[KnowItAll]

How easy has it been for you, to use your CX mileage?

I have close to 300K (not counting points I could move to the CX program from my credit cards) and have no clue how to use them, considering that most dates we can travel are blacked out.

[Misty]

Kia

When there are not enough seats for full fare paying passengers at peak times is it that unreasonable that people can’t fly using their Asia Miles?

[KnowItAll]

Misty, I conceptually agree, but is it unreasonable for folks who expect to use their miles (it is called a loyalty program for some reason...) to be able to use them?

I used to travel a LOT, exclusively on CX for business reasons. I expect that at some point, I should be able to use the miles for a holiday or two with the family.

[freeier]

i just booked one for my wife near the chinese new year period to go home. its not the peak date and its not the always full flight, so it wasn't as difficult.

not sure if being the MC club member helps but it's certainly much easier getting the client servicing desk there to do the work..

anyway for the peak periods even discount ticket are sold at prices that are very much close to the actual full fare ticket... so..

[Misty]

Kia of course people should be able to use them, But it's obviously not going to be at times when flights are full. Are you saying that you can't get flights at any time with CX asia miles? Are other airlines different when it comes too this?

[KnowItAll]

Misty, I have been able to book in the past, but it has been a case of looking for destinations that are available, as opposed to where I want to go.

For example, tried to book 2 adult and 1 child ticket to Singapore from Feb 22nd to Feb 26th. No can do ..

Last year, I had tried upto six months in advance to get tickets to New York and to LAX, could not ..

My major frustration is when friends tell me they've been able to get tickets to the US and back at two / three months notice on SQ / UA and even Continental.

[PDLM]

Status seems to help enormously - as a CX Diamond (for the last 7 years) I can get pretty much any award flight I want (which is pretty much always an upgrade to J or F) unless the flight is fully booked for money. The only exceptions are the direct New York flights, which can be tricky.

BUT, and it's a big but, this is only for me as the passenger. Getting award upgrades for my girlfriend, even when travelling with me, is much harder, although they have tended to clear at the last minute recently.

So far I have earned about 1.8M miles and spent over 1.4M of them...

[KnowItAll]

>> as a CX Diamond

Yeah, well, that is a part of the problem I have. I've gone down in status after having had premium status, as my travel has dropped.

So, if the airline just takes into account the amount of travel you've done in the last 12 months and serves you accordingly, it is fair on my part to judge them solely on their last years service to me.

[Misty]

I guess everyone’s expectations are different I personally believe that if I’m getting something for nothing I’m happy to go when flights are available rather than expecting them to work around me. Especially when half the time points are earned due to work travel rather than personal travel and I never paid for the flights to earn the miles. I guess it’s just one of those things when an airline does well, lots of people are flying and flights are often close to full to the popular destinations.

[penguinsix]

When I get an overload of BA miles, I often blow them on free flights on Cathay. I suspect the same is true for CX on any Oneworld alliance flight. I'm a bit of a flexible traveller though as I never really need to go on a certain day, just a general time.