Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - A Success Story- J-Class Redemption

I wanted to share my redemption success story with everyone. I just completed the ticketing process for myself and four family members in J round trip. This was a BA redemption on CX. Itinerary is YVR-HKG-PEK and then PVG-HKG-JFK. After 500k BA Executive Club miles and about USD 1500 in taxes, fees and surcharges, it's done. The family (wife, two kids - 5 & 3, & mother-in-law) are headed to China and HKG for two weeks in November. Not sure how the little one will like the isolation of the new J seat...probably in with her mother most of the time. She's already prepared for it. The key to my success was really being flexible on the gateway city. JFK was not available on the outbound so I originally booked in Y on CX841 with the inbound originally booked in J on CX888 - the one stop via YVR on 747. I said to my family that 'we'll just wait for it to open up.' After booking, I then found that the YYZ flight was wide open for everyone and would be the new equipment - 773. I called BA to change things, knowing that I'd pay $70/pp to re-ticket. Didn't expect the additional taxes & fees to be an additional $93/pp. Not exactly a pleasant surprize but I didn't make a fuss. Anyway, it is possible to get the award seats, even with a large party.

Good for you! I did get 1 f award on cx from yyz to hkg and then on to mnl in nov. I have the return booked cx hkg nrt aa nrt ord to dca. I hope to get cx on the return but so far have seen nothing in f to jfk, sfo, lax or yyz.

Hi,

Who do you callt to book on Cathay using BA Miles; BA?

I recently aquired a lot of BA miles and it looks like its a better deal to using them with Cathay than BA for HKF-LHR travel.

Thanks!

I wanted to share my redemption success story with everyone. I just completed the ticketing process for myself and four family members in J round trip. This was a BA redemption on CX. Itinerary is YVR-HKG-PEK and then PVG-HKG-JFK. After 500k BA Executive Club miles and about USD 1500 in taxes, fees and surcharges, it's done. The family (wife, two kids - 5 & 3, & mother-in-law) are headed to China and HKG for two weeks in November. Not sure how the little one will like the isolation of the new J seat...probably in with her mother most of the time. She's already prepared for it. The key to my success was really being flexible on the gateway city. JFK was not available on the outbound so I originally booked in Y on CX841 with the inbound originally booked in J on CX888 - the one stop via YVR on 747. I said to my family that 'we'll just wait for it to open up.' After booking, I then found that the YYZ flight was wide open for everyone and would be the new equipment - 773. I called BA to change things, knowing that I'd pay $70/pp to re-ticket. Didn't expect the additional taxes & fees to be an additional $93/pp. Not exactly a pleasant surprize but I didn't make a fuss. Anyway, it is possible to get the award seats, even with a large party. Congrats! You must be the first person on this planet able to secure 4 J tickets from HKG to JFK!!!

500k miles doesn't sound enough, would you mind providing a breakdown? Do the children tickets cost less in miles than the adults'? And is the whole itinerary on one ticket, or two one-way tickets?

Congrats! You must be the first person on this planet able to secure 4 J tickets from HKG to JFK!!!

500k miles doesn't sound enough, would you mind providing a breakdown? Do the children tickets cost less in miles than the adults'? And is the whole itinerary on one ticket, or two one-way tickets?

With BA miles, a roundtrip in J between North America and "Far East" is 100K (or 50K one-way). It's the same whether it's YVR or JFK or YYZ.

That's a really good redemption rate. But I suppose its because BA doesn't award decent mileage to people flying in Y unless its full-fare Y. So honestly, earning those miles is probably too expensive for someone usually in Y.

Early this year we were able to redeem miles for 3 J seats HKG-YYZ return in August on CX. In fact, I had found quite a few dates with 3 J seats available for HKG-JFK return as well (on the non-stops). In the end almost every day in August was available for YYZ giving us a choice of our preferred dates so we went with YYZ (ultimately we're heading to BOS).