Originally Posted by
wholeinone04
I'm heading to Bali in late March with my wife and we're flying from LAX to HKG on 3/27 in Y on CX and staying in HK for 4 days/3 nights. Seats currently on hold for 70k total, hoping that some seats in J will open up
On 3/31, we're flying from HKG to DPS in J on Dragon Air. I have the seats on hold with AA right now for 45k pts total, but after reading some of the reviews of KA biz class product, not sure if it's worth it?
What do you guys think? There is an earlier CX flight on 3/31 that I could take that would get me in to Bali at 3 pm as opposed to 5:40 pm on the KA flight. I forgot to ask the AA agent how much it would cost in Y but I think it'd be 25k total for the economy seats.
if your questions are about how to value and spend AAdvantage points, that's best off in the AA forum, not here. I'm under the vague impression AAdvantage points are only slightly less abundant than grains of sand on the world's beaches so......
. If I'm making a mistake and you're instead burning Asia Miles, unless your AM balance is overflowing with more miles than you'll be able to burn in the next 3 year expiration period, I wouldn't burn them on this route. Don't think it's worth it.
If you're asking for general questions about KA vs CX and J vs Y, I swear there is very similar thread about DPS KA vs CX just a few weeks old. Run a quick search.
Basics: Both KA and CX hard products should be identical on that route, with the one-off exception like
HKGglobaltrotter mentions. It should be the "regional" J product, which is aligned between CX and KA now. You can search around for on here or read some of those online blogger reviews. In years' past CX would send long-haul equipment to DPS (often the 747), but this is no longer the norm. B73Z (regional 777-300, with regional J) for CX seems to be the standard equipment on that route these days with occasional substitutions. On KA it's the A330 with regional J. Perhaps the minor difference is 777 is 7 across in J with a middle seat, where as KA's A330 is 6 across in J w/o a middle seat. By the same token, CX also owns regional A330s which are 6 across and could be subbed in. A substitution on CX doesn't automatically mean long-haul config, unfortunately.
One common misconception fyi is that KA is a "low cost subsidiary" of CX.. This is untrue, I'm not sure how that started. KA has always been positioned at the premium end. Today, KA is a separate, full-service airline that CX wholly acquired nearly a decade ago. It is kept as a separate brand with its own crews and schemes, but loyalty programs, scheduling and a lot of other factors are aligned with CX. If KA and CX easily protect each others' tickets in case of problems. CX 100% owns KA. KA flies extensively to mainland China, and CX kept the brand in-tact due to its premium reputation among mainland Chinese travelers. The general consensus among CX regulars is that KA catering is generally superior to CX catering, and indeed they use separate catering outfits at HKIA.
Have a search around there is probably a lot of info from this forum you can find that will be relevant to you.