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
Feb 8, 2017, 11:52 am
#181
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Victoria, B.C.
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, AA Gold LT
Posts: 1,941
How much worse is AS availability to book CX flights
Is there a rule of thumb when booking Cathay flights using AS points?
I needed to go to New York. The flight from Seattle was 30K in coach. So I decided to look at going from Vancouver on Cathay. Sure enough at BritishAirways.com I was able to find a couple of dates (as we are close to departure) next week that had standard business class (and first class too) available between Vancouver and JFK.
Anyhow looking at Feb 17th for example AS couldn't see anything JFK-YVR for the return in any class of service. So I asked the agent to check other dates and she said the following day the 18th there was availability in business. So I booked it.
British Airways was showing
one business, one first on the 17th
3 business and one first on the 18th.
So the pattern I noticed was there needed to be MORE THAN 1 seat bookable to use my Alaska Miles on Cathay. What do you think???
Then I called up AA and booked using 30K AA points the date (17th) that I wanted. And for data point, AA could see the exact same as BA. Just Alaska couldn't.
I needed to go to New York. The flight from Seattle was 30K in coach. So I decided to look at going from Vancouver on Cathay. Sure enough at BritishAirways.com I was able to find a couple of dates (as we are close to departure) next week that had standard business class (and first class too) available between Vancouver and JFK.
Anyhow looking at Feb 17th for example AS couldn't see anything JFK-YVR for the return in any class of service. So I asked the agent to check other dates and she said the following day the 18th there was availability in business. So I booked it.
British Airways was showing
one business, one first on the 17th
3 business and one first on the 18th.
So the pattern I noticed was there needed to be MORE THAN 1 seat bookable to use my Alaska Miles on Cathay. What do you think???
Then I called up AA and booked using 30K AA points the date (17th) that I wanted. And for data point, AA could see the exact same as BA. Just Alaska couldn't.
Feb 8, 2017, 11:56 am
#182
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Feb 8, 2017, 1:22 pm
#183
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Victoria, B.C.
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, AA Gold LT
Posts: 1,941
Feb 8, 2017, 1:44 pm
#184
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: LAX
Posts: 10,909
I booked LAX-HKG-CEB and back recently - some flights were available to AS in exactly as seen on BA, some not visible completely despite multiple seats available to BA.
The moment i booked those flights were gone from BA so this is real time..
The moment i booked those flights were gone from BA so this is real time..
Feb 8, 2017, 3:41 pm
#185
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: CGK/LAX
Programs: KF,JMB, OZ, SPG,AA,UA,AS
Posts: 1,163
I had some mismatch issues today when dealing with a simple booking. I was booking a simple one-way redemption for HKG-LAX in J for August. I was using BA and JL to match availability.
The first flight (and my preferred flight) I asked for showed 3 available seats when searching via BA and JL. The AS rep could not find any seats. The second flight I asked for showed 1 available seat when searching via JL and BA and she was immediately able to find a seat, so I booked that flight.
She seemed competent but I figured I would call back and see if another agent could find a seat on my preferred flight which was still showing 3 available seats in J via BA and JL. I called an additional four times today and none of the reps were able to find availability in J, all were able to see availability in Y on that specific flight.
The first flight (and my preferred flight) I asked for showed 3 available seats when searching via BA and JL. The AS rep could not find any seats. The second flight I asked for showed 1 available seat when searching via JL and BA and she was immediately able to find a seat, so I booked that flight.
She seemed competent but I figured I would call back and see if another agent could find a seat on my preferred flight which was still showing 3 available seats in J via BA and JL. I called an additional four times today and none of the reps were able to find availability in J, all were able to see availability in Y on that specific flight.
Feb 8, 2017, 4:33 pm
#186
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 259
trying to book DPS-HKG-LAX-SEA via CX using AS miles. Called many times, Alaska agent wasn't able to find the availability for DPS-HKG. whereas, JAL & BA site shows 4 seats in economy available. Also called AA to check DPS-HKG availability and AA agent said there are 2+ award seats available! It is getting frustrating!
Feb 8, 2017, 7:14 pm
#187
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: The Internet
Programs: Alaska Mileage Plan
Posts: 714
North America to Asia, India, Africa, Australia and NZ allows a connection (with optional stopover) in Hong Kong.
You cannot route to Europe on Cathay from anywhere except Hong Kong. Only awards directly to and from Hong Kong are allowed.
You cannot route to Europe on Cathay from anywhere except Hong Kong. Only awards directly to and from Hong Kong are allowed.
Unfortunately it's sorta difficult to tell where things stand, because those route rule notes were wiped from the AS award chart CX details the last time they were updated on the AS website, and haven't been fixed (yet?) The only one I'm certain of is the HKG to Australia or New Zealand (NO stopover allowed, it's specifically calculated only from HKG). But I seem to recall pre-update that the Asia/Europe or Asia/Africa (which is only South Africa) DID allow a stopover in HKG, since they were priced similar to the C1/C3 awards. That still seems to be the case.
Basically, if you see an F award in the ~30K range then it's no stopover. If it's more like in the ~70K range, you're good with a stopover. YMMV, but I'd say this is definitely a HUCA opportunity. (Make sure to ask to go straight to the Partner Awards desk so you're not wasting your time...)
Would really be nice if they fixed the website on this one, it's created a lot of confusion for everyone.
I really should message Missydarlin on this one...
Basically, if you see an F award in the ~30K range then it's no stopover. If it's more like in the ~70K range, you're good with a stopover. YMMV, but I'd say this is definitely a HUCA opportunity. (Make sure to ask to go straight to the Partner Awards desk so you're not wasting your time...)
Would really be nice if they fixed the website on this one, it's created a lot of confusion for everyone.
I really should message Missydarlin on this one...
Feb 8, 2017, 9:05 pm
#188
Join Date: Jun 2010
Programs: Clubcarlson Gold, Hilton Diamond, IHG Spire AMB etc.
Posts: 252
I'm a bit confused with the regions.. I select Australia-Asia and the middle east is also included. Does this mean middle east countries are included if flying from Australia?
Feb 8, 2017, 11:02 pm
#189
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Northern Calif./Eastern Ida.
Programs: Amethyst Premier Plutonium Medallion
Posts: 20,643
My recent experience is that inventory visible to AS agent exactly matched what was offered on BA. Further, when I booked the seats (2 pax) the BA inventory count decreased by 2 almost instantly.
Feb 9, 2017, 8:04 am
#190
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,392
No. As stated repeatedly anywhere else other than HKG or North America from Australia/NZ is two awards. Trust the wiki for the thread, not AS's website.
Feb 9, 2017, 8:56 am
#191
Join Date: Nov 2015
Programs: hilton, hyatt, ihg, accor, best western, marriott, starwood
Posts: 74
......
Last edited by greenfrog2015; Feb 9, 2017 at 9:08 am
Feb 9, 2017, 9:01 am
#192
Join Date: Nov 2015
Programs: hilton, hyatt, ihg, accor, best western, marriott, starwood
Posts: 74
Feb 9, 2017, 9:38 am
#193
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Feb 9, 2017, 9:54 am
#194
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,345
I've noticed that CX has been holding back J award inventory from partners on Sunday flights from HKG-MLE for Dec and Jan. Has anyone gathered any data about this and know when do they open it for partners?
Last edited by nas6034; Feb 9, 2017 at 3:31 pm
Feb 9, 2017, 10:34 am
#195
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,392
