QFF vs Asia Miles vs Marco Polo

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gurgle

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Jan 16, 2007
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Hi - I am a GOld FF recently re-located to China and will potentially flying with in the region every month or two with the odd trip within China.

I don't know a lot about FF programs as most of my travel has previousy been in Australia.

If anyone could help me out with following questions I would be really grateful:

1) What is the difference between Marco Polo and Asia Miles and which is best to join?

2) Can I redeem points for both QFF and either of above when I fly on a affiliiated airline (eg QF or CX) or do I have to nominate which program my credit towards each time (I have scoured the website trying to find the answer to this with no avail).

3) If the latter, are there drawbacks to sticking with putting all points towards QFF instead of one of the regional progrrams?

Any advice/tips would be great

thanks bery much
 
G'day gurgle and welcome to AFF.

For a start, join Asia Miles. As far as the MPC (marco Polo Club) goes, only spend the joining fee if you plan to travel plenty on CX and other oneWORLD airlines in non "deep discount" classes.

MPC earning.
Cathay Pacific Airways 100%: Y/B/H/K/L/M/V
Aer Lingus 100%: Y/B/G/H/K/L/M/N/O/Q/V/W
AmericanAirlines® 100%: Y/B/C+/G/H/K/L/M/N/Q*/R+/S/V/W/X+
British Airways 100%: Y/B/H/T#/W#
Finnair 100%: Y/B/H/K/L/M
Iberia 100%: Y/R
LAN 100%: Y, B, H, K*, M^, L^, V^, S^, N~, O~, Q~
Qantas Airways 100%: Y 50%: B/H/K/L/M/V/W/R
 
Thanks for the useful advice Serfty.

So the plan is to hold memebrship for Asia Miles and QFF and credit all my one world flights to QFF and all non-oneworld flgiths to Asia Miles. Is that the idea? Or is there an argument for only crediting QF flights to QFF and all others (inc Cathay) to Asia Miles?

Any wisdom?
 
I'm in a similar situation, and yu're correct, you can only credit to one program. Asia Miles has a better redeem ratio. Consider the points needed for Sydney-Melbourne Return flying Qantas.

Qantas FF requires 16,000 points/miles to redeem, whereas Asia Miles lets you with only 15,000. The drawback is of course that if you credit your flights to Asia Miles you don't earn any SC's with Qantas.
 
hmmm - Scs are a priority for me becuase of lounge access. should probably sit down ans work out how much travel i need to do this year to retain gold.

does asia miles have lounge access? can't see any reference to on the site.
 
gurgle said:
hmmm - Scs are a priority for me becuase of lounge access. should probably sit down ans work out how much travel i need to do this year to retain gold.

does asia miles have lounge access? can't see any reference to on the site.

As far as I know it doesn't. They have no system of Tiers. Also forgot to add that the Marco Polo Club has a joining fee whereas Asia miles doesn't. Asia miles also has a wider range of points earning eg. Hotels, credit cards etc..

I've just become QF gold and will be until the end of this year, so all my flying this year will be creditted to QF - discount economy at that too, so I can have lounge access etc. But I probably wont retain gold (even silver I doubt) so next year may start creditting towards Asia Miles. I'm being based in Hong/Kong Macau hence my interest in this topic too.
 
It's the MPC that get you status on CX. Asia Miles for rewards, MPC for status.

Asia Miles is a straight "earn & burn" system with partner airlines, hotels and restaurants.

Members can attain status tiers only in the Marco Polo Club. It's Cathay's loyalty program and you earn status with flight miles or sectors on Cathay Pacific or any other oneworld airline.

It costs USD50 to join and you can do so from here: Join The Marco Polo Club.

There's a lot more here on the CathayTalk Forum: CathayTalk - FAQ - Marco Polo Club.
 
I found the CX website confusing trying to work out what the comparator to AAdvantage/QFF was. I am tempted if I hit EXP early this year, as I do a fair amount of flying on CX (and possibly Dragon Air this year), to credit miles over 150kqpoints to CX - but wasnt sure what I could use the points for. Does MCP work like QFF?
 
