Aug 7, 2015, 8:58 am
Cathay Pacific Award Availability
when using Alaska Airlines Miles
North American CX Gateway Cities
New York City (JFK/EWR)
Boston (BOS)
Toronto (YYZ)
Chicago (ORD)
Vancouver (YVR)
Los Angeles (LAX)
San Francisco (SFO)
Notes and tips:
You cannot book CX award flights on alaskaair.com.
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...rs/cathay.aspx
Both BA and JL websites can be used to search for CX partner inventory. JL is typically a more accurate engine. BA should only be used on a per-segment basis (in other words, do not search for LAX-BKK, search for LAX-HKG, then HKG-BKK). Note that AS award availability is only for 330 days, the BA engine will show availability to 365 days.
There are mixed reports on getting a CX stopover outside of HKG. By rule, HKG is the only allowed stopover. Stopovers are not allowed on intra-Asia award bookings (you will need a North American segment to be able to book a stopover).
All CX awards except for the intra-Asia award must either originate or end in HKG or North America. If you wish to fly Middle East/India/Europe/Asia/Australia to a CX destination beyond your initial flight to or from HKG that is not a North American destination, it will be two awards: XXX-HKG and HKG-YYY. CX intra-Asia awards do not include a stopover.
CX releases availability close in. If you do a change where you book another cabin and upgrade to F (which often may be the only way to get F on CX), you will be charged the $125 rebooking fee (waived for MVPG+).
*Have the AS CSR perform the search one leg at a time (Transoceanic first). That might yield more results than the whole itinerary at once.*
The CX forum has a FAQ on the CX experience.
Award eligible Destinations
By region.
(Dragon Air is not allowed on AS award)
Africa
Johannesburg (JNB)
Asia
Bangkok (BKK)
Beijing (PEK)
Cebu (CEB)
Denpasar (Bali) (DPS)
Fukuoka (FUK)
Ho Chi Minh City (SGN)
Hong Kong (HKG)
Jakarta (CGK)
Kuala Lumpur (KUL) [Ends 30 April]
Manila (MNL)
Osaka (KIX)
Sapporo (CTS)
Seoul (ICN)
Shanghai (PVG)
Singapore (SIN)
Surabaya (SUB)
Taipei (TPE)
Tokyo (HND)
Australia/NZ
Adelaide (ADL)
Auckland (AKL)
Brisbane (BNE)
Cairns (CNS)
Melbourne (MEL)
Perth (PER)
Sydney (SYD)
India/Middle East
Bahrain (BAH)
Chennai (MAA)
Colombo (CMB)
Delhi (DEL)
Doha (DOH) [Discontinued as of Feb 2016]
Dubai (DXB)
Hyderabad (HYD)
Malé (MLE)
Mumbai (BOM)
Riyadh (RUH)
Tel Aviv (TLV)
Europe (To/from HKG only. NA is separate award)
Amsterdam (AMS)
Barcelona (BCN)
Düsseldorf (DUS)
Frankfurt (FRA)
London (LHR, LGW)
Manchester (MAN)
Milan (MXP)
Paris (CDG)
Rome (FCO)
Zurich (ZRH)
when using Alaska Airlines Miles
North American CX Gateway Cities
New York City (JFK/EWR)
Boston (BOS)
Toronto (YYZ)
Chicago (ORD)
Vancouver (YVR)
Los Angeles (LAX)
San Francisco (SFO)
Notes and tips:
You cannot book CX award flights on alaskaair.com.
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...rs/cathay.aspx
Award Travel on Cathay Pacific
Book Your Award Travel: To use Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan™ Miles on Cathay Pacific, call Alaska Airlines Reservations at 1-800-252-7522 (TTY: Dial 711 for Relay Services) 5:00 a.m. - Midnight (PT), daily
Book Your Award Travel: To use Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan™ Miles on Cathay Pacific, call Alaska Airlines Reservations at 1-800-252-7522 (TTY: Dial 711 for Relay Services) 5:00 a.m. - Midnight (PT), daily
There are mixed reports on getting a CX stopover outside of HKG. By rule, HKG is the only allowed stopover. Stopovers are not allowed on intra-Asia award bookings (you will need a North American segment to be able to book a stopover).
