Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

Today i want to discuss how to redeem miles on Cathay Pacific's mileage program known as Asia Miles. Just for those of you who don't know, Cathay Pacific is an airline based in Hong Kong so their call center is in China. Cathay Pacific is part of the airline alliance known as OneWorld which includes American Airlines, British Airways, Qantas, and a whole other range of partners. Their full list of partners can be found here .

Alright first we are going to want to call Asia miles, their toll-free number from the U.S is 1866-892-2598. Once you give them a call you must go through some computer generated prompts. Be warned if you try and push 0000 you will simply get disconnected. Once you finally get to an agent things are usually much smoother than with other airlines.

What i have noticed about Asia Miles representatives is they seem to be well informed on who their partners are, however if you feel they haven't checked every possible routing just check the OneWorld schedule .

Once you have figured out what flight you would like the reservation agent is able to put it on hold for 30 days!!. That means if your not sure you will be able to fly but want to know you have the option to have a confirmed seat on that flight. If however they could not get you on your flight you can always ask to be put on that magic wait list, however in my experience the wait list does not clear automatically and you will need to keep calling them.

All in all my experience has been a good one, however the one complaint i do have is that because their call center in Chinese based you may have difficulty understanding them. Besides that one point i have generally been really happy with Asia Miles.

Lets recap what we learned today

• Cathay Pacific Frequent Flyer program is known as Asia Miles
• Cathay Pacific is part of the OneWorld alliance which includes American Airlines, British Airways and Australia's Qantas as well as many others
• Asia Miles representative seem to know what to do the only problem may be understanding them
• If all else fails try to get on a wait list but don't forget to call them, the wait list may not clear automatically.

Safe Flight

Delta SkyMiles

Today I'm going to focus on the secrets i have learned while trying to get a seat using my Delta points. Delta Frequent Flyer program is know as SkyMiles. As with Continental in the previous post they are part of the SkyTeam Alliance. However the interesting thing about them is they also have some affiliate partners. Affiliate Partners are the same as regular partners for Delta but they are not part of the regular alliance and the amount of miles needed to fly with them are usually a bit higher. The two airlines that are their "affiliates" are Singapore Airlines and China Air.

Okay so now back to our main goal, we want to use our points to fly from A to B. Well the first thing you want to do is click here to check out how many miles you will need to go from A to B. Aha but wait, here is were the tricks start to come in, if you want to fly on Singapore Airlines or China Airlines there is a special chart which can be found here . Flying with these airlines will cost you anywhere from an extra 10 to 30% more miles. 

Okay so now you have figured out how many miles you need to get to your favorite vacation spot. If you are flying with Delta's regular partners just give them a call to the skymiles dept ( for domestic travel its 1800-221-1212 or international 1800-241-4141)

Now as i said if your calling for an award flight on the regular partners don't forget what i said in my 1st post. Remember ask them specifically about certain partners, just because they say there are no flights that doesn't mean there aren't. I wont go back into the details of how to fly on a regular skyteam partner but you can check my post on Continental to learn about that. Now what if you dont want to fly with skyteam? Lets say you decided to fly with Singapore air or china air? Well...

Here is the trick when you call Delta ask specifically for the "international partner award desk". Now I'm sure your thinking "but wait i never heard that prompt when i called in?". Well your right, for whatever reason Delta does not advertise that there is such a desk and the only way to get it is to know about it and specifically ask for it. Once you get to the desk they are very well equipped to help you and in this case you don't need my help anymore.

Well Lets recap what we learned today

• Delta frequent flyer program is called SkyMiles
• Delta has 2 affiliate partners outside their alliance. Singapore Air and China Air
• If you need to talk to someone for award on these two airlines specifically ask for the "international partner award desk"

If i have missed anything please let me know and as always have a safe flight.

Lets begin first up Continental OnePass

Okay then, now that we have gotten the basics lets try and learn some tricks of the trade. In today's session i will be showing you how to use your continental airline miles to your advantage. Hopefully i will be able to introduce you all to one or two programs a week. These things can get a bit complicated. Well here we go.

So you have finally gathered all those miles. The first question you will ask yourself is how many miles do i need to go to X. Well each airline has different amounts needed to go from point A to B. For example when using Continental mileage you will need 25,000 miles to fly within the Continental United States while if you want to go to Asia you will need 60,000.

Okay we got the basics now lets start. The first thing you will do is go to continental frequent flyer program website called OnePass here . Your going to want to check how many miles you will need to go from point A to B. They actually have a nifty interactive chart here . 

Once you know how many miles you need give them a ring at their OnePass hotline. As of now that number is 1800 621 7467 for reservation within the U.S and 1800 344 1411 for reservations internationally.

Okay so you called and got to wait on hold for who knows how long right?Now one of two thing happen, if your lucky the agent says "yes sir we have seats open from X to Y and  sure. If you have that then i say congratulations and no need to read any further . Have a safe trip...

