Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Service Class Z vs. A

I travel very often between USA and Asia. I received the promotion Repeat Rewards Personal Edition (30K, 45K, 60K, so on) from AA/CX, and decided to switch my trips from Continental/BusinessFirst (EWR-HKG) to CX/Business (JFK-HKG/Stopover in Vancouver) but since I would be receiving these extra bonuses miles, I thought in treating myself upgrading to CX/First w/the suit using them (in advance) through AA mileage.

The award is/was Aadvantage 40X - Roundtrip upgrade in CX between US and Asia.

One of the rules in the award indicates that needs to be booked from AA stock ticket in Class Z.

Here is where the problem goes. For Cathay, class Z is a First Class award, thus no mileage will be granted. A-class in Cathay seems to be considered Business paid - upgraded to First.

Cathay indicated by phone that if I paid Business (D or J), and upgrade to First (A), they would give me in AA the base mileage, the business class bonus, and the repeat reward bonus since I would be paying the full fare business.

However, If AA books me in Z, Cathay will consider the ticket as a First Class award, thus I will get no mileage at all (not even for the Business fare paid)

Two times I was able to find AA agents that understood the whole situation and they booked me in A class since Cathay gave their OK (I already traveled those twice times and all worked OK with my mileage as it should be), but now seems that no one (AA agents, AA Plt, etc) knows how to do this.

Did any of you have flown in Cathay class Z and got their mileage?...Did you also get the RPRW bonus miles?

I would like to know if it is worth taking the risk, or if I should just fly business class (ahhhh…24 hrs trip -- And going to work from the plane !!!)

Thanks for the advice.

A class is a discounted first class fare. it can be a round the world fare or a some other special fare with restrictions.

When you use Z class tickets, CX know whether or not it is an upgraded ticket or a free redemption ticket and will post the correct miles. It was posted here earlier that AA no longer books first class upgrade awards in A, but now books them in Z.

i've flown on upgraded tickets (using CX miles however) and the miles were properly credited to my AA account.

if no miles are posted to your AA account, you can always send a copy of the ticket and the boarding passes to AA.

miki13331, Thanks for your answer. I checked in this forum and I found the same situation with another member in October. Replies confirmed what you said. Thank you!

Also, I just checked again the flyer of the Repeat Reward offer from AA/CX. It clearly states that the offer is only valid in Class F, A, J, D. Did anyone participate in this offer flying in Class Z (through J/D paid upgraded w/mileage) and got the Repeat Reward mileage?


My next trip would be the 3rd one, thus the bonus at stake for doing the booking right or wrong would be 60,000 AAdvantage miles.


[This message has been edited by NYArgMan (edited 12-23-2002).]

by booking you into A class, i suppose you will get A class miles and bonus as well. (more than what you 'deserve' http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif )

just keep your original ticket (J/D classes) and the boarding passes, in case there is dispute in the future. you should receive the mile/bonus for the 'paid' classes

CX books their award upgrade seats from J-F in "Z" class. But internally, they know that it is an upgrade award ticket and when it comes to mileage accrual, you will be credited with the class purchased - ie Business Class.

For AA's case, the correct way is to book it in Z class. AA will remark in your reservation that it is an upgrade award and when it comes time to credit your miles, it might either be done automatically OR done by sending in documentation that you had purchased a Business Class ticket.

AA used to book in A class but that changed to Z class in accordance to CX upgrade rules as per Asiamiles.

So it will be interesting to see if AA will eventually honor your A class booking because it is basically incorrect as per AAdvantage rules when booking upgrade awards.

You might have gotten away with booking it for now, but when it comes time to ticketing it, AA might rule otherwise.