IceTrojan

Originally posted on my other blog, ASFlyer:
http://asflyer.blogspot.com/2015/05/...-seats-to.html

Cathay Pacific to Limit Award Seats to Partner Redemptions; Why This is a Bad Idea

Cathay Pacific, an airline partner to Alaska Airlines, is reportedly going to increase the number of award seats to members of its own frequent flyer program by limiting availability for partner redemptions.

Cathay cites the fact that it's currently easier and cheaper for members of partner frequent flyer programs, notably from American Airlines, to earn the miles required to redeem for awards, thereby putting Cathay's own Marco Polo Club (MPC) and AsiaMiles members at a disadvantage.

The thinking behind the move seems to be limiting "external" redemptions on flights that could be filled with revenue passengers.

There are some problems with this logic:

• There's no doubt that Cathay has been busy, but unless they can fill up 100% of their seats 100% of the time, then they will have empty seats that could have been used to create the loyalty that frequent flyer schemes are designed for (including their own program);
• Part of the point of a global airline alliance is to broaden the network and reach of a single airline, and MPC members can earn points, travel with benefits, and redeem partner awards on those partner airlines;
• Cathay doesn't provide an indication that their partner airlines would respond in kind, and restrict award redemptions to Cathay frequent flyers, which would devalue MPC/AsiaMiles membership, which I'm sure is the opposite intended effect.

While this move would appease Cathay's loyal flyers on their own planes, there are many more places that Cathay does NOT fly to, and those flyers could very well lose access if airline partners like Alaska and American decide to restrict award availability to MPC/AsiaMiles redemptions.

And of course, this doesn't bode will for those partner airline flyers who have been saving up their points and miles to redeem on Cathay.

How do you feel about this change? Will you be positively/negatively affected?

(H/T: JonNYC/travelingbetter.com)

Guava

You will need to put a big "rumor only" in your title, which is what this is at the moment.

There has not been any announced changes or exactly what will change, therefore, it's impossible to discuss anything right now based off just a very vague rumor.

You may want to revise your thread title and then freeze it for a while. I do think there will be changes in the near future, just not sure when or what.

Oneworld does have a stated policy of making award seats equally available to all partners although an airline can give extra seats to its own members based on status and etc, so a SQ style change is almost impossible unless CX wishes to leave Oneworld. AS is not a Oneworld partner, yet, so will probably not be covered in the event that CX decides to restrict partner award redemption.

apodo77

Here is an article on the move:

http://www.scmp.com/business/compani...ee-flights-own

justforfun

It's not a rumor.

macfadsj

The posts so far refer to a rumor and something that might happen in the future. In fact, it has already happened.

2-3 weeks ago, the BA website, which has been an excellent, but not perfect predictor of CX availability to AS, revealed that Cathay was loading in 2 F seats on most of its transpac flights 355 days in advance. My searches these last two days indicate that no F seats are available when the new day is loