Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Mileage upgrade on CX, a few tidbits

Ok, I just wanted to post a few tidbits about my experience upgrading a CX itinerary with AsiaMiles, because I don't think there's been a ton of info here, and I know I had a few questions that I never got a precise answer to.

Anyway, I upgraded JFK-HKG from J to F the other day.

I was going to fly JFK-SIN on AA/QF via LHR in J but the day of departure saw on the Cathay website that it looked like there might be upgrade availability (to F) on JFK-HKG. I couldn't check directly because the website only lets you do upgrades 4+ days in advance, but the "calendar" function will let you see if there is availability on a certain day, it just won't let you see specific flights if it's < 4 days. But in this case it was after the morning nonstop departure and ExpertFlyer was showing F0 for the afternoon nonstop and F4A4 for the late night 1-stop via YVR. So I guessed.

Anyway, I had a reservation just on hold through my travel agent, and AsiaMiles was able to hold the upgrade seat until the ticket was issued. Then I had to call back AsiaMiles and complete the process. They told me to do it as soon as possible, though i didn't get a specific ticketing deadline. The whole process was relatively painless, although hold times were about 5-10 minutes for both calls.

I did OLCI and was able to input my AAdvantage frequent flyer number; one of my concerns had been whether I could earn on AA while redeeming with AsiaMiles. I assume the miles will post. (knock knock).

I guess that's really it. In sum, the key points I wanted to make are:
1) Upgrades can be held/confirmed before a reservation is ticketed.
2) Upgrades can be processed on the day of departure. I assume they would not have been able to do this at JFK, though I believe ex-HKG they have an "instant upgrade" program.
3) Redeeming AsiaMiles for an upgrade doesn't appear to impact your ability to accrue miles on another partner.
4) I just spent a looooong amont of time in an airplane (including the HKG-SIN leg), and flying CX F for the majority of the trip really made it enjoyable! :)

......1) Upgrades can be held/confirmed before a reservation is ticketed.....

Congrats on your upgrade! ^

That seems to be the practice although technically you need to have it ticketed first. ;)

From Asiamiles T&C:


Members can contact CPLP to check upgrade award seat availability before purchasing a ticket from either an airline or travel agent. However, to confirm the upgrade award booking, members must have on hand a seat confirmed and ticket issued in an eligible fare class in the lower class of travel on the same flight.

Congratulations!

And I suppose you have to be MP Diamond for you to get thru the MP line repeatedly without waiting hours?

If you are indeed Diamond, was that what made the hold on the upgrade possible?

I am confused too, but I know I can still book upgrades through AM web site and have about 4 weeks to ticket and confirm the upgrade. I guess while the upgrades are technically not confirmed, they can be held.

I do not know all the airports where passengers can do instant upgrades - as I never did. However, I know besides HKG, passengers can also do instant upgrades at SFO.

congrats !! I think HKG-JFK v.v. is one of the best routes to fly CX F in...you need to be in the air long enough in order to really enjoy the whole F experience... :)

I assume you were not able to find a 3-class HKG-SIN to connect to, and so it's "majority" of the trip and not "the whole trip" in F ? because...JFK-HKG vs. JFK-HKG-SIN are the same award zone and require the same # miles to upgrade, if I'm not mistaken...

on AAdv miles, right, it shouldn't be a problem (officially). but, letting you input AA number doesn't mean the miles will get posted automatically (I guess they might let you input a FF # too even when checking in online for an award booking?) sometimes the miles won't get posted automatically to AAdv as they might see it as a "Z" class award booking, and there's a few times before where I had to fax them the original ticket receipts etc in order to get the miles. but it has been a few years now already and I'm not sure if this get solved and now is more automatic or not.

what's the fare difference between JFK-HKG-SIN on CX vs. JFK-LHR-SIN on AA/QF ?

