All posts tagged: Asia Miles

Cathay Pacific discontinues waitlist for award flights

Published by

You can no longer waitlist for an award flight from 22 Oct 2021 when you book with Asia Miles Cathay Pacific has most recently added the ability to mix miles and cash in booking Cathay Pacific tickets earlier this year, and along with it, made a small but critical change to the rewards programme. Asia Miles eliminates award waitlisting From 22 Oct 2021, you can no longer waitlist for an award ticket using Asia Miles. This function has been removed across all platforms (i.e. online or through a call centre). This means, awards are either available or unavailable, and if the award space runs out, you are out of luck. As a transitionary measure, existing waitlist bookings will continue to be valid.  If you were already on the waitlist for an award prior to 22 October 2021, that booking will continue to be valid and clear/not clear under the old system. Asia Miles, along with many other frequent flyer programmes such as Krisflyer, used to allow members to waitlist for an award when booking on Cathay Pacific …

Cathay Pacific to merge Asia Miles and Marco Polo Club in new programme to launch in 2022

Published by

No more confusing differences between the two programmes, hooray! In a seemingly fluffy email sent out by Cathay Pacific today, the airline announced a new lifestyle brand named ‘Cathay’. More importantly, Cathay Pacific’s somewhat confusing two loyalty programmes – Asia Miles & Marco Polo Club – will be merged into a single programme in the first half of 2022. What is Cathay? Cathay is touted as the airline’s new master brand, which it said “represents much more than airline travel”, and “seeks to become a premium travel lifestyle brand, consisting of a host of complementary categories – flights, hotels, shopping, dining, wellness, credit cards”. What this essentially means is that Cathay Pacific will now focus on non-flying businesses that traditionally complement travel, held together by a central currency of miles and points. In whole, this is considered an entire ‘travel lifestyle proposition‘. For a start, Cathay will only being rolled out to Hong Kong-based customers. Customers outside of Hong Kong will continue to see Cathay Pacific as the airline and master brand, as it will …

Covid-19: Airlines and hotels extend elite status for select members

Published by

Several airlines frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programmes have announced membership extensions for affected members. Here are the details. LAST UPDATED: 29 April 2020 With Covid-19 entering now heading into its fifth month soon and seeing no signs of easing, global travel has taken a severe beating. Airlines have made drastic cuts to their capacity, while hotels are reporting all-time low occupancy rates. Moreover, China now makes up one of the most significant group of members that any airline or hotel will want, so I will imagine any loyalty programme manager will want to ensure that this group returns to the fold once the crisis is over. Several programmes have announced expiry extensions for their elite members, almost most of them are targeted at members in Greater China. See below for details. Frequent flyer programmes:Singapore AirlinesCathay PacificQantas Frequent Flyer Hotel loyalty programmes:Marriott Bonvoy (Updated)Hilton HonorsWorld of HyattIHG Rewards ClubAccor Live LimitlessGlobal Hotel Alliance DISCOVERY (New) Singapore Airlines [Updated] Singapore Airlines have announced a one-year extension for all KrisFlyer Elite Silver, Elite Gold, PPS Club and …

How I got my Qantas Frequent Flyer Gold in 2019

Published by

Although I’m based in Singapore, personally I’m more of a fan of Oneworld airlines rather than Star Alliance (and by extension, Singapore Airlines). As a matter of habit, I find myself booking on Oneworld carriers more than on Singapore Airlines, given the relative higher price of the latter out of Singapore. Back in 2018, I paid good money to be part of Marco Polo Club (which is separate from the Asia Miles programme) and managed to get myself to silver after making several trips. The perks at this Oneworld Ruby level is pretty decent: while I’m flying Cathay Pacific or Cathay Dragon, I’ll get lounge access. So after having a year of Marco Polo Club Silver and enjoying its pretty good perks, I thought I’ll try out Qantas Frequent Flyer and see how far I will get. I knew I was going to fly more in 2019 so I wanted to see if I will be able to fly enough to qualify for Gold, which will offer me more perks. For a start, joining Qantas …