Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - CX J Award Less Than 5k Miles with Open Jaw

IAD-LHR-BUD, CDG-LHR-IAD is 4600 miles. Is this itinerary cool for 60k CX miles in business class on BA?

Or does CX count the miles between open jaw cities? Adding the 777 miles between BUD-CDG pushing travel over 5000 miles.

Currently have the award reserved, was told it's cool, but the miles haven't been pulled from the account after more than a week. That has me worried that perhaps the itinerary is really just held pending transfer of additional points into the account (which I haven't planned on doing). I'd hate to have the award cancelled rather than ticketed.

I can see the reservation online no problem, shows confirmed, but the lack of miles being pulled has me worried a bit and looking for potential problems (that CX hasn't informed me of).

Thoughts? Thanks!

They pull the miles when they ticket it (and when they charge you the taxes etc). With CX the reservation and ticketing are very separate - you need to tell them explicitly to issue the ticket, otherwise by default an award reservation lapses 14 or 21 days before the first reserved flight.

In theory yes, although when I tried to book PRG-LHR-JFK but returning JFK-LHR-WAW the agent said it would be considered two one ways and thus cost 70.000 miles which didn't seem right to me...

In theory yes, although when I tried to book PRG-LHR-JFK but returning JFK-LHR-WAW the agent said it would be considered two one ways and thus cost 70.000 miles which didn't seem right to me...
I was first told 70k miles, I insisted that 60k was correct and then they agreed. But therein lies my fear -- what if they said it was fine and issued the reservation but aren't ticketing because it isn't ok? Does anyone know for sure?

They pull the miles when they ticket it (and when they charge you the taxes etc). With CX the reservation and ticketing are very separate - you need to tell them explicitly to issue the ticket, otherwise by default an award reservation lapses 14 or 21 days before the first reserved flight.
Thanks. They did tell me the miles would be pulled, in fact they said 'by the next day' and that was a week ago. Perhaps they never issued the ticket. :confused:

In theory yes, although when I tried to book PRG-LHR-JFK but returning JFK-LHR-WAW the agent said it would be considered two one ways and thus cost 70.000 miles which didn't seem right to me...That's what the rules say (from http://www.asiamiles.com/en/site/terms/#20 ):

"The member or the nominee may make two stopovers, two transfers or one open-jaw at either the origin, en route or turnaround point on all airline partners except Air China and Iberia where no stopovers or open-jaws are permitted. If the open-jaw is at the origin, the member or nominee must return to the country of origin, though not necessarily to the same city. The member must depart from the intermediate point on the next available connecting flight. "

And to address the original question:

"For round-trip awards, upgrade awards and companion awards on single or two carriers, the award miles requirements are based on the one-way actual miles between the origin airport and destination airport. Where the sum of the outbound one-way distance and the inbound one-way distance are not the same, the longer distance shall be used to determine the award zone."

Which means that it is the distance IAD-LHR-BUD = 4600 which determines the Award Zone, which is therefore C, 60000 miles in Business.

Thanks, christep

I think I may have figured out the problem...

They routed me out of BWI and back to IAD. I assume they don't consider BWI & IAD co-terminals, and thus the ticket has two open jaws... requiring 70k points instead of 60k... so they haven't successfully ticketed (but no one has told me this)?

Perhaps - but try to get them to ticket it as WAS and you should be OK - for OneWorld revenue tickets BWI and IAD are co-terminals of WAS and that is OK. Remember that the ticket is actually a 12 month valid coupon, not Valid Flt/Date shown, so you ought to be able to divorce the ticketing from the reservations.

In 2001,
I traveled on my DONEWC3

NRT-HKG-..-HKG-JNB-LHR-....-LHR-HKG-NRT

I upgraded HKG-JNB(CX),LHR-HKG(CX) from C->F with Asiamiles.
CX agent said this upgrade was treated as OPEN JAW rather than two separate oneways.

Over at the other forum, someone actually used an open jaw award on asiamiles on his DONE4 as well.... as HKG-JFK//LHR-HKG !

Or similarly, if one has an upgrade award (which are all electronic now), say: SIN-HKG-LAX-HKG but couldn't get the HKG-SIN sector confirmed.. you can use it on another flight, another time, on another ticket!

Sure, Asiamiles may have its quirks and weird interpretation of rules.. but when it's in our favour... ^

For the OP, the other thing to consider is whether Asiamiles is just being slow in issuing the ticket. It took me a week of waiting until I called MPO to check the progress in issuing the ticket. After I called, then the points were deducted the next day.

Remember that Asiamiles sends a request to the CX ticketing department, and the ticketing department can hold things up.

Any resolution as to how Asiamiles treated the open jaw award?

For the OP, the other thing to consider is whether Asiamiles is just being slow in issuing the ticket. It took me a week of waiting until I called MPO to check the progress in issuing the ticket. After I called, then the points were deducted the next day.

Remember that Asiamiles sends a request to the CX ticketing department, and the ticketing department can hold things up.

Should I be worried on my current CX redemption? Using asiamiles for a BA business class award, I put it on hold 6 weeks ago and called back same day to ticket. Reservation still shows confirmed on the CX website. Miles haven't been pulled, credit card hasn't been charged for the tickets.

Trip isn't until April...

There is nothing to worry about. ;)