120, 000miles, however if they only confirm the departing flight first it is 70, 000miles for that flight, then when you get confirmend on your return flight just before your ready to head home and they charge another 70, 000miles.. so instead of using 120, 000miles for a return flight you actually use 140, 000miles for the same flight..

ive tested this time and time again, with upgrading flights and purchasing complete flights and it is always the same. cx doesnt release the flights to asiamiles until days before the flight so they can sell as many seats before letting them go to asiamiles holders.

i spoke to the agent tonight (august 22) and asked her to find me any business class seat i could book departing YVR to HK and she found a flight leaving sept 3, then i asked for any returning flight to HK... she looked for 10minutes and could not find a single flight she could confirm and there wasnt one single flight anyday. this proves to me that cx and asiamiles are faulsly advertising there mile redemption charts.

Totally agree the above. The customer service is near to non-existence. I am not putting my credit card point to it anymore. Once I used up my mileage, I'll quite the program

I disagree of the problem you face,
you can always find seat either biz class or first class available within a week of departure,
however, that is a very lousy company,
if they are based in US, they would bad been sued out of business, they let their member wait for over hours, or you just aren't able to get thru their phone line,
poor custome service,

if anyone of you get problem using the miles, let me know
I can be reach at justinkaoh at gmail dot com

You don't book your award travel that close to your expected departure date. I also am a member of Asia Miles (and United Mileage plus too) and I have had no problem booking my award tickets (with cathay pacific). But I book my award travel almost a year out! There's nothing about being chinese / other race. Every airline has their own business model and at least most of them only have a few seats available for those 'award' bookings. It doesn't matter if the entire flight is full or empty ...they only have a fixed # of availble seats reserved for award travel period. So many people are so against chinese companies. Look at how the american companies do? United? down the drain. Japan airlines / ANA both doing great! TWA? toasted. American airline... same crap. Look at the amount of 'service' / 'amenities' available in any american flights..and compare that w/ foreign airlines (Cathay Pacific inclusive)... American run airlines give you crap! Look at General Motors / Ford? Down the drain! doesn't matter what kind of discount they give you, their cars just DO NOT SELL. Look at Toyota / Honda..doing much better. Remember it's NOT the chinese who came here asking for business.. It's rather the AMERICAN COMPANIES who went to China / Thailand / Taiwan etc..to have they products made and then ship back to sell in the USA. Americans are asking way too much money to make anything..not to mention the quality is horrible (think GM / Toyota for example). Why is that? It's the mentality that needs to be changed.

I cannot agree more with all that is said about their customer service relations. I tried to call, both within the US and the Hong Kong number everyday for the last 5 days, only to be put on hold for 30 mins each time. After reading other people's complaints, I realised that it is all a hoax, so I might as well give up on the program. I just want to warn others one thing before I go: ASIA MILES IS THE BIGGEST AIRLINE SCAM IN THE WORLD...SHAME ON CATHY PACIFIC...GIVING HONG KONG A BAD NAME. I'll think twice about flying with them again next time.

The Asiamiles Hong Kong hotline sucks . I want to change my booked flight schedule. I have been calling thousand times but the line was busy or no answer. I also left messages but they never reply!

I totally agree. This is what happened to me!

Basically it boils down like this. Because of the lack of, or rather non-existent communication of rules and regulation about flying into U.S airspace to customers, I had my 130.00USD Royal Salute Chivas Whiskey confiscated just as I was about to board the flight from HK to Toronto. I bought it in Vietnam, which is where my flight started. All the Cathay ground staff did not mention anything when we bought the whiskey and took it on the flight. I was not an isolated incident but many others who flew into HK from Vietnam also had their goods confiscated. On the flight I wrote a full detail account of what happened, but guess what? No answer or email whatsoever from this company. It is a miracle that you guys win all the awards for excellence in service blah blah blah. Even the captain of the flight and other crew members acknowledge that it was a ### thing to do and fault of Cathay ground staff. After this experience, I can say with absolute conviction that I will never ever fly with Cathay ever again. I can I assure you also that the others who had their stuff suddenly taken away from them will do the same. Imagine spending our hard earned money on gifts for our families only to have it taken away seconds before boarding without a single explanation. At least if we were told or notify in advance then we could have at least find other ways to send our gifts or to simply sell the damn thing. Or better yet, we could have put it in our luggages. Instead, it will be either enjoyed by the people who took it away or simply thrown away. One detail I forgot to mention is that the goods we bought at Tan Son Nhat aiport in Ho chi Minh city were properly sealed in security bags. We were told that as long as we didn't damaged or open the bag, we were able to bring it on board without a problem. Dead wrong as we found out. What really made me angry was the fact that nobody to this day ( even as I am writing this) from your customer relation ( I am assuming you do have one because you have this sit up) has bothered to email us or contact us to explain or apologize. Or maybe the people in this department believe that the customers were wrong and don't need an explanation because Cathay is just perfect. Well, its only me saying this, but keep this kind of customer relation's attitude up and I am sure you will get that award again next year. I am done with this company and regret I even took the 10 mins it took to write this to you. You don't deserve even this much time and attention. Remember, bad news travel like 'wild fire' and I am making damn sure I will email every contact I know, tell every soul I meet, and take every single opportunity as it presents itself in conversation to retell this. You guys truly madly deeply suck ###! The flight attendants were cute though, that was the only thing this bloody company had going for it.

Cathay Pacific by far provides the worst service in the world - getting anything done with them is near impossible. The asia miles system is useless - i needed to book flights to phuket a whole year in advance, there is no chance of getting them otherwise. I am also a member of the Star Alliance network and they make it so easy to use airpoints.

