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

I am frustrated as well too. Does anyone know of the toll-free number to call? I am from Canada, and they don't give me any options to talk to customer service with the number on the website [protected]!

I did 2 international flights (round trip Rome-Hong Kong) and one from H K to Xiamen. The miles were not added to my account. So I did the form on Internet to complain, filling all the need data.
The reply by Asiamiles:
Rome-HK and HK-Xiamen rejected due to the "expecial booking class". NOT TRUE, I had a normal booking class.
HK-Rome rejected due to: "you were not on board". NOT TRUE...I'm in Italy and the boarding pass is in my hands!
I tried to call the call center but useless, nobody answer.
does somebody know the way to get my right miles?
I go in china almost every month for my job, I chose Cathay last time...now I come back to Air China.

Does anyone know a direct asia miles number for the US. Been on hold for hours but they never pick up. So bad.

I AGREE to those complaints against ASIA MILES! Very inefficient and when you try to redeem your miles they always say the seats are full. Once called Hongkong and asked them to compute the points for my family to be upgraded to bUSINESS CLASS. The agent said "mam you have sufficient points for your upgrade BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO BUY THE TICKET FIRST before you can redeem your points." Alright then ; i immediately bought the ticket at cathay pacific for me to be able to redeem my points as the agent of ASIA MILES has instructed me. The next day, another agent answered the phone and totally denied me of an upgrade because my points are not sufficient.

What's this? Is this a HOAX for you to buy immediately a ticket by promising you an upgrade and then deny it once you've purchased ? What a CRAP!

Are they that DESPERATE to sell their tickets (CATHAY PACIFIC).?!

These ASIA MILES AGENTS are either DUMB (because they don't know what they are doing) or a COMPLETE HOAX!

Calling ASIA MILES training center . Kindly train and teach your agents very well .

I can prove all the statements above if they can recover the recorded conversation last May 29, 2009 (one at around 930 pm and one around 1130pm ).

Heck I didn't even get any credit on my Asia miles it stills shows a blank of zero miles. They don't answer the phones or emails.

I just can agree with a lot of people who complain about Asia Miles.
We flew Frankfurt-Madrid-Miami with Iberia, Miami-Santa Cruz (Bolivia) and back Montevideo-Madrid-Frankfurt. At the airport they booked our miles. As we looked at our account on internet we found only 3060 miles. We try to complain on telephone, the customer line is not working at all. We wrote them an email. They answered: we have to proof that we took these flights and send them the original tickets.
We bought a e.-ticket at BDC travel, Germany on internet. So, we got only the boarding cards at the airport that we throw away after the flights. We kept only 2 boarding cards.
The whole story is ridiculous, THEY made a mistake and WE have to proof that we took these flights to get the miles... that we 'll never use... as we can read in other statements...So we 'll forget the whole story... and throw away our Asia Miles cards. Nice new electronic world... nothing function properly.

I agree customer service sucks with a capital S.

I agree. Asia miles sucks. You never get a seat with miles. And you cant buy something, since they deliver only in HongKong.

Total waste.

Yes, Asia miles has the worst service. I recently booked flights from ROME-LONDON-NEWYORK with my miles and the customer rep on the phone said my flight was confirmed. I arrive at the airport and check in at british airways and they say that Asia miles never confirmed my flight. I was put on standby for several flights, spent all this money on phone calls, finally get on a flight from ROME-LONDON but once i got to london the last flight out was done so I ended up having to stay the night at Heathrow! Again, i spent more money on a hotel and the aiport shuttle. I was upset, tired and very unhappy. If Asia miles has communication problems with their partner airlines its not the problem of their customers, it's a problem they should be responsible for and be accountable for if they are promising their customers free flights using asia miles.

So anyway, after my tiring and horrible experience, I've been trying to call Asia miles the past 2 weeks to see if they can provide me with compensation. I've spoken to 2 of their representatives, both who promised to call me back but never did! SUCH BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE!'

Let me tell you one thing, they are definitely very good at convincing you that they're trying to help you and that they provide great customer service but they're really just a bunch of jokers. I just spoke with a so-called "senior" representative and I'm very doubtful if he'll even call me back.

previous posts are right. Steer clear of asia miles because you'll really just either
1. never be able to redeem them because of all their lame excuses OR
2. if you ever do get to redeem them, they'll probably say your flight is confirmed then you'll find out that they never got you a seat and you'll get stranded at the airport. HA.

