Originally Posted by
Red259
Wow. This really kind of kills my dream of a NY to hong kong round trip in first. I need to make my plans well in advance and can not wait until 2 to 3 days before and risk not being able to get a seat.
Originally Posted by
rgdave
O/D JFK-HKG availability in F is very limited. It's often better to a point beyond, like KUL or PEK, if you can possibly add another city to your trip. If you can find a o/w to HKG in F, and a return in Y, you may want to book it, because there's a good chance an F or J seat will open up close in. AA allows you to upgrade a booking with the same O and D if space opens up without a fee, so its a chance you may want to take.
Planning in advance really helps, as do alternative routings. For example, if you are on an AA award ticket, you can fly JFK-LAX in AA's transcon F and then LAX-HKG in CX F. Of course...it's not like AA's transcon product releases tons of award space, but it's an option.
I'm not sure adding an extra city matters if it's an award ticket, since CX's US routes all go through HKG...? But rgdave is absolutely right, AA doesn't charge for an upgrade on an award ticket as long as it's the same O/D, so it doesn't hurt to ticket it now (spaces do really open up close to departure). Just keep in mind the EWR route doesn't have F.