Now for the 95% of people who don't get that reply here is how it goes. "Well sir we have no seats open the entire month from X to Y have a nice day". Now here's where the tricks come in handy. Continental has many partners that you can use your miles to fly on. That Partial list can be found on my 1st post. Well interestingly enough sometime the reservation agent doesn't know who's these partners are. Here an example you want to fly from Newark,NJ to Hong Kong right? But theres no seats available, you need to get really specific with the reservation agent. Ask her what about your partners? Normally these agents think they are god and will say "sorry they are full" don't take that! Go specific, the best example can be with Korean Air (one of their partners), don't ask me why but their system doesn't show it automatically but if you ask them "hey what about korean air" they can check out. WOW look at that sure you couldn't get the direct flight but instead you get to stopover in Korea. Fine i know you and me may have better things to do but hey much better than spending $$$ on that vacation. The same applies to all their routes. You want to fly to France for that romantic vacation? The direct flight isn't available? Don't take that! Try to ask them, hey can i fly through Italy with your partners Alitalia? what about with KLM through Amsterdam? 

Lastly Continental also has some "affiliate partners". While these partners are not part of the general SkyTeam alliance, you are able to use your miles to get a free seat on these airlines. Some of them include Eva Air (Taiwanese), Qantas (Australian), Hawaiian Air, Virgin Atlantic and Emirates Air. The rest of the other small affiliate airlines can be found at this  link. If you need to make a reservation on Qantas or Eva you have to call another special number which from the U.S is  1800 344 3333. 

If all of these options fail don't worry, asked to be put on the "award waitlist" its a little known secret. Airlines have list so if a seat does open up you can be put on that flight, even if its a free ticket! And last but not least try try again. if on Monday you couldn't find a flight just call on Tuesday. Airlines continuously update their seat reservations system to you never know.

Lets Recap what we learned

• First found out how many miles/points you need
• Call the Continental OnePass Holtine, that's the name of Continental Frequent Flyer program
• Try and get a seat on a direct flight, if you do lucky you if not ask for partner flight
• If you still cant get a flight just try connecting through a different city
• If that doesn't work try getting on a "award waitlist"
• If all else fails try try again. Call tomorrow.
  

Remember you have spent a lot of time and money flying these airlines. Get what you deserve! As always have a safe flight and please leave some comments and let me know what you think.

The Basics on how to earn

Alright lets get to the basics of earning Frequent Flyer miles. Before we can get to the secrets of how to spend , first we have to earn The idea is pretty simple, for each "mile" that you fly on an airplane you earn a "mile" or "point" into your account. Now already we have a problem, most airlines require a trip of at least 500 miles. However all is not lost, if its less than 500 miles the airlines will let you earn "segments" and you can earn a number of "segments" to gain status. For the first few entries i will stick to the "miles/points" section and omit segments.

Okay so now that we have the basics lets start. Most of the major airlines are grouped into 3 "alliances" or their own personal clubs. While being in these alliances help the airlines with cost effectiveness and code share the plus side to people like you and me is that we can earn miles on everyone partners without actually flying on their airplane. Confused yet? Lets start with the 3 major alliances. We have the Skyteam Alliance, Star Alliance and Oneworld. Let start with skyteam.

The same applies to all the other airlines alliances. Star Alliance, which is the largest and oldest alliance member include Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA(Japanese for those who don't know), Asiana Airlines (Korean),Austrian, BMI (British airlines),Polish Air, Lufthansa (German), Scandinavian Airlines,Shanghai Airlines (Chinese),Singapore Airlines, South African airlines, Spainair, Swiss Air, TAP (Portuguese airlines), Thai Air (Thailand), Turkish airlines, United (USA) and U.S airways.

The last major alliance is known as OneWorld which includes. American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong based),Finnair (Finland),Iberia (Spanish),Japan Airlines, LAN(Chile),Malev (Hungarian), Qantas(Australian) and Royal Jordanian.

Wheww that was alot but now we got the basics covered.

So now if your a member of Delta Sky Miles program (that the name for their Frequent Flyer Program) anytime you fly on any of its partners you will be able to earn miles. Lets take an example. You are on a flight from New York to Los Angeles on Delta and the next you are flying from Los Angeles to Tokyo on Northwest. You will be able to earn the (roughly) 2,500 Miles on the new york flight with delta and at the same time earn ( again total guess as to the distance) 6000 miles on your Northwest flight to Tokyo. Got it?

Skyteam is made up of AeroFlot (Russian airline),Aeromexio (Mexican), Air France (obviously French), KLM (Dutch), Alitalia (Italian),China Southern (Chinese) Czech Airlines (Czech of course) Delta (USA), Korean Air (Korean), NWA and Continental (USA)

What do we still get for flying (and what we dont anymore)

So welcome to my new blog. I'm just starting up here and i have a pretty good idea where to begin. As most of you are aware travelling by air these days can be pretty hectic. You got the TSA (Transportation Security Agency), lines, X-rays, Liquids, and what ever else the govt can think of not letting you do on airplanes. Oh and by the way after doing all of these things you still even haven't gotten near the plane yet. So now you have spend $$$ on that business trip or family vacation. You now have the pleasure to get into a airplane and if you are travelling within the U.S or Europe ( even in flights in some Asian destination) you will have to shell out $$$ for stuff we used to get for free , ( food, space, quiet :) etc...) Well so what do we still have left?? That Frequent Flyer Program ( well most of the time) in this blog i hope to introduce everyone to the basics of it and the secrets i have learned on how to do the impossible , actually get the award.