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AA Award: Cathay Pacific / CX availability, etc. (2018-2022 archive)

Old Nov 19, 2014, 9:27 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: Prospero
Awards: All Cathay Pacific / CX (Including First and Business Class)
Questions, Availability, Discussion


NOTE: Multiple reports starting in June 2021 that CX is allowing only a 24 hour hold and could cancel reservations not being ticketed beyond 24 hours.

Please feel free to use this thread for questions regarding CX Economy, Premium Economy, First and Business Class award redemption using AAdvantage miles, as well as questions regarding award availability, routings and related issues. Please go to the Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Forum to discuss or ask about meals, equipment, service, etc. on CX, as there is an existing wealth of information there - and this is the American Airlines AAdvantage Forum .

AA Flight award chart for oneworld and partner airlines

Other related threads that may be of interest:

FT Discrepancy between CX Award Search and AA availability: Discrepancy between QF and CX award search and AA availability

FT How , When to Select CX Seats on CX Award: How / when to select seat on a Cathay (CX) award / flight (consolidated)

FT Cathay Pacific Experience - Seats / Interline/ Baggage FAQs: Cathay Pacific Experience / Seats / Interline / Baggage FAQs

Also, for Rules about awards, see AA oneworld and Other Airline Partner Award information, rules (2015 on).

Expert Advice:

Only "MileSAAver" awards apply to oneworld and AA partners.
Premium Economy seats are not available with AAdvantage awards, may be soon as AA sells Premium Economy Feb 2017.

Be aware that what you see on the BA, JL, or QF sites may not be visible to the AA reservations folks. You may want to note the flight on which the F award seat is shown as "available" on those sites and if the AA agent doesn't see any availability suggest that the AA agent check that specific one again. If the AA agent still cannot see it, thank them, hang up, and call back a little later.

Sometimes CX will make flights available for award booking to CX frequent flyers, but not release the seats immediately for other oneworld frequent flyers. Usually though, the seats, if not taken by CX frequent flyers, are released after a while to other OW programs.

Although CX may release seats for award earlier, AA can book them no more than 331 days prior to departure. The awards that CX does release are available as early as 355 days prior to departure for CX and BA frequent fliers, and sometimes that means the awards you want w AA miles will be snatched up prior to the 331 day mark.

*** AA does not have a set schedule to load flights. They can load it anytime after midnight 331 days out. Most of the time it is within a couple to 12 hours of that. Other times, it can be a full day or a day and a half afterwards, especially on the weekends where there's most variability. Unlike JL award space, it is not a specific time of day.

4Keep in mind that when booking eastbound space to North America that it's one day later in HKG so that space usually becomes available 330 days in advance to North America; this is not always true, since CX has already loaded the availability a month prior to AA - it is just up to AA to load and release the seats on SABRE, so it typically ends up being 330 days out, but not necessarily.

Similarly... if you are trying to book westbound, US->HKG->Somewhere then AA may not be able to book the HKG->Somewhere segment 331 days in advance of the US->HKG flight, if it is still 332 days out in HKG. As it is the flights from US->HKG that are hardest to get, if you find a seat US->HKG at the 331 day mark when it is first available for booking through AA but cannot book the continuation, you can just put that US->HKG segment on hold with AA, then call back the next day when connecting flights will be loaded into the system to try to book the onward flight from HKG.

AA does not charge "YQ" surcharges [what they sometimes call "fuel surcharge"] on CX award segments (BA Avios does), thus the taxes and fees on your "free" ticket on CX or KA are almost always significantly less than for the same routing on BA.

There is a Hong Kong Departure Tax (HK) of $120 HKD (approx $15.50 USD) on every segment departing Hong Kong. Exemptions apply. If your ticket includes this tax and you qualify for an exemption, a refund can be applied for either in person at HKIA landside or via post to Civil Aviation Department. AA charges this tax for children under 12 years of age despite the exemption. In order to obtain a cash refund at HKIA, you will need passenger passport, passenger boarding pass, passenger ticket receipt showing the fare calculation line which will show the HK tax being charged. This receipt can be obtained at any AA counter worldwide including HKIA as well as Airport Express in-town check-in (AA check-in). As the AA counter at HKIA operates only during limited hours, Airport Express in-town check-in would be the the convenient option.

Not all CX flights offer First class; CX Business is markedly different on long haul and regionally configured aircraft.

If you're looking for multiple seats in First on a particular flight but can find only some but not all that you're looking for, take what's available in F, then take the rest of the seats you want on J (if available) on the same flight, and check back periodically to see if an F seat has opened up for award. There is no additional charge (in money, although there will be in miles) to change to an award to a higher cabin of service (e.g., J to F, Y to F, Y to J) as long as the award keeps the same origin/destination airports.

Be aware your award must conform to some rules on a) MPM (Maximum Permitted Mileage - your award routing can not exceed 125% of the most direct routing available); a useful tool is Great Circle Mapper.

