Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Asia Miles Award Availability

I'll be doing a few trips from YYZ/YVR to Asia in next year or two. I'm either planning to do all CX or all AC. As an existing AC Aeroplan member, I know its award availability is not very good. If I enroll in Asia Miles, I'm wondering how easy is it to redeem Y or J award tickets on CX ex YVR/YYZ? The other option is to go with AC and bank up on existing Aeroplan account.

It's difficult to say if the availability is "good" or not in a nutshell.

But if you really ARE a student, and you intend to travel during school holidays, ur luck may be lower than if you were to travel during quiet time of the year.

Few notes:
You said "few" trips. From my own experience, I guess you travel max 3 roundtrip in a year. For 2 years of study, say maximum of 6 trips, that only score you 76,572 for HKG/YVR or 93,132 for HKG/YYZ.

Award level to
You travel to YVR, cost you 60,000 in Y, but 100,000 in J.
You travel to YYZ, cost you 90,000 in Y, but 120,000 in J.
So it seems you can hardly aim for J reward if you are starting off from 0 balance. Which makes me believe you are better off flying AC.

However, you can become silver member after a year, which means you can likely get op-ups during busy season on CX. So make your call.

Typically, J awards are harder to come by than Y, I guess. But after all, why would you want to spend 90,000 points to fly from HKG-YYZ in Economy, where you can get cheap tickets for same route?

However, you can become silver member after a year, which means you can likely get op-ups during busy season on CX. So make your call.

Good analysis, but are op-ups during busy seasons for SILVER members really LIKELY? I got opuped more often as a Green member than as a Silver member :D

Good analysis, but are op-ups during busy seasons for SILVER members really LIKELY? I got opuped more often as a Green member than as a Silver member :D

Well, as we all know, op-ups are not to be "expected", but always a good "treat" if they happen. :cool:

With 39,000 silver members plus 16,000 DM/GD ahead of silvers, there's always likelihood someone "higher" than you is ahead on the list. But experience suggets for routes like HKG-YVR, DM/GD fly Biz anyways, and poor students silver end up being chosen. ;) Especially with 74J operated in the past, this was very very common. Now that flights are 744/34C with less Biz seats, I can't say about likelihood...