I have been a loyal cathay pacific customer since I was a kid and this is the first time i've redeemed my miles and i can't say i'll ever want to do it again.

Horrible horrible horrible service. can't say it enough.

i cannot agree more on all allegations i thought i am the only one. they keep telling me that they will send my pin no. in my email address i provided because i forgot the no. yes, why cant they just give me the pin no. when in fact they know i am a member in good standing otherwise why would they send letters to me periodically in my house. i regret to keep using this airline just because PAL is not flying to JFK NOT LIKE WHEN I WAS BASED IN LA. Mabuhay miles is more reliable. not once in my entire membership was i able to use my mileage. it is very true that the phone no either exist or they ignore all the calls coming from other parts of asia knowing it is mileage redemption.
how can u prove that u are not a hoax at least to me
tess
setrmd@hotmail.com, setrmd@yahoo.com

Highly Agree with this comment!

I have points from American Express and been using this Membership reward point since 1994 and decided to try this stupid scam Asiamiles and transfer my points to it, I received an email that I can redeem my points for a one way ticket to Manila so decide to redeem it, they told me that the offer is only valid from hongkong to manila only and if I have to use it from within Canada i have to pay extra and that extra cost me return ticket from USA only NOT within Canada, I told them I was in Canada and no way I am not going to pay extra more to fly to the USA just to get this offer, after an hour arguing to the agent ( which it takes more than 45 min to wait ) I decided well Ok I will just redeem my points for an Item, that having been told that the points cannot be transfer back to amex and cannot donate in any charity I have chossen or they offer, so I said ok I want to redeem it with 1 ipod shuffle and 1 500GB external drive they said we will send you a redeemable ticket for your item after 3 weeks I did received it knowing atleast i did not wasted the points at all, surprisingly they sent me a letter asking to bring it to a redeemable authorized store " IN HONGKONG" and I say what the "F---k" so i called them back and guess what they told me that the item needs to be redeem within Hongkong only in a specified time frame of 3 weeks...duhhhhh, I said you want me to fly there to get my item? and they said yes, I was so upset and just freaking swearing at them and told them why in the hell you are offering membership to people outside Hongkong if they can't redeem anything within their place.? they said thats the rule, what the freaking "F---k), I said well then I said just reinverse back my points to Amex and I was told its not reversable... this ASIAMILES is a crooked and fake other should not patronage this
and Credit card merchant should not offer this to their member they are just going to ruin theyre reputation, please continue to spread the word to VISA, Mastercard and American express.

Asia Miles is a real JOKE! I was sent a current account status in Dec of 2009. I went to access mileage Jan8, 2010 . The account was not available, in active. I was unable to reach anyone and tried to establish a new account but my user name was already in use? The Asia Miles Hotline is Non existant, the phone number on the Card doesn't exist? How is it possible to contact anyone? What recourse do we have? Maybe if we pound the desk at Cathay Pacific? That's the Airline I flew with! Very frustrating to say the least!
Skipreth@aol.com

I have been trying to redeem 42, 000 Asia Miles for several years now, but with no success. I have made SEVEN separate flight requests, and was told there was no availability EACH TIME. Now, my miles are due to expire next month and I still have no way of spending them. I also tried calling Asia Miles to discuss this problem, but no one answers the phone. I was put on hold for 35 minutes before giving up.

Bottom line: Asia Miles is a BIG SCAM. Avoid at all costs.

Asia Miles is by far the worst crooked enterprise I have ever seen. Their website looks snazzy, but their service is beyond bad. I put a request in for a flight to be booked using my Asia Miles, and never got a response. There is no way to determine if this is a legit site or not anymore. They have a service pledge, but that is a farce.
I have tried calling their US toll-free number at least 7 times and spent no less than 20 minutes each time (once even 40 minutes) trying to get through to someone, and couldn't get through even once. I sent an email, and no reply at all. I would have been content even if there was an automated reply or something, but who knows what is going on. I really think that the HK government should take a look at the way this program is being run, because it is ruining their good name, not to mention Cathay Pacific's from where I got these miles in the first place.
I have been waiting for sometime to hear back from them, and then decided to just book another ticket because the prices went up for the original one that I wanted to redeem. What kind of airline, or even a ticketing agent, would not respond to umpteen emails and telephone calls? Their methodology is flawed, their response is beyond pitiful, and their service extraordinarily shameful, and definitely SCAM-full! DO NOT GET INTO THE ASIA MILES PROGRAM!