And I suppose you have to be MP Diamond for you to get thru the MP line repeatedly without waiting hours?I never called Marco Polo club, just Asia Miles. I'm not sure if they are the same or not though. :confused: I have no status with Cathay, I called the general number on the website.

If you are indeed Diamond, was that what made the hold on the upgrade possible?I have no idea. I had a reservation on hold through my travel agent, I called AsiaMiles, they held the seat and requested I call back with a ticket number as soon as possible. I did. Just reporting the facts... :)

congrats !! I think HKG-JFK v.v. is one of the best routes to fly CX F in...you need to be in the air long enough in order to really enjoy the whole F experience... :) Agree, and the 1-stop via YVR made it an even longer trip! I didn't want to get off the plane at the end!

I assume you were not able to find a 3-class HKG-SIN to connect to, and so it's "majority" of the trip and not "the whole trip" in F ? because...JFK-HKG vs. JFK-HKG-SIN are the same award zone and require the same # miles to upgrade, if I'm not mistaken...Actually, when I tried to look up the mileage requirement for JFK-SIN on the AM website, after you enter "JFK" as the origin, then SIN didn't appear to be in the list of possible choices as the destination. My take on that was that you'd have to redeem two upgrade awards. But in any event, I just connected to a 2-class on HKG-SIN. The 3-class did depart HKG at the same time, but stopped in BKK, and it really would have been a waste of time, arriving in SIN a few hours after the nonstop. I was already wasting 6 hours by not taking the nonstop EWR-SIN on SQ....

on AAdv miles, right, it shouldn't be a problem (officially). but, letting you input AA number doesn't mean the miles will get posted automatically (I guess they might let you input a FF # too even when checking in online for an award booking?) sometimes the miles won't get posted automatically to AAdv as they might see it as a "Z" class award booking, and there's a few times before where I had to fax them the original ticket receipts etc in order to get the miles. but it has been a few years now already and I'm not sure if this get solved and now is more automatic or not.Good point. I'll have to keep my eye out. I saved the boarding passes just in case.

what's the fare difference between JFK-HKG-SIN on CX vs. JFK-LHR-SIN on AA/QF ?Actually it was about the same, factoring in corporate discounts. More expensive then SQ either nonstop or via FRA, however...

Actually, when I tried to look up the mileage requirement for JFK-SIN on the AM website, after you enter "JFK" as the origin, then SIN didn't appear to be in the list of possible choices as the destination. My take on that was that you'd have to redeem two upgrade awards. But in any event, I just connected to a 2-class on HKG-SIN. The 3-class did depart HKG at the same time, but stopped in BKK, and it really would have been a waste of time, arriving in SIN a few hours after the nonstop. I was already wasting 6 hours by not taking the nonstop EWR-SIN on SQ....

I think in the mileage calculator you have to input segment by segment...so after you put in JFK, it would show you only the destinations reachable by direct/nonstop flights from JFK. so you should put in JFK-HKG and then HKG-SIN...but it doesn't mean that you need two awards, but just that in the calculation of award zone they need to add segment by segment. but in this case JFK-HKG and JFK-HKG-SIN should be the same award zone.

on AAdv miles, right, it shouldn't be a problem (officially). but, letting you input AA number doesn't mean the miles will get posted automatically (I guess they might let you input a FF # too even when checking in online for an award booking?) sometimes the miles won't get posted automatically to AAdv as they might see it as a "Z" class award booking, and there's a few times before where I had to fax them the original ticket receipts etc in order to get the miles. but it has been a few years now already and I'm not sure if this get solved and now is more automatic or not

Well, I can tell you it won't be a problem using asia miles and crediting on AAdv. Had a flight back in Oct, LAX-HKG, Y>J Upgrade on miles and it credited by like 3 to 4 days. You can even do it by reverse as I did back in Apr, YYZ-DFW, but that took 3 weeks to credit. You should be fine but just keep the boarding pass just in case.

Update: the miles did in fact post to AA. It took a week, but they posted.