All CX awards except for the intra-Asia award must either originate or end in HKG or North America. If you wish to fly Middle East/India/Europe/Asia/Australia to a CX destination beyond your initial flight to or from HKG that is not a North American destination, it will be two awards: XXX-HKG and HKG-YYY. CX intra-Asia awards do not include a stopover.
CX releases availability close in. If you do a change where you book another cabin and upgrade to F (which often may be the only way to get F on CX), you will be charged the $125 rebooking fee (waived for MVPG+).
*Have the AS CSR perform the search one leg at a time (Transoceanic first). That might yield more results than the whole itinerary at once.*
The CX forum has a FAQ on the CX experience.
Award eligible Destinations
By region.
(Dragon Air is not allowed on AS award)
Africa
Johannesburg (JNB)
Asia
Bangkok (BKK)
Beijing (PEK)
Cebu (CEB)
Denpasar (Bali) (DPS)
Fukuoka (FUK)
Ho Chi Minh City (SGN)
Hong Kong (HKG)
Jakarta (CGK)
Kuala Lumpur (KUL) [Ends 30 April]
Manila (MNL)
Osaka (KIX)
Sapporo (CTS)
Seoul (ICN)
Shanghai (PVG)
Singapore (SIN)
Surabaya (SUB)
Taipei (TPE)
Tokyo (HND)
Australia/NZ
Adelaide (ADL)
Auckland (AKL)
Brisbane (BNE)
Cairns (CNS)
Melbourne (MEL)
Perth (PER)
Sydney (SYD)
India/Middle East
Bahrain (BAH)
Chennai (MAA)
Colombo (CMB)
Delhi (DEL)
Doha (DOH) [Discontinued as of Feb 2016]
Dubai (DXB)
Hyderabad (HYD)
Malé (MLE)
Mumbai (BOM)
Riyadh (RUH)
Tel Aviv (TLV)
Europe (To/from HKG only. NA is separate award)
Amsterdam (AMS)
Barcelona (BCN)
Düsseldorf (DUS)
Frankfurt (FRA)
London (LHR, LGW)
Manchester (MAN)
Milan (MXP)
Paris (CDG)
Rome (FCO)
Zurich (ZRH)
CX (Cathay) Award availability
Aug 29, 2016, 2:30 pm
#1471
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: yvr
Posts: 84
"
I decided to add HKG-BKK to my JFK-HKG and on a whim decided to ask an agent to plug in JFK-BKK on CX rather than looking in segments,"
Somewhat related question; When I search for Hong Kong to Yvr, I find nothing. But when I search Hong Kong to JFK, I find availability on flights that Stop in YVR. Why is that?
I decided to add HKG-BKK to my JFK-HKG and on a whim decided to ask an agent to plug in JFK-BKK on CX rather than looking in segments,"
Somewhat related question; When I search for Hong Kong to Yvr, I find nothing. But when I search Hong Kong to JFK, I find availability on flights that Stop in YVR. Why is that?
Aug 29, 2016, 4:21 pm
#1472
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,420
"
I decided to add HKG-BKK to my JFK-HKG and on a whim decided to ask an agent to plug in JFK-BKK on CX rather than looking in segments,"
Somewhat related question; When I search for Hong Kong to Yvr, I find nothing. But when I search Hong Kong to JFK, I find availability on flights that Stop in YVR. Why is that?
I decided to add HKG-BKK to my JFK-HKG and on a whim decided to ask an agent to plug in JFK-BKK on CX rather than looking in segments,"
Somewhat related question; When I search for Hong Kong to Yvr, I find nothing. But when I search Hong Kong to JFK, I find availability on flights that Stop in YVR. Why is that?