Same thing happened when I tried to redeem my award miles from Jakarta-HK-Toronto. I tried to book more than 2 months ahead of travel time and still couldn't get a seat. They said Jkt-HK is confirmed but HK-Toronto is not. So their suggestion is to redeem only Jkt-HK. What a fraud! I don't want to go to HK! My destination is Toronto. They expect me to spend money purchasing airfare from HK-Toronto while my award miles sitting there expiring. From now on I will try to avoid CX on my itinerary and will advise all my friends & family to do so.

Asiamiles ###!

huh? Two of my friends just redeemed SFO-HKG round-trip two month out with success. Another just redeemed YVR-HKG 3-week out with no problem. A few months ago I was looking for tickets on YVR-HKG for a family emergency, and I found award availability two days out.

I myself called CX"s US office twice last year for seat assignment. First time, my call was answered at the second ring-tone sounded. The second time it was answered in about 15 seconds.

If you think Asia Miles is bad, stop whining like a baby and go somewhere else. UA, DL, SQ, AC, etc. That will make you happy and will make me happy with more award seats available for my choice. Win-win. :) Scam? I don't think so. :)

I have had the same experience with Cathay Pacific. They are refusing to return my calls. I have lost Asia Miles because I cannot get a booking .Once I did speak to a Cathay Pacific Representative, who promised to assist me . She said she would phone me and also send an e-mail to confirm my air miles flight booking. I have NEVER heard from her or from anyone else. I have sent 4 hand written letters to CP with no replies to any letter. I have rebought miles so I could book a flight when I needed one.
I have flown with Cathay Pacific many times. This is my first try to try and use my miles accumulated and I now see that it is not going to be successful.
Mary

It is so difficult to get any response from Asia Miles! Have been emailing, trying to redeem on line (promised response within three days), on hold for HOURS, nothing nothing nothing! Do they not have any actual people answering the phone in New Zealand! Am extremely disappointed and frustrated.

Yes, there Asia Miles Customer Service is very busy, Sometimes lines are kept on hold more than hour. Except some routes, flights and holiday seasons, seats are available 3-4 days prior to the date of flight. You can always put yourself on wait list and CX-Asiamiles will inform you if seats are available.

I have used tickets on HK-DELHI-HK, HK-DUBAI-HK sectors with least problem on flight bookings.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles SUCKS!

It is the biggest scam I have ever seen in airline loyalty programs.

I was trying to book flights from LA to HKG a few days ago and they say there is absolutely no flights at all for the next 12 months! Can you beleive it ? I mean does not matter what day you want to travel in the next 12 months, there are no seats available at all. That is totally ridiculous.

I completely agree. ASIAMILES SUCK! I managed a miracle of getting quoted a reward flight that I could finally use but I had to reply to the email to confirm it but it takes them at least 2 days to reply to any emails and so by the time they read my confirmation, those flights were gone! I am so angry beyond words! A scam indeed! Shame on you Asiamiles. I think if you get quoted dates you should have the option of calling them to secure booking straight away but has anyone ever gotten through on the phone? I certainly cannot. It's a joke and I would NOT recommend anyone join them!

I was trying to book a flight using asia airmiles for the past 5 days and cant get through, all I got is a recorded message and keep you on hold. For me I on hold for 4 hours. They said on the recorded message to book on line or on the web which I did 5 days ago and still no answer. I beginning to believed that this is a SCAM by Cathay Pacific.

Asiamiles makes it impossible to redeem award tickets. My first attempt was a two-plus hour wait; I had to hang up. Many attempts since then but did not get into the queue. Got in the queue today, I'm now at the 2 hour 21 minute mark.

I'm blowing points on whatever I can get and never again collect Asiamiles. Also kissing CX goodbye.

CX does release seats, but only near the flight date as they figure that unsold seats are available. And, calling Asia Miles does require long hold times on the phone, unless you have elite status with CX's Marco Polo Club (then, you only have to wait a few seconds). Still, even elite status members have to waitlist - they just receive waitlist priority when seats do come out.
Your best deal would be to earn miles with the airline you fly the most, and to attain elite status whenever possible.

