Another data point:

Currently on day 5 of waiting for a transfer from Amex UK to Asia Miles. Amex say they have sent the points, and Cathay are telling me that it can take up to 1 week for the points to be credited to my Asia Miles account.

This applies to 2x transfers (myself and my partner), both new Asia Miles accounts. I'll update this post again when the points have landed.

Thankfully, the Cathay booking agents have been very understanding of the delay and seem to be willing to hold the award seats that we are trying to book indefinitely, free of charge. They do it in 48hr blocks, and I just call to extend the hold period again if the points are not in towards the end of a 48hr period.

I would therefore recommend giving them a call to see if they will hold any award seats you are hoping to book whilst waiting for a points transfer to go through - I have absolutely no status with Cathay and this transfer is to a brand new Asia Miles account, so if they'll do it for me I presume they'll do it for anyone.

 

Actually, the Amex miles are already there, but you don't see them. What they need to do, is verify the Amex account does match with the AsiaMiles account, which is a manual process and not done every minute. Once that link is established and registered, transfers go as fast as you manage to log in to the AsiaMiles account.

Why the manual verification: Because CX wants to know, the Amex miles are indeed corresponding with that AsiaMiles account.
And, I also think, there is an initial automatic verification and IF there is a perfect match, the OK comes automatically and if not, a manual verification process.

My first transfer was slow, since there is some difference in naming of the Amex card and the AsiaMiles account. Subsequent transfers went fast. How fast, I can't tell, because I didn't /don't monitor on that.

Why do I think, they already "see" the deposited miles: I transferred, while an award booking was on-hold to be ticketed, once the miles would come in. And the AsiaMiles desk wasn't nervous or pushing, or whatever, that I would send the miles. Or so to say, they just "new" the miles were there, but only needed to be verified at the account level.

 

Yeah I think this makes perfect sense - they have never challenged me/asked me to prove that I am transferring points when I call to extend the hold on the award seats, which I found quite surprising at first, so they must know it is only a matter of some admin on their side.

If they had no evidence of me transferring the points, it would make no sense for them to hold these seats indefinitely, especially for a customer with no real Cathay status/history, so they must see something we don't like you say.

 

in feb, transferred 150K to cathay got 15% more

 

Update as promised, the points were credited this morning (around 6 days total wait time), and the flights have been successfully redeemed (phew)!

They got credited after I called Cathay again and insisted that they check everything on their end, as Amex assured me that the points had been issued. They told me that it was an Amex issue, but low and behold, about 10 minutes after the call to Cathay the points were credited.

So, if you think that there may have been an error and your transfer is dragging, call Cathay and insist that they check everything on their end. I find that you get better results if you call them during standard HK office hours; although their line is open 24/7, I get the impression that the people on the Asia Miles desk who can pull the strings with points transfers are only there during the day.

 

Looks to me, the internal "confirm this transfer" message got overlooked.

Calling during CX office hours is a good one, though might be challenging to get "connected" to a real person. Unless this got significantly better.

 

Adding my DP: transferred twice and both times were instant. That was in January 2022.

 

Did this recently (~ 2-3 months ago) and it was instant.

 

Transfers has been instant with Aus AMEX. Just did one yesterday whilst on hold to AM. Reflected in account after 1 minute

 

Did it once, and it was instant.

 

Here in Australia it's pretty much instant.

 

Transferred Amex to Asiamiles this morning, was instant (no need to log out or log back into Asiamiles). Had desired reservation up, when I initially clicked button to reserve, before AMEX transfer, was given the message that I did not have enough miles. Then transferred from AMEX, immediately clicked the reserve button again as soon as AMEX confirmed transfer, and this time it took me to the passenger detail and payment pages. Was instant and was my first time transferring.

 

Not sure if this helps anyone but it seems that the transfer is different for canadian users. I just did a points transfer and It seems that the tranfer happens around 3-4 am PST on a business day for both NA and Asia. It was not instant for me.