Aug 30, 2016, 5:48 am
#1474
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
HKG-JFK
HKG-YVR
YVR-JFK
They know more people will be through passengers so they make space available for the longer flight. Same with the YVR-JFK if they sell too many of those they lose possible sales on the longer and more lucrative fare
Aug 30, 2016, 6:00 am
#1475
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Nope officially stopover is only allowed in HKG. Some have been lucky to get other stopover points but those were inroute stops. For example TPE is common connection city you are forced through when headed to Japan on CX so you could likey convince an agent to let you stop over in TPE on the way to Japan. SGN is not an example of an inroute stop
Aug 30, 2016, 2:06 pm
#1476
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: MHT
Programs: UA
Posts: 121
I have LAX-HKG-AKL booked in F/J for summer 2017. I'm looking for a slight date change, but there is no direct HKG-AKL availability while LAX-HKG in F is available for lots of dates. I'm using BA.com.
Is HKG-AKL availability more difficult to find compared to US-HKG in J/F?
Is HKG-AKL availability more difficult to find compared to US-HKG in J/F?
Aug 30, 2016, 4:06 pm
#1477
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,420
Probably. Less daily flights plus you're competing with AS folks who are dealing with the fact that North America-NZ/Australia is the most difficult award redemption around... and CX is one of the few escape valves for that if you're willing to route through HKG.
Aug 30, 2016, 6:34 pm
#1478
Join Date: Feb 2001
Programs: IHG Diamond, HH Diamond, BW Diamond Select, Accor Silver, Marriott Gold
Posts: 4,231
AS's booking system must be terrible. Looking for MEL-HKG-LAX-SEA in J, the hard part was LAX-SEA! No trouble with the CX flights, but the agent's system apparently showed her only AA flights, which aren't valid of course, instead of AS flights for the LAX-SEA sector! After about 30 mins constructing it from scratch and speaking to other agents a couple of times, it was done.
Availability appeared to be similar to what Awardnexus (JL/CX search) told me. BA did not match, instead showing no availability the night I wanted but did show it the night before (which was not available according to JL/CX)!
Availability appeared to be similar to what Awardnexus (JL/CX search) told me. BA did not match, instead showing no availability the night I wanted but did show it the night before (which was not available according to JL/CX)!
Aug 30, 2016, 8:44 pm
#1479
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: DFW/DAL
Programs: AA 1MM Gold, Marriott Gold, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 1,524
Has anyone noticed a trend of CX not releasing all but 1 F seat last minute lately? I thought this was the rule, but lately watching inventory that is not happening. Appears flights with 2-3 seats open are going out with no award inventory offered to partners. One Mile at a Time had a post about this in late 2015 I think but I thought it was debunked.
Sep 7, 2016, 10:33 am
#1480
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 376
currently have a F LAX-HKG with a J HKG-BOM with a 16 hour layover.
Since I am paying for an F itinerary, I wanted to extend the time in F. I wanted to see what cities in the Indian Subcontinent/Middle East is served by Cathay F except BKK on friday/saturday. I dont mind spending some extra miles to connect to BOM from somewhere.
Since I am paying for an F itinerary, I wanted to extend the time in F. I wanted to see what cities in the Indian Subcontinent/Middle East is served by Cathay F except BKK on friday/saturday. I dont mind spending some extra miles to connect to BOM from somewhere.
Sep 7, 2016, 11:18 am
#1481
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,420
currently have a F LAX-HKG with a J HKG-BOM with a 16 hour layover.
Since I am paying for an F itinerary, I wanted to extend the time in F. I wanted to see what cities in the Indian Subcontinent/Middle East is served by Cathay F except BKK on friday/saturday. I dont mind spending some extra miles to connect to BOM from somewhere.
Since I am paying for an F itinerary, I wanted to extend the time in F. I wanted to see what cities in the Indian Subcontinent/Middle East is served by Cathay F except BKK on friday/saturday. I dont mind spending some extra miles to connect to BOM from somewhere.