The Most Significant Carrier (transpacific usually, CX in most of these posts,) must offer a non-"constructed" fare between your origin and destination (you might find an unconstructed fare between DFW and SIN, but might not from Killeen to SIN).

If you can't pick your CX seats online, either due to them being blocked or you just want to call, you need to first get the CX PNR from AAdvantage at 1-800-882-8880. Then call CX at 1-800-233-2742. Some seats that are blocked on CX website are assignable via AA reservations. Close to departure AA can even assign 2A, 2K.

Note: if the Cathay Manage booking tool doesn't appear to recognize your CX PNR, you need to enter your first name AND middle name, separated by a space, in the "First Name" field.

AAward bookings containing CX flights that are put on hold will be restricted to only 24hrs, not the usual 5 days.

Frequently Asked Questions
What are the patterns for west coast routes?
Because LAX has 4 daily flights to HKG, it tends to be the easiest option for blocks of 3 or more J award seats. SFO and YVR only have 2 daily flights and even if 5 award seats were initially released at 355 days prior to departure, some of those may be gone by the time the 331 day mark rolls around. If you need 4 or 5 J award seats on these west coast routes, either use Avios to book at 355 days or consider routing through LAX where there may still be availability at 331 days out.

Can I visit my companion in First Class if I'm in Business Class?
"Up-cabin visits" are not permitted per CX policy, though have been granted under special circumstances. But putting crew in the awkward position of being asked to violate policy is generally frowned upon. Down-cabin visits are permitted ex-USA. However, on flights to the USA, down-cabin visits are not permitted and this rule is vigorously enforced.

Posts made in 2017 may be read in ARCHIVE: 2017 AA Awards in Cathay Pacific / CX, KA...

Posts made in 2016 may be read in ARCHIVE: AA Awards on Cathay Pacific (2016).

Posts made in 2015 may be read in ARCHIVE: AA Awards on Cathay Pacific (2015).

Posts made in 2014 may be read in ARCHIVE: Awards: CX / Cathay Pacific / (inc. F and J) - 2014.

N.B. Older posts have been moved and archived to: Cathay Pacific / CX (inc. First and Business Class) award - ARCHIVED.
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AA Award: Cathay Pacific / CX availability, etc. (2018-2022 archive)

Old May 30, 2018, 6:27 am
  #391  
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Programs: dont care anymore
Posts: 112
Originally Posted by percysmith
Right now at the extreme end of the window, max I'm seeing is two seats for the 7 days commencing 19 May 2019 (i.e. right up to the end of our 360 day window) also.
much appreciated. this is what i wanted to know. i guess we see what happens later in June. i am actually flying during a better time and would be changing to a worse = hotter time to travel so it is not the end of the world i guess.
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Old May 31, 2018, 10:29 am
  #392  
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 616
Originally Posted by blahter
It's possible that it is a published fare issue. I know I've done SIN-HKG-SFO-JFK with SFO-JFK being on AA but that was 4-5 years ago. Oh well, what can you do. Hopefully something opens up from JFK and I can get the ticket repriced.
To close the loop on this, when I went to ticket it the agent still quoted 125k but I was only charged 110k when it actually ticketed. Go figure.
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Old May 31, 2018, 11:00 am
  #393  
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Ocean Beach
Programs: Alaska MPVG75, AAdvantage PlatPro, Hyatt Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 535
Aren't there two possibilities here. One, at the opening of the schedule, going forward, CX will make available only two J seats at lowest rate, and these will also be available to partners. Meanwhile additional J seats will be available to their own members at the higher tier rates. Two, the reduction in availability is a temporary measure intended to prevent a "land rush" for awards between the announcement of the devaluation and its occurrence. A few years ago, CX announced that it would reduce availability to partners while making more awards available to its own members. F availability at opening dropped. Where previously 2F had been available occasionally and 1F available on nearly every flight, only 1F was available going forward and many flights had 0F at opening. This pattern has held true since then. Meanwhile, J availability was also reduced but eventually bounced back to a norm of 5J at schedule opening. Apparently
25milesfromhome is offline  
Old May 31, 2018, 12:47 pm
  #394  
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,517
Originally Posted by 25milesfromhome
Aren't there two possibilities here. One, at the opening of the schedule, going forward, CX will make available only two J seats at lowest rate, and these will also be available to partners. Meanwhile additional J seats will be available to their own members at the higher tier rates. Two, the reduction in availability is a temporary measure intended to prevent a "land rush" for awards between the announcement of the devaluation and its occurrence. A few years ago, CX announced that it would reduce availability to partners while making more awards available to its own members. F availability at opening dropped. Where previously 2F had been available occasionally and 1F available on nearly every flight, only 1F was available going forward and many flights had 0F at opening. This pattern has held true since then. Meanwhile, J availability was also reduced but eventually bounced back to a norm of 5J at schedule opening. Apparently
One has already happened.
Two - I don't agree with "land rush" speculation. It's not how airlines think about these things. But your recollection of the shift from 2F on virtually every flight to 1F on merely some flights is accurate. I miss reliably being able to get 2F/2J on practically any flight I wanted.