It says on Wikipedia that MPC members automatically become members of Asia Miles, but can't see this on site. Can any one verify?
 
gurgle said:
It says on Wikipedia that MPC members automatically become members of Asia Miles, but can't see this on site. Can any one verify?

Correct, its on the CX website, and the Marco Polo Club and Asia Miles number are the same. Marco Polo is, I think, run by Cathay anyhow.
 
CX run both programs and they are closely related.

When you join the MPC you are asked if you have an Asia Miles account; if you supply your AM # & pin at that point, your details will be taken across at that point, thereby making joining MPC easier.

If you do not have an AM account when spending the USD50 to join the MPC you will automatically be enrolled in AM.
 
SeatBackForward said:
But I probably wont retain gold (even silver I doubt) so next year may start creditting towards Asia Miles.
There have been examples where QF have renewed SG to people who would not have made the renewal.:eek:
Even if you do not get SG renewed I believe that you have a "soft landing" where you will go down one level, so PS next membership year.:)
 
serfty said:
CX run both programs and they are closely related.

When you join the MPC you are asked if you have an Asia Miles account; if you supply your AM # & pin at that point, your details will be taken across at that point, thereby making joining MPC easier.

If you do not have an AM account when spending the USD50 to join the MPC you will automatically be enrolled in AM.

I cant see on the CX site if status Pax get status bonus when flying.
Also - its not clear whetheer flying in higher classes impacts on the status qualification...
 
This web page indicates 150% (F), 125% (J), 100% (Y) & 50% (Disc Y) Asia Miles earn based on class of travel.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe MPC members earn qualifying miles at the same rate as their concurrent Asia Miles earning.

From scratch (MPC Green), it takes 210,000 earned miles in MPC (or 140 "club sectors") to attain MPC Diamond (oneWORLD Emerald).

This is done in the following way, from you anniversary date, earn 30,000 MPC miles or travel 20 "club sectors". Your status will change to MPC Silver. At that time your count will reset to zero and you have 12 months from that date to either travel enough to retain MPC silver or travel either 60,000 MPC miles or 40 "club sectors" to attain MPC Gold. Again your counts will be reset and you have a further 12 months from that date to either re qualify for MPC Silver/Gold or travel another 120,000 MPC Mile or 80 "club sectors" to achieve MPC Diamond. I don't know how long you would retain it from that point, but I do know there is no "Soft Landing".

The problem here is that it seems you need to have a member's access to get detailed MPC information from the CX websites.
 
Seems a tough program to manage. I guess it really rewards the high mileage regular fliers rather than people like me who fly in lumps..
 
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I also read that Asia Miles is not very generous in award redemption rates. By most accounts the best oneWORLD program for Awards is AA.
 
I checked the AM redemption for a 25-30K miles RTW ticket it was 190K points in J.
S
 
simongr said:
I checked the AM redemption for a 25-30K miles RTW ticket it was 190K points in J.
S
With AAdvantage a similar product for oneWORLD travel from 25,001-35,000 miles is also 190 in Business class.
 
serfty said:
From scratch (MPC Green), it takes 210,000 earned miles in MPC (or 140 "club sectors") to attain MPC Diamond (oneWORLD Emerald).

This is done in the following way, from you anniversary date, earn 30,000 MPC miles or travel 20 "club sectors". Your status will change to MPC Silver. At that time your count will reset to zero and you have 12 months from that date to either travel enough to retain MPC silver or travel either 60,000 MPC miles or 40 "club sectors" to attain MPC Gold. Again your counts will be reset and you have a further 12 months from that date to either re qualify for MPC Silver/Gold or travel another 120,000 MPC Mile or 80 "club sectors" to achieve MPC Diamond. I don't know how long you would retain it from that point, but I do know there is no "Soft Landing".
That sounds really painful. There are also many airfares, on CX website, that do not accrue any status or miles. It sounds be similar to the Finnair program at working your way up to Emerald but using Kms instead of miles.

Just goes to show how much easier it is to earn, and maintain, a decent status on QFF with deep discount economy travel.
 
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