If you're going to drop a lot of miles on a circuitous routing, you might as well fly to HND (which gets F consistently). In theory you could get F on USA-HKG, HKG-HND-HKG.
That or you should use another program's miles, or just buy a ticket.
I would suggest you ask in the CX forum... they probably know which routes are "sticky F equipment" better than AS folks. (CX is notorious for subs that take away F and longhaul J on some fairly short routes.)
Sep 8, 2016, 4:13 am
#1482
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 376
ThAnks. The award LAX-HKG-BOM isn't two awards. It's one. I just figured that they might service the Middle East cities with F. Oh well, hopefully they add JAL soon so I can switch it to JAL LAX-HNd/NRT-DEL entirely in 1st.
Sep 8, 2016, 8:32 am
#1483
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,420
What I'm saying is that in order to accomplish the routing you desire using just CX and AS miles, you would need THREE AS awards. AS does not have a partner that will let you connect to BOM using miles other than using CX, routing you through HKG, AND breaking the journey into two awards at HKG.
Up to you if spending all that extra time in CX F is worth it for a circuitous routing and a lot of extra miles. I believe would be possible to do this as LAX-HKG-HND (award 1, all in F), HND-HKG(all in F, additional 27.5k miles), and HKG-BOM (C, 30k). But that's three awards (not one) and an additional 57.5k AS miles. But it would considerably prolong your time in CX F if you so desire.
It would be much more efficient to use a different program or buy a cash ticket if it's a short hop in Y, or just wait for JL to come online.
Last edited by eponymous_coward; Sep 8, 2016 at 8:43 am
Sep 8, 2016, 11:56 am
#1484
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: PDX
Programs: AS MVPG, SPG Gold
Posts: 187
This thread has been super helpful in booking CX awards. I have 2 tickets each way for next summer, SFO-HKG-JNB, JNB-HKG-LAX all in U (biz class).
I don't believe that the the HKG-JNB route has first, but there is one first class award ticket each on the SFO-HKG and HKG-SFO route. Should I upgrade my GF to first, and hope that something opens a week out so that I can upgrade my tickets? I've never flown CX before and not sure if it's worth the headache, extra cost (change fee?) and miles.
I don't believe that the the HKG-JNB route has first, but there is one first class award ticket each on the SFO-HKG and HKG-SFO route. Should I upgrade my GF to first, and hope that something opens a week out so that I can upgrade my tickets? I've never flown CX before and not sure if it's worth the headache, extra cost (change fee?) and miles.
Sep 8, 2016, 12:57 pm
#1485
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 376
Right.
What I'm saying is that in order to accomplish the routing you desire using just CX and AS miles, you would need THREE AS awards. AS does not have a partner that will let you connect to BOM using miles other than using CX, routing you through HKG, AND breaking the journey into two awards at HKG.
Up to you if spending all that extra time in CX F is worth it for a circuitous routing and a lot of extra miles. I believe would be possible to do this as LAX-HKG-HND (award 1, all in F), HND-HKG(all in F, additional 27.5k miles), and HKG-BOM (C, 30k). But that's three awards (not one) and an additional 57.5k AS miles. But it would considerably prolong your time in CX F if you so desire.
It would be much more efficient to use a different program or buy a cash ticket if it's a short hop in Y, or just wait for JL to come online.
What I'm saying is that in order to accomplish the routing you desire using just CX and AS miles, you would need THREE AS awards. AS does not have a partner that will let you connect to BOM using miles other than using CX, routing you through HKG, AND breaking the journey into two awards at HKG.
Up to you if spending all that extra time in CX F is worth it for a circuitous routing and a lot of extra miles. I believe would be possible to do this as LAX-HKG-HND (award 1, all in F), HND-HKG(all in F, additional 27.5k miles), and HKG-BOM (C, 30k). But that's three awards (not one) and an additional 57.5k AS miles. But it would considerably prolong your time in CX F if you so desire.
It would be much more efficient to use a different program or buy a cash ticket if it's a short hop in Y, or just wait for JL to come online.