I have applied for a return air miles flight to Vancouver in August. I made the first application at least 6 months before the intended date of travel and have offered a completely flexible date structure. Yet to date I have only had the return leg confirmed. So this suggests I should purchase a one-way ticket so as to be able to use my 'asia-miles' return flight. Total cost of that plus taxes is virtually the same as a return flight. Perhaps Cathay think I might be stupid but the con is pretty damn obvious.

I've heard and read all the stories about limited seats available... blah, blah... Thing is, if my loyalty is worth nothing, then the scheme doesn't work for me. And if it doesn't work for me then there is no reason to stick with the program. Cathay needs to learn a lesson in customer service and brand loyalty. I will not continue to be screwed by their insanely high prices for absolutely no benefit. There are several other more preferable options.

i totally agree with all the complaints made! i have been on hold on the hotline for 5 hours (YES 5 Hours, during which I went for a few meetings, and only to realize I am still put on hold). SERIOUSLY. this is the worst hotline i have ever encourtered. Morever, i tried to claim my missing miles online, and they rejected my request indicating that they cannot find my name within the list of passengers. i have checked it 50 times and confirmed the timing and flight # is correct. I just think this situation is RIDICULOUS and to think i have so many miles with them.

I have been watching cathaypacific.com for 3 months in order to get seat using my Asia Miles points from Toronto to Jakarta (via Hk). Everyday only show that the seat is full. Now I just made a random booking starting September, Oct, Nov, even February 2013 (next year) they are all full!. Unbelievable... so basically WE CAN"T USE OUR MILES!. IT WOULD GET EXPIRED eventually. This is just a joke, Asia Miles is a joke!

The trick to get any award tickets on Asia Miles is to start checking one week before the departure date and I am 95 percent sure that you will be able to get it. First Class is easiest to get, then business class and then economy because Cathay is a great Airline and people fly them and therefore the seats are always full. If you call them, you will never egt any where because the hold time is very long. Call them between 1 pm and 2 pm CA time and you will get thru. Otherwise you will get mad and curse them out like most people who are complaining.

my surname in my card is wrong, how can i change it if im not in the philippines?/ any contact no. in the philippines that my family can call asia miles?/

To modify my earlier comment, although they may release seats, the chance seems too unlikely. CX miles are not as valuable as they appear, and I have been forced to redeem gift cards from expiring miles (and the value of the cards is LESS than some 10% of what my miles could be on a flight redemption).

Why i wait so long for my permanent Asia Miles card, until now i still using the temporary Asia miles membership card ?

Impossible to get any response at all in Australia on their toll free number, been trying for days at all different hours. This has been going on for years. Ridiculous!

No good. My first and possibly last experience with Asia miles. Found a flight I liked and had seats available, at least going there. For the return I was on stand by. So I transfered 400, 000 miles from my AMEX, put the flight on hold for 3 business class tickets. It ended up taking forever for them to hit my Asia miles account. I had to re hold the tickets several times. Finaly, they hit and I was on the phone confirming. Got it confirmed and received a confirmation email from Cathay that it was confirmed. We Have a wedding scheduled in Vietnam so I was on top of it.
We are getting ready to leave in 3 days for this trip. Today I saw something weird so I called Asia miles and guess what. My seats were gone! There's about to be a problem. I have the confirmation email that says it was confirmed.
What the hell is going on!

Iam in U.S no one is there to talk to you on their customer service number, no one ever replies emails, this is horrible I need to speak to someone to redeem my 56000 miles I cannot log in, no matter how many times I tried retiieve mileage number

Asia Miles screwed up when they entered my birthday. Took 2 years to get access to the account, but unable to redeem the miles accumulated. They want me to email them a copy of my passport or license to correct this, even after they told me I would have no issues when I gave them an email account that I have at my employer instead of my Yahoo account. I will not email that information due to the possibility of identity theft. Their solution is to fly to Hong Kong and correct it there, not at my local airport here in the United States. Sorry not paying for a flight to HK just to correct their mistake. My solution was to cancel the Asia Miles and NEVER fly Cathay Pacific. This simple mistake has already cost them 4 round trip flights from Chicago to various destinations in China and with us now being empty nesters we will be taking more vacations. Their loss!

My experience is quite different. I used my miles both to redeem flights and upgrade fare classes, which were all successful. I'm not sure if it was because I'm also a member of the Marco Polo club in addition to Asian Miles. Besides, I find your comments that generalize Chinese business ethics and stereotype the country with snake eating quite offensive. It is convenient, yet stupid, to generalize a country and culture with a few cases that you sadly encountered, or just heard. The credibility of your post is actually discounted by your pigheadedness!