Cathay needs to send their staff on some sort of customer service training program.

I have tried to use my miles for air tickets a zillion times on Asia Miles, but I have yet to break the ice. Doesn't look like it's happening in this lifetime.

Let's all just quit traveling Cathay Pacific!

customer service SUCKS...phone problems, I'll never use asia miles again.

Other than VENT who can we write or petition?
I see the board executive but no contact to file a complaint.

As for me my phone died while being on hold. Imagine my cordless phone ran out of battery just being on hold. Either i didnt charge it enough but all i can say is i finish the CSI episode and i was still on hold.
Even tried calling cathaypacific toll number and busy busy.

I give up.

Other than that im spreading the WORD... Dont fly Cathay pacific anymore.

If anyone has miles that they cant redeem or wish to trade them for $. then please email me and we'll work something out. I use miles alot and can use them since i Travel alot.

I totally agree. Asia Miles is a total scam! You wait for hours on their HK hotline because the Canadian toll free number is busy 24 hours a day. After getting through, you never get a live person but a voicemail that says they're EXTREMELY busy and you must leave a message for them to get back to you. What crappy customer serivce! I hope this ### airlines goes bankrupt very soon cause I never wanna fly with them again!

Still trying to get through to Asiamiles...
Keep having to leave a voicemail - at 9-10 am there should be someone to pick up the phone?

Very time consuming trying to do a simple thing like book a flight to redeem asiamiles.

Can only find an Outward bound flight available (wrong date but near enough) return flights appear full but I can double check on Zuji to see if its possible to book the flight there.

Very frustrating!

Full time job (takes several hours of persistence) to complete the task online.

I used Asia miles got fed up, I am totally agree, they are so bad, here I want to say something: they are not mainland Chinese, they are Hong Kong dude- THE WORST WORST CHINESE, think they are not Chinese but after 100 years English education still can't brush out their own dirt, still they think they are not Chinese, they are even say they are British, come on, what they think who they are? Speak Chinese and doing things even worst than Main land chinese- they are better than HK - with a bit "english Education", wear that kind of English hat, doing the no ethic business. They always serve you badly, especially HK local girls, they sleep around with customers and cheat people fly with them, no wonder the airline target market is CHEAP market, always have lowest fare, but always have the worst thing for you, mess up your ticket, seats, points and everything, and always response you with a evil smile, tell you we will get back to you shortly then you hear nothing from them! Don't trust those stupid HK local (not even aware they are still Chinese, tell their own brother and sister they are so different from England...) come on, the worst chinese I think from Hong Kong, coz they are covering with nice sheep skin!

One has to test the limit of one's patience when dialling up the Asia Miles program. You can redeem a ticket only after overcoming a brunch of obstacles such as compromising on destinations, dates and endless effort in following up your booking. Be aware of any possible mistake cause by yourself, nobody will remind you and your booking will either be cancelled or disqualified!

have had no problem redeeming mileage, recently redeemed miles on cx to hong kong (long-haul service too)

if u think cx is making it extremely difficult to redeem mileage, then maybe considering redeeming on another oneworld partner... the alliance does include other airlines, including japan airlines, british airways, lanchile, american airlines, iberia, dragonair (of course they're owned by cx), and more. cx isn't the only choice.

regardless, asia miles has been working for us

At the end of the day it is about customer loyalty. I would rather be told the truth instead of being offered a flight calculator that is not based on real routes. I would rather be told that the chances of seats opening up are slim until the very last minute then to be put on a wait list that does WHAT? What is wrong with just telling people the truth? Maybe because if people knew how the system worked they would choose to be loyal to other carriers. Can't risk that I guess...so lets just put a bunch of false statements on paper and hope for the best. I have never had issues redeeming airmiles from other airlines. I have also redeemed products with my airmiles that...guess what...were delivered to my door. Now there is a concept asia miles could adopt. Like everyone lives in Hong Kong or something. Like I said it is about customer loyalty. I know this kind of service would not go well over on the other side of the world where what is written on a company's web site and promotional material is adhered to. Don't we usually call this false advertising? I am very disappointed that my loyalty to one asia carrier basically means nothing. At the end of the day that is what Asia Miles means to our family. They do not deserve the 5 star rating and I will keep reminding anyone who travels in asia to avoid them completely.

Dear All,
Can someone point me to the contact details of the Complaints Dept Cathay Pacific and the relevant HK aviation authority that looks into the regulation of airlines like Cathy Pacific in HK?
I have a very recent unhappy incident of redemption of gifts from Cathay which boils to their defective IT system. Want to report this to the relevant authority as there is a potential risk of wider consequence to all other passengers and customers.
Cheers
Whistle Blower

Your anti-Chinese sentiment knows no bounds. Cathay Pacific is a subsidiary of Swire Group, which is a British (= UK, or Great Britain) company.

I thinks this complaint is more about racism and discrimination.

"We are all very familiar about Chinese business ethics, the way people are ripped by counterfeit and fake products from China."

"A Country popular for Snake eating."

Obviously, you are big "Racist".

btw, do any of you really think that the American Airline is good? I really doubt. People can at least get one free meal from any of the Asian airline in the plane. there s no need to argue anything. we all know How the American service is and How the White people treat other races. It s about discrimination...we all know...

btw, this compliant sounds more like what will happen in the US to me...How sarcastic!

I agree with Travel Buff. I got frustrated... but have flown on Asia Miles all over Asia... for free! FREE... so relax, grab a glass of wine and enjoy being on hold... Free is the word. Once you get an agent, there are so helpful. I should lighten-up.
Cheers!