Redemption of Mabuhay Miles for our Beijing trip

Around the end of May 2009, I received an email from Mabuhay Miles promoting their 50% Great Miles Getaway Promo. I thought wow, now is the best time to redeem our remaining mileage that is due to expire in a few months! Considering that we have only earned a few miles (since most of our recent trips have not earned mileage anymore), we can actually be able to fly because of this promo.

I computed the total miles that Rene and I have and we reached about 21,000 which means we have enough to redeem for an international flight! I narrowed down our choices from among the available options requiring 10,000 each for a roundtrip ticket. I also considered the best miles-to-dollar value (meaning those that are usually expensive in airfares). My choices were Japanese cities (Fukuoka, Osaka or Nagoya), Beijing (Shanghai and Xiamen are also available in Cebu Pacific so I excluded these) and also possibly Guam. I excluded ASEAN cities as there are a lot of available cheap airfares for these. The same goes for Hongkong, Macau and Taipei.

I made a lot of mock booking at the PAL website to check for airfare / taxes and flight dates and times. Since the travel period for the promo is July 1 - Nov 30, I had to select the best time to take a long vacation. My plan is to have a 5D4N trip and my choices were from Aug 19-23 (since Aug 21 is a holiday, and 19 is a holiday for those working in QC like Rene) and Nov 26-30 (Nov 27 and 30 were already announced by GMA as non-working holidays). My 1st choice was in August but Rene preferred the Nov date (which I thought was too far along and I can't wait) ;).

Trying to get through the PAL hotline was such a pain. Expect to wait at least 15 mins to get through and another 15 mins to be on hold. That is the minimum. Most of the time you won't even get through at all, it's usually just a busy tone. As a last resort, I tried to email the Mabuhay Miles contact email and fortunately, they did reply immediately!

We got reserved for the Nagoya trip. All we had to do was go to the nearest PAL office to transfer miles first to my husband by filling out a form and then book that flight. It wasn't as easy as it sounded.

When I went to the PAL ticket office and finally got to the counter, I paid the ~5k mileage transfer fee. I was told that the mileage will only be updated in about 2-3 working days! The promo deadline was approaching and I was afraid our reservation will get forfeited (as it is only valid for I think 3 days). I was advised to call PAL to confirm if the mileage transfer has been reflected before going back. I had to take a leave from work a few days later to go back to the PAL ticket office and complete the booking.

The final trip we booked was Beijing on Nov 26-30. Turns out on the day I was about to book the Nagoya trip, the PAL lady asked me if I already have a visa and I said No. She said she could not book me without a visa (wtf?!). I wanted to yell at her and ask why no one ever bothered mentioning that during reservation and even before I transferred miles to my husband! But I started thinking fast and remembered my other options, I then asked her if it is also a requirement when booking for Beijing. She said that it is not and I was relieved and immediately she checked if there are still open slots for the same date for Beijing. Fortunately there was and I booked it right away. We paid about ~7k each for the taxes (inclusive of the Php1620 travel tax, the terminal fee of Php750 is still to be paid at the airport). 

So based on my experience, these are my tips if you're planning to redeem Mabuhay Miles with PAL:

1. Do a lot of mock booking of your intended award flight at the PAL website - create a list of flights that you want as there are normally limited award tickets per flight. Create a list of options by cities, dates and priorities. Note the amount of taxes as well as it varies by city. When you have made a list, do step 2.

2. Call or email PAL for available award flights - inquire if there is an available award flight from your list of choices, and if there is, reserve it immediately. You will be given a booking reference code. Also inquire if there are any specific requirements upon booking, say you need to show your visa or passport.

3. Check that you have enough mileage for redemption - This is a given. However, if you're planning on buying / topping-up or transferring miles, you better do this ahead of time as this is still being processed manually. Aside from having to personally go to the ticket office to fill out a form and pay the fee, you have to wait for a few days to confirm if it has been updated and then you will return again to the ticket office to book the award flight.

4. If you need to do step 3, you will need to call PAL again to extend your booking reservation as this is only valid for at most 3 days. 

After you have already booked an award ticket, make sure to check from time to time if your flight is still on schedule. For our case, I did some mock booking at least once a month in case the time changes. What happened was when I checked our flight schedule by the end of Sept, there was no return flight on Nov30! 

I again attempted to call PAL. However, the lady I spoke to had no idea why it happened (she did say they are in the process of rescheduling flights but no explanation why) and she assured me that we were rebooked on Dec 1 instead. I requested her to email the final booking details however she refused. She said that our eticket is sufficient enough. However, I could not believe why she would not resend an eticket when our original eticket is already void (I am afraid that when we leave Beijing showing a Nov 30 return flight on Dec 1, it might cause confusion).

Again, I had to email PAL Mabuhay Miles to confirm if our flight was still on schedule. The reply 2 days later was a simple greeting informing me that we were rescheduled on Dec 1 and there was no apology! If I had not bothered checking our flight, I wouldn't have known that our original return flight was cancelled!

Now I guess they really did not bother informing us since we were practically on a free ticket. And if we wanted to complain they can just refund the taxes we paid.

After these experiences, I really wouldn't bother earning Mabuhay Miles anymore. But for those who still have miles to redeem, keep in mind the tips I advised if you're planning to redeem yours in the future.