Last aug. 16 my flight going to japan was 6:20 in the morning from manila-to-hongkong-japan.I checked in 3 in the morning hoping to get a good seat due to my daughter's illness.the manila office give me a temporary seat from hongkong-japan flight due to off-line and the staff said that upon arrival hongkong I can change my seat .so I asked if I can change my seat and they said no.hongkong ground attendants are very rude.they don't have the ears to listen to passengers complains.what hurt most was there's a lot of vacancy.i will never travel cathay pacific airlines anymore.

ASIA MILES IS A SCAM. THEIR REDEMPTION POLICIES (on so many levels), FLIGHTS AVAILABILITY, CUSTOMER SERVICE, ARE HORRIBLE. I called so many times and was on hold for so long just to find out the many points that are practically useless. This company is quite aware how manipulative their system is and this is their way to ensure you don't redeem. There was no availability for a return flight back for months and I had no choice but to use several times the points to book a fight back to vancouver and was not provided a refund for my open ended round trip ticket. Just get cash back from your credit cards and look for cheap flights. You will still come out ahead and save the headache.

We called U.S. Asia miles at [protected], listening to recording machine advertising another credit card continuously for 30 minutes..After 30 minutes listening to the ear aching recording, we spoke with an operator who told us no seats are available either in 6 months from now or within a few days or weeks from now. It seems the credit card companies and their banks are really taking advantage of their bailouts and ripping off the general public in every way they can with these airline miles programs. The first fact that Asia miles can't make a website like every other airline miles program ( at least for non Cathy flights) should have been enough of a warning sign. The bottom line is . . IF THE BANKS AND THEIR CREDIT CARDS DID NOT COLLUDE WITH THE AIRLINES TO KEEP EXORBITANT PRICES FOR BUSINESS/FIRST CLASS SEATS, THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO WOULD USE CREDIT CARDS ARE THE ONES WHO CAN'T AFFORD THEM AND THE BANKS AND CREDIT CARD COMPANIES WOULD NEED THE PUBLIC MASSES TO BAIL THEM OUT AGAIN PLUS THE AIRLINES ON TOP OF ALL THE OTHER TOO BIG TO FAIL GANGSTERS. REALLY, WHY DOES A BUSINESS CLASS SEAT NEED TO BE 10 TIMES THE PRICE OF AN ECONOMY SEAT, JUST TO KEEP THIS CREDIT CARD FEE BUSINESS THRIVING FOR THE BANKS WITH SOME KICKBACK TO THE AIRLINES? AT THE VERY MOST A BUSINESS CLASS SEAT IS OCCUPYING 2-3 TIMES THE SPACE OF AN ECONOMY SEAT.
After 25 minutes talking with Asia miles operator, absolutely no redemption seats were available for early April 2018, nearly 6 months ahead of time, from U.S. to Beijing. We were told, . ."inventory of redemption seats can not be controlled by Asia miles" to which we responded with . . "WE WILL NOT BE GETTING ANY MORE CREDIT CARDS ASSOCIATED WITH ASIA MILES AND WE HOPE THE MESSAGE SHOULD REACH THE OWNERS BEFORE PUBLIC MASSES GET THE MESSAGE AND STOP USING THESE USELESS SCAM CREDIT CARDS AND MILEAGE PROGRAMS. We also asked if there were any seats available with the next few days or weeks, in order to get an idea if any business or first class seats are ever available and we were told no seats are available for redemption. In addition we were told that the fees and taxes alone, for a round trip ticket from U.S. to Beijing would be approx. 3, 619 HKD (approx. $470 USD) which is about as much as a paid in cash economy ticket would cost, but without all the time wasted on phones, writing online revies and without days writing emails and waiting for email responses through the Asia miles ticket redemption system. We are very disappointed with the fact stated by Asia miles that it has "no control over redemption of tickets" and the miles we have locked with Asia miles account which can not be used and will most likely become expired as it seems impossible to redeem miles for the business or first class seats we know nearly everyone able to afford credit cards are using them for or at least trying to with the quantities of dollars and miles needed. A MESSAGE TO THE OWNERS OF ASIA MILES: WE WILL NOT BE BUYING ANY MORE CREDIT CARDS FROM ASIA MILES OR THEIR ASSOCIATED BANKS EVER AGAIN. SINCERELY, GENERAL PUBLIC