Redeeming Cathay Pacific ticket using Alaska miles
 

I am trying to book CX872 from HKG to SFO in the coming 30 days. I found that this is 140k miles using alaska miles for a RT ticket in First, which sounds like an amazing offer. However, because I am based in Hong Kong, I have never flied Alaska Airlines, therefore this would require me to transfer my SPG points to miles and move things around (or even buy 40k miles since I am booking for two)

Sorry for the confusion, but I guess my question is just how likely can I pull this off? Especially considering that I am booking for this month and some of the points to miles transfer can take "up to 6 weeks"

Sorry if this question's been answered before.

You can only transfer up to 94999 SPG points into Alaska mile per day so you will need to do multiple transactions which is allowed.


Personally your best bet may be to transfer into American Airlines (same 94999 limit) and then you can get a business class ticket for 110,000 miles round trip so you have less to purchase.

In terms of finding available flights you can use KVS tool. Here is the link.

http://www.kvstool.com/

Since I am transferring points, this does make a lot of sense. SPG gives 5000 bonus miles for every 20k, so 20k points to 25k miles. Apparently, it is cheaper to fly business using Alaska, but more expensive to fly in first. (AA is 135k RT)

Also, any upgrade options for CX using miles? I do know I can do a one class upgrade using 50k using asia miles, which sounds stupid to do...

AA award redemptions in some ways have more flexible rules than Alaska: one-ways on partners are allowed, mixing partner carriers on the same award is allowed.

SPG transfers to AA can be pretty quick. A search on 'long, transfer' in the SPG forum will find lots of posts.

CX F awards are sometimes scarce. I'd recommend calling AS and check availability before moving points around.

This limitation is per day. Simply do another transaction the next day if you want to transfer a greater number of miles.

Last SPG transfer to AS took five days. YMMV.

Thanks for the clarification. I thought it was per year and will update the post.

Since we're deep into the footnotes on SPG transfers, don't overlook this:

Please keep in mind that only one airline transfer transaction per member, per airline program, is permitted within a 24-hour period.

SPG posts transfer to AA on a weekly basis. Request done before 10am Tuesday got processed the same week and will show up in your AA account the following week. I forgot whether it is Mon or Tue.

I gather you know that CX opens up its F award seats 7 to 10 days before departure. HKG-SFO tends to have the biggest last minute availability.

Keep in mind AS program is not as flexible as AA program. For example, AS charges $100 for ANY change. AA does not charge anything as long as your origin and destination remain the same - so you can change date, you can change routing if better routing becomes available after you ticketed. AA charges close-in booking fee of $75 for non-elites. Dont know how much AS charges.

The free change on AA can be advantageous - say, you initially find availability HKG-YVR on CX, you can book a HKG-YVR-DFW-SFO itinerary AA award. Later CX opens up HKG-SF0, you can change your itinerary to HKG-SFO for free if it is an AA award. You would have to pay $100 per ticket change fee if it is an AS award. You could even fly HKG-JFK-SFO using AA award and still pay the same 55/67.5K (one-way) and you have the option to change it to HKG-SFO.

I would transfer to AA instead of AS because of the uncertainty of CX availability.

$0. ;) $25 for partner redemptions, though.

I guess the $25 is telephone booking fee. AA charges the same too.

In light of the CX award seat availability, I would rather take the $0 change fee on AA than the $100 change fee on AS.

On our last trip to HKG we have changed our itinerary 3 times - started with MIA-DFW-NRT-HKG, to MIA-LAX-NRT-HKG to MIA-DFW-SFO-HKG - as award seats opened up for better itinerary, and we upfared from J to F on the last change when CX opened up loads of SFO-HKG F on the 747.

OP, dont forget you also can have stopover or open jaw on AS which is a r/t award.

With AA, it is one-way system so an open jaw is given if you want it. However you are also entitled to one stopover at North America gateway on each direction.

So you can literally do this on AA, same price, HKG-SFO (stopover) - YVR/ORD/JFK/YYZ or wherever you want to be in USA/Canada/Caribbeans/Mexico. On your way home you can start from anywhere in North America, fly to the CX gateway have a stopover and then fly back to HKG. In other words, you would have TWO trips in one price, to let you visit somewhere in North America other than SFO where you plan to go.

Your guess would be slightly off the mark. The $25 is a partner award fee. It is charged to all customers, non-elite and elite. (:mad:) If you are not elite on AS, you pay the $15 phone booking fee on top of the $25, even if it is not a ticket that can be booked via the website. (The $15 is waived for elite members.)

For years AA charges $25 telephone booking phone despite none of the partner flights could be booked online up till last year when it first added AS flight, then followed by BA, HA and QF.

I am far more annoyed by the AS $100 change fee which can be a big downer when it comes to book CX premium cabin as one often starts with a compromised itinerary and then moves to better itinerary as award seats opening up. Also when folks book months ahead of their actual travel, sometimes things happen and they need to change dates - AS charges $100 versus AA is free - that is a big consideration if one can use either AS or AA to book the award. In OP's case, he has an option because he does not have miles in either program to begin with and he plans to transfer SPG pts in to book his award.

I strongly second this. No point in moving miles/points unless you are sure the availability is there.

+1 if it takes 5 days for the transfer then your seats could very well be gone when you call to book.