Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - No Z allocated in advance any longer LAX-HKG?

I've usually had good luck getting F awards LAX-HKG booked either very late or very early but not this time.

When I go the spring/early summer 2007 I can't find anything.

I use the availability calendar and it seems all dates are no problem in Y and J but no F.

Has CX decided that F is so profitable that it will only allocated immediately before departure and not risk a potential full fare sale go to the Z?

I am a OW Emerald so I can't waitlist as I am using partner miles or transferring SPG to Asia Miles.

you're using *partner miles*? I think they've got seperate (less) allocation than AM... Correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't have any inside info about this, but would guess that CX is making Z available for MPC only (who can waitlist) and will make Z available 2 weeks before flight time otherwise. I've been having trouble getting A inventory for some dates/routes, so loads must be way up.

I am logging in using my basic Asia Miles account and then checking availability.

You can get it a short notice but not any other time especially way far out.

I notice everyday has economy and business available for dates such as May-June '07 but no day has first.

I always appreciated what I thought was a pretty reasonable approach to award inventory for first/Z class but it seems CX has started the QF method of F award allocation across the Pacific.

I haven't really noticed cramped A availability, but definately have noticed that Z is much harder, if not impossible to come by.

As hard as it is to get right now, does it only get harder or better in the October and November timeframe. In otherwords, are loads worse in the fall or does it soften a bit?

I've noticed that is does not matter.

Whether it is 30 days, 3 months or 300 days there is nothing.

The net effect is that Asiamiles members will get all the F awards that they want and only after no Asiamiles requests are queued will any other OW plan get F awards on CX. Maybe time to switch to Asiamiles for those who want to get those awards.