banffflyr

I have 4 J tix booked for late Dec. from LAX-HKG-BKK. These were booked around the 330 day window. I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on whether or not any availability will open up between now and the 14-day(ish) pre-departure window? I check daily on BA which I'm thinking is somewhat obsessive...Not looking for a crystal ball, rather just your own experience with this.

travellingwineO

It is unlikely that 4 F seats will open up. The cabin only has 6 seats. I checked obsessively as well for much of the past several months. Two seats became available 5 days prior to departure.

GwailoSIN

Has anyone tried to book a intra-Asia award recently? The new charts show that now intra-Asia business is more expensive than Europe/ Australia to Asia and the same price as North-America-Asia which makes zero sense to me. I hope this was a typo.

expatOWflyer

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...uation-cathay/
It's a mistake on their new tool. Their prices are indeed 22.5, 27.5k for J and F intra-Asia respectively.

newdaybegin

Hi anyone,

I want to book one way first class for next Dec 2017, but i think now you only able to book up to 300 day? so if i book for March 2017 then by December 2016 i will call to change the day to December 2017 is that going to work? i know Alaska won't charge for any fee unless it less than 60 day depart? anyone experience about this? thank in advance!

CDKing

I messaged gabe earlier but I guess Lucky had beat me to it


It's 330 days is as far in advance as you can book. I don't know why you are looking to buy now if you have no intent in flying the day you book, Its not like you can transfer the award space. Whatever day you want to switch to will need award space available so its no different just to wait for now. If AS announces a deval it will likely be 30 days in advance and new rates will apply for any changes after that. The only time its really advantageous is when you are trying to grab the overwater segment today and add additional segments later on as space opens up. For date of travel change its pretty useless strategy

newdaybegin

Good advice, yes the reason i am doing this because i affair Alaska will pull the trigger like Eithad to deval the mile over night. So i assume if i book it now and if the chart deval i can change the date wo getting charge for more mile like AA early this year.

eponymous_coward

AA will NEVER charge for date/routing changes as long as origin/destination remain the same. AS will charge you within 60 days unless you are MVPG+ (and technically, they are waiving the fee).

AS also reissues award tickets every time there's a change (I've done this many times refining partner award itineraries, and every time I get a new ticket that my old ticket is exchanged for). New ticket probably means new mileage figure. So I think your strategy isn't likely to work at all.

Soulag

I am planning to book CX from LAX to JNB in J next April, and would like to stopover in HKG for at least five days. When the flights are released 330 days ahead (next week) is it possible to book the LAX-HKG segment first and then add the HKG-JNB segment five days later when it becomes available and still keep it as one award redemption?

Alternately, is it possible to hold the LAX-HKG segment for five days until the HKG-JNB leg opens for booking?

eponymous_coward

You'll be charged additional miles to do this. J on CX to HKG is 50k, 62.5k to Africa.

There is no reason why you can't book ALL the segments 330 days in advance and then change your routing to do a stopover of the length you want; there's no fee for changing an award 60 or more days in advance.

AS doesn't do award holds.

Kieron

The award chart has now been corrected. Still confusing with its footnotes, but you take what you can get.

scopelenz

RECENT EXPERIENCE:

Tried booking an intra-Asia Y award (SIN-PEK) on CX with AS miles for 12.5k miles. Called the CSR the first time and she insisted that she couldn't find any seat even though KVS, BA and QF shows availability on X.

Decided to HUCA, and the second CSR said the same thing, and even insisted that "they might have access to a different inventory from ours". I sensed bulls-, so I escalated it to a more competent manager.

The manager said the same thing, until I told her - "oh the flight is kind of at the bottom of the list on the QF screen". Then she found it, right at the bottom of her list, because she assumed that flights are always "arranged chronologically".

TL;DR: NOT ALL AVAILABILITY IS PHANTOM. Human error occurs very frequently, especially for cases like this. A little frustrated that CSRs don't put in a little more effort to help their customers, especially when some/most of us are paying / flying miles for this too....

CDKing

No holds but AS doesn't have a change or redeposit fee outside 60 days of departure so you can book what is available and add segments later or change segments. $125 fee within 60 days of departure

johnep1

The new map tool on the AS site shows Asia to include India (India is highlighted on the map). Yet India is also it's own category.

Does anyone know if Asia - Asia includes India awards (would India - HK - Japan be one intra-Asia award on CX)?

Thank you.

Coathanger

Spoke to two agents for a JFK-HKG-JNB routing on CX.

Both the BA and QF award search shows 1 seat in F for the JFK-HKG sector but the Alaska agent was only able to find J space on these flights (+/- 10 days showed no F).

Is this a case of phantom availability or do I need to HUCA until I get somebody who is able to find the seat?