BarryAZ

It varies with the airline -- for Cathay it is closer to 360 days max. I booked that return flight at 350+ days.

SFore

Thanks Barry, I secured 2 F seats next March to JNB. It took some doing but the agent was very helpful. The hang up was the fact that I couldn't book the AS segment from Sea to Sfo yet, but it went through. Now just hoping emirates one way awards come on line soon so I can book JNB to Sea on EK. The agent said she saw something saying the intl carriers were coming online soon. AF and BA first.

BarryAZ

Indeed -- that 360 day window is useful. What I was able to do was book the outbound flight -- at 360 days and it was surprising held and confirmed for two of us, then pick up the return flight also at 360 days four weeks later. There was a bit of confusion regarding the PNR's -- I suspect that was because we needed two since our FF miles were split between two of us and the outbound flight, while booked (including the Cathay confirm code) was not yet actually charged. Anyway, we ended up with the exact flights we wanted outbound, and a decent alternative for the return (Sydney instead of Auckland).

I figure we'll just do this trip as Australia only (we'd been to NZ 16 months ago just in time to get shook up in Christchurch during earthquakes).

The only way to use Alaska to get to NZ is via Fiji Air (which *might* not be as bad as it was now that are replacing the aging 747's with A330's that actually have lie flat business class seats). Fiji Air is also adding the number of flights from LAX to Nadi -- making it daily -- reducing the disruption when they cancel flights during the last week.

With Fiji -- you go LAX/Nadi/Auckland or Christchurch and back.
With Cathay, in theory you could go LA or SFO or Vancouver to HKG to Auckland -- but it seems the Auckland/HKG leg is a rare frequent flyer find.
With Korean Air -- if you avoid their frequent blackout dates, you could go to Auckland by way of Seoul -- though only business class as Alaska doesn't have an arrangement using 1st class with Korean Air.

All other alternatives are via Australia. One might find a Qantas flight -- with continuation for Melbourne or Sydney to NZ -- but again those are difficult to find in business class or first class.

The other alternative -- but only using a 330 day or shorter window is Delta to Australia. Their business class flight to Sydney is showing up more (perhaps due to their code share with Virgin Australia). That's only 105K miles and of course is a direct LA/Sydney flight. But from what I've read, their business class seat is one of those 'lie nearly flat' seats -- I'm not a fan of them for sleeping.

For that matter, for folks who want to do both Australia and NZ, one can book the RT to Australia and use additional miles on Qantas to RT from Australia (Brisbane/Sydney/Melbourne) to NZ though that might be problematic as none of the metal is Qantas (mostly JetConnect).

NotHome

Is JFK - HKG allowable for CX bookings? Somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking that AS did not allow that as a CX gateway.

jackal

It is an allowable redemption. Alaska will not, however, transport you to NY to begin your trip--you will need to originate at JFK.

If you are starting somewhere else in the US and desire to go fly CX, AS will transport you to any of CX's west coast gateways, but they will not fly you east to EWR in order for you to turn right back around and go west on CX out of JFK.

NotHome

Thanks. Reasonable not to fly me there.....Just want availabilty options.

baliktad

You can check ORD and YYZ as well. Same story as JFK; you have to make your own way there.

The tricky thing about the east coast departure points is your award must return you to the same point (unless you want to burn your open jaw on the North America side of travel, which seems like a waste). If you leave out of the west coast, you can use AS segments to eliminate the open jaw.

BarryAZ

True -- we're in the Phoenix area -- the Alaska CSR did offer flights Phoenix/Seattle/LAX to pick up the CX flight -- I passed on that. I can get Phx/LAX on my own ticket.

I'd note that if one arranged with Delta to Sydney from Phoenix, Delta does offer a flight from Phoenix to LAZ.

BarryAZ

One of the things that seems to improve CX availability is the frequency of their flights -- 15 to 20 a week from LAX and SFO, so if you have a bit of flexibility you are likely to find a match.

For me I got the exact first choice date -- that was nice

NotHome

I have been using the BA Avios reward search to find CX award space for years and it has been 100% accurate for me. This week I have found F space 3 times on BA that AS could not see. does anyone know if there has been a change on what is allocated to AS by CX?

KVS

What's the flight #/date in question?

NotHome

Sep 18 CX 873 SFO/HKG and CX881 LAX/HKG both show 2 F available through the BA site, but AS cannot book. THey see only coach.

gpeso8

BA/JL/QF are all showing 2F on CX873 and CX879 on 9/18.

NotHome

That is what I see as well. AS shows nothing available. Does anyone know if CX has limited AS redemptions?

baliktad

Call again and ask the agent to check availability of the single specific CX segment. I have had agents tell me many many times that there was no availability SEA-SFO-HKG or SEA-YVR-HKG, but on closer investigation, it was the short domestic segment that didn't have availability. AS' tools try and complete the entire routing first and some agents don't search segment by segment unless explicitly asked.