Every year during holiday season, I plan a trip with family around the world using my miles and points. This time, we’re planning a trip to Vietnam at the end of the year, between Christmas and New Years. Thankfully, I was able to snag 7 business class seats to fly from Mumbai (BOM) to Singapore (SIN) and then to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (SGN). I was able to book these tickets before Singapore Airlines devalued, paying a total of 301,000 Krisflyer Miles (43,000 x 7). Since I have the Amex Platinum Card, I was able to transfer my Membership Rewards points over to Singapore Airlines Krisflyer and they transferred over instantly.
Flight Booking Ordeal (& the Amex Platinum Card rescue act)
However, things looked a lot more complicated while booking the flight back. After spending a week in Vietnam, the goal was to fly back from Da Nang (DAD) to Mumbai (BOM) on New Year’s eve to spend the New Year with family in India. However, since it was New Year’s Eve, award availability was scarce and finding 7 award seats was a herculean task. After exhausting all miles and points related options, I decided to go with the option of last resort – making a cash booking.
I was able to find a Malaysian Airlines flight which was reasonably priced, to help me connect in Kuala Lumpur, en route Mumbai.
I hopped on to the Malaysian Airlines website, hoping to complete the booking.
Website Issues
However, this simple booking turned out to be a terrible experience. Firstly, the website was just horribly slow. I quickly checked my internet connection and everything else was working fine. It was just this website. Details would take forever to fill out and would disappear. Sometimes, the page would crash and redirect me to the homepage, having to start over again.
I then tried the same process again after clearing cookies and browser history, nothing worked. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, tried all of them, no bueno. Then tried on PC and Mobile, still no luck. Tried VPN, still nothing worked. Finally, after wasting close to an hour trying to meticulously complete all the details for a group of 7 passengers, I called up the Malaysian Airlines customer service number.
I told them about the issue and the rep said that their website was working perfectly fine. I requested her if I could make the booking via phone. She said yes but told me that I’d be charged a booking fee per passenger for booking via their call center. I politely hung up and moved on.
Amex to the Rescue
Initially, I’d assumed that I would just buy the tickets on the Malaysian Airlines website, so I had my American Express Platinum Card out of the wallet and ready, sitting on my desk. I quickly logged into my account and wow, I found the exact itinerary on the Amex Travel website. What was even more amazing was that I was getting a much better deal by booking via Amex.
I quickly punched in all the details and completed the booking. Here’s how it eventually worked well for me in the end, thanks to the Amex Platinum Card.
Crunching the Numbers
On the Malaysian Airlines website, there were three fare classes in Economy:
- Economy Value
- Economy Basic
- Economy Flex
I compared fares and saw that had If I had completed the booking on the Malaysian Airlines website and gone with the Economy Value fare, I would’ve paid a total of 67,053,000 VND, which equals to about $2,547 in total for 7 people.
While paying for my ticket on the Amex Travel website, I saw that my total was $2,479 for a total of 7 people. I was already happy that I was saving some money compared to my direct booking with Malaysian Airlines. However, there was another icing on the cake.
The itinerary I was booking was qualifying for what Amex’s touts as its ‘International Airline Program’, through which one can get discounted fares on premium cabin tickets. However, in this case, I was not looking to even book premium economy. I checked back and forth and realized that my fare booking code was the same as the ‘Economy Flex’ option on Malaysian Airlines website as opposed to the Economy Value option that I was initially looking to book on their website.
This was a massively useful benefit as I’d not only saved money on the itinerary, but also got a better ticket type, with features like 35kg check in luggage instead of 20kg, 25% discount on a child ticket, free standard seat selection in addition to priority checkin, boarding and baggage. For a group of 7, that amounts to a lot of time and money saved, in addition to the $68 that I’d already saved on the absolute dollar value of the booking.
Since I paid with my Amex Platinum Card, I’ll also be earning 5x points on the booking via Amex Travel, amounting to 12,395 Membership Rewards points.
The Pundit’s Mantra
In the end, after wasting almost a couple of hours on the Malaysian Airlines website, I was glad that I was able to complete my booking. The Amex Platinum Card not only ensured that I was able to complete the booking, but also made sure that I saved money and also got a better fare class.
I was always aware of the International Airline Program benefit on the Amex Platinum Card, but never thought I’d end up using it in this way. In the end, it all worked out fine.
What has been your experience like while using the Amex Platinum Card to book international travel via Amex Travel? Tell us in the comments section.
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