The most important incremental question in my mind is how close-in availability will be allocated to partners. I would be a meaningful blow to me & my family if close-in availability is no longer allocated to partners AT ALL. If partner awards are only made available at the edge of the booking window, I'm not sure we'd be able to incorporate CX into our plans whatsoever.

Jamie
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Old May 31, 2018, 1:03 pm
  #395  
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
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Posts: 535
BA is showing some close in availability now. So if you think what's happening today is the new normal going forward and won't change after the devaluation takes effect, we should still be fine.

I agree that "One" has already happened. My question is will it remain that way or revert back to the pattern of a few weeks ago once some time has passed.
25milesfromhome is offline  
Old May 31, 2018, 1:15 pm
  #396  
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 183
I haven't read the whole thread but I guess I wasn't going crazy then when I saw no Business class seats from ORD-HKG from Nov 12-Nov 20 and only 2 seats HKG-ORD starting November 26. I was using BA and wondering if that was accurate. On a site note, is it possible to use AA miles to book ORD-CAN (Guangzhou?) for CX or only direct flights are allowed?
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Old May 31, 2018, 1:40 pm
  #397  
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,517
Originally Posted by 25milesfromhome
BA is showing some close in availability now. So if you think what's happening today is the new normal going forward and won't change after the devaluation takes effect, we should still be fine.

I agree that "One" has already happened. My question is will it remain that way or revert back to the pattern of a few weeks ago once some time has passed.
helpful and I hope it reverts, respectively.
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Old Jun 3, 2018, 3:05 pm
  #398  
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
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Programs: Belong to Many but No Longer Loyal to Any
Posts: 878
Originally Posted by flyaxa
Trying to change a segment for a CX booking in July. Flying SIN-HKG-BOS in J/F. I'm trying to get on a different flight from SIN to HKG...same date, just a couple hours later. QF,JL, BA are all showing J availability, but AA agents can't see anything. 3 calls...no dice. Any advice?
Originally Posted by JJeffrey
Try again tomorrow on calls 4, 5, and 6 if necessary .
Originally Posted by brodielayne
Call an overseas call center such as Australia or New Zealand. They tend to see availability when the US call centers cannot, IME.
Well, 7 calls to US call centers and 3 to Australia/Trinidad later and still nothing...even though it still shows availability on QF, JL and BA.
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Old Jun 3, 2018, 7:28 pm
  #399  
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: La Quinta, CA
Posts: 2,056
Cathay Dragon to Siem Reap ?

Sorry, not able to get a decent answer from the AA website nor a human on AA. Looking to book Asia 2 award through HKG on CX to REP ( Siem Reap, Cambodia) served by Cathay Dragon.. Are Cathay Dragon flights availabel to be booked ? Thanks in advance.

First visit was on an old ex AA bird on a dirt strip...
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Old Jun 3, 2018, 7:47 pm
  #400  
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
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KA flights are bookable with AA miles, and the best way I've found to search for them is the BA website.

I have booked that exact flight before without a problem.
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Old Jun 3, 2018, 8:00 pm
  #401  
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
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thank you !
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 5:43 am
  #402  
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Originally Posted by runningonfumes
Anyone else notice that CX appears to have taken the normal 5J seats on most NA routes that open at 355 using BA to search and went to 2J only since the notice of the devaluation of miles effective June 22. Just trying to see if I am going crazy or not or if others think the same thing. It would appear they have pulled reward flights perhaps to avoid a rush to redeem via their own program.
AM members reporting the same thing https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...ty-awards.html
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 7:52 am
  #403  
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Join Date: Aug 2008
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Originally Posted by percysmith


AM members reporting the same thing https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...ty-awards.html
thanks. looks like my speculation about backing out space was probably right. guess only june 22 will tell. glad i got what i got now.
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Old Jun 7, 2018, 9:03 pm
  #404  
 
Join Date: Jan 2015
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On request for about 2.5 days now for a flight in November (so not very urgent and probably not high priority). No miles have been deducted but a pending charge is on the CC.

I did have to fix a middle name (entered incorrectly / not just missing). I called a few times and I think the ticketing is "fine". I'm just nervous since the rest of my flights are ticketed (EY / QF booked at the same time) and it'd be a PITA if I ended up losing this one.
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Old Jun 8, 2018, 9:24 am
  #405  
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,517
Originally Posted by jayoxd
On request for about 2.5 days now for a flight in November (so not very urgent and probably not high priority). No miles have been deducted but a pending charge is on the CC.

I did have to fix a middle name (entered incorrectly / not just missing). I called a few times and I think the ticketing is "fine". I'm just nervous since the rest of my flights are ticketed (EY / QF booked at the same time) and it'd be a PITA if I ended up losing this one.
Having redeemed over 100 segments on Cathay, probably 65% with AA, it routinely takes a few weeks when date of travel is so far out. But I'd monitor closely. ALSO, set up an ExpertFlyer alert (assuming this is an F award) to notify you if selling inventory increases...which could be a bad sign.

Jamie
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