Jun 28, 2017, 8:46 pm
Last edit by: eponymous_coward
Cathay Award Guide Using Alaska Airlines Miles
Note: Cathay flights cannot be booked using alaskaair.com. Mileage requirements in chart form available on alaskaair.com.
Routing Rules:
North American Gateway Cities:
Western
Vancouver
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Seattle (Spring 2019)
Eastern (Can not be used if traveling to west coast)
Boston
Chicago
New York (JFK & EWR)
Toronto
Washington
Award Chart Links*:
Asia
Australia
Europe
India/Middle East
North America
Anyone with 90 posts and 90 days can edit the wiki. Everyone else if you want something added to the wiki please comment in the thread.
Note: Cathay flights cannot be booked using alaskaair.com. Mileage requirements in chart form available on alaskaair.com.
Request your Partner Award reservation on Cathay Pacific by calling Alaska Airlines Reservations at 1-800-252-7522 (TTY: Dial 711 for Relay Services) 5:00 a.m. - Midnight (PT), daily.
- If it's not on the award chart, it's not allowed. For example EUROPE is To/From HKG only.
- Stopover are only allowed on any CX award for North America awards as destination or origin. For instance: intra-Asia awards do not get a stopover. It must be a North America->Somewhere or Somewhere->North America award to qualify for a stopover.
- The only awards that do not break at HKG are intra-Asia or North American ones. For instance, Australia-Europe/Middle East/Asia outside of HKG will be two awards (breaking at HKG). The AS award chart can be misleading about this and give you the impression you can fly an award like Australia/Europe-ICN, but the chart for these award types will show "Hong Kong".
- One stop-over allowed on one way award. You can build open jaw and other advanced routings by booking multiple one way awards. Please note change fee rule below.
- Allegedly stop-over only in Hong Kong, but some have posted success in other enroute cities such as YVR or SEA.
- As of 5 June 2018 changes/cancellations made to a booking will incur a $125 fee which is waived for MVPG/MVPG75K. Bookings made prior to 5 June will be allowed one complimentary change or cancellation for up to 60 days prior to date of travel.
- Awards can be booked 330 days in advance.
- Cathay and Alaska (or an Alaska flight operated by SkyWest/Horizon on behalf of Alaska) are the only airlines allowed on a Cathay award. No other partner airlines may be used on a single award (e.g. American, JAL, Emirates).
North American Gateway Cities:
Western
Vancouver
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Seattle (Spring 2019)
Eastern (Can not be used if traveling to west coast)
Boston
Chicago
New York (JFK & EWR)
Toronto
Washington
Award Chart Links*:
Asia
Australia
Europe
India/Middle East
North America
Anyone with 90 posts and 90 days can edit the wiki. Everyone else if you want something added to the wiki please comment in the thread.
Cathay Pacific (CX) Award Redemption, Booking and Availability 2017 and Later
Apr 28, 2017, 7:38 pm
#526
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 12
There's J award space showing on a BOS-HKG flight on BA/QF/JL, but when I called to book, the agent says there's no availability. It's frustrating because it's the last piece of a fairly complicated itinerary. Is this kind of phantom space common for cx awards?
Last edited by bgrove; Apr 29, 2017 at 3:13 am
Apr 28, 2017, 7:59 pm
#527
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: The Internet
Programs: Alaska Mileage Plan
Posts: 714
Yes, it's very common. It's also common to get Alaska agents that aren't super familiar with booking LAN and Cathay, though--both go through a separate process and they don't do very many of these awards. If someone tells you "no," it's worth trying multiple times to find out.
Apr 28, 2017, 10:55 pm
#528
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: YVR, KUL
Programs: AC, MH, BA, AF-KL
Posts: 2,903
Yes, it's very common. It's also common to get Alaska agents that aren't super familiar with booking LAN and Cathay, though--both go through a separate process and they don't do very many of these awards. If someone tells you "no," it's worth trying multiple times to find out.
Apr 29, 2017, 4:24 am
#530
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Apr 29, 2017, 9:05 am
#531
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Sunny Seattle
Programs: AS MVPG 75K, HH Diamond
Posts: 539
Apr 29, 2017, 3:01 pm
#532
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: The Internet
Programs: Alaska Mileage Plan
Posts: 714
If you're here at all it means you're an avgeek and/or points nerd. Yes, most of the folks here are pretty savvy about this stuff, but it's definitely not representative of the population as a whole. Most people are like my family--they burn points inefficiently at non-saver award levels on domestic flights to Phoenix. Drives me nuts, but they aren't into flexibility so they get what they get.
Apr 29, 2017, 3:40 pm
#533
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,531
If you're here at all it means you're an avgeek and/or points nerd. Yes, most of the folks here are pretty savvy about this stuff, but it's definitely not representative of the population as a whole. Most people are like my family--they burn points inefficiently at non-saver award levels on domestic flights to Phoenix. Drives me nuts, but they aren't into flexibility so they get what they get.
(kidding, my folks are the same way)
Apr 29, 2017, 11:08 pm
#534
Join Date: Apr 2008
Programs: AS MVPG
Posts: 454
I just took a glance at the chart, and it was 3.5% of award segments, not miles consumed. I imagine the international partner awards average a bit more per segment. Either way, the overwhelming majority of award miles are spent within Alaska Air Group.
Apr 30, 2017, 3:56 am
#536
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Hong Kong
Programs: BA Gold, DL PM, , Hilton Diamond (from being in a bed), SPG Plat, MR Plat
Posts: 922
Apr 30, 2017, 8:52 am
#537
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: SEA
Programs: Hilton/Marriott Gold, Accor Silver
Posts: 2,036
Apr 30, 2017, 9:56 am
#538
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
JAL is the only exception. Though you just cant stop-over on japan to japan. You can't even stop-over on an award involving partners on domestic routers.
Apr 30, 2017, 10:06 pm
#539
Join Date: May 2006
Location: SIN
Programs: KF, MPC, BAEC // Bonvoy, WoH, Honors
Posts: 1,462
I'm looking at an award booking DXB-HKG-BKK, is this itinerary valid without breaking at HKG? If valid, can I do a stop-over in HKG on this itinerary?
Apr 30, 2017, 10:38 pm
#540
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: YVR
Programs: OZ Diamond, Jiffypark Manhattan Gold
Posts: 4,485
So...I'm new to trying to use my alaska miles, I've kinda just built them up and let them sit.
I was going to book a CX award this past week, maybe it's not news to you guys, but holy crap was it hard to find availability. I was looking for OCT so not close in, but certainly not 330 days out.
Quite easily found J/Y availability on the Cathay 350 from HKG-YVR. So like a naive fool, when I decided I needed to reverse the direction I figured I'd find it. WRONG. How about Cathay's other 2 flights a day from YVR. Nope. How about LAX? Nope. SFO? Nope.
I found like 1 first (which I didn't want) seat going NA-HKG for like 2 weeks. No Y seats, let alone J. Availability coming back HKG-NA seemed pretty open though. Is this kinda the standard? Is the trick to just book way in advance? I looked at the award calendar for JL too and it showed literally no availability for weeks going NA-BKK via NRT. Sources were BA search for CX and JL search engine for JL.
I was going to book a CX award this past week, maybe it's not news to you guys, but holy crap was it hard to find availability. I was looking for OCT so not close in, but certainly not 330 days out.
Quite easily found J/Y availability on the Cathay 350 from HKG-YVR. So like a naive fool, when I decided I needed to reverse the direction I figured I'd find it. WRONG. How about Cathay's other 2 flights a day from YVR. Nope. How about LAX? Nope. SFO? Nope.
I found like 1 first (which I didn't want) seat going NA-HKG for like 2 weeks. No Y seats, let alone J. Availability coming back HKG-NA seemed pretty open though. Is this kinda the standard? Is the trick to just book way in advance? I looked at the award calendar for JL too and it showed literally no availability for weeks going NA-BKK via NRT. Sources were BA search for CX and JL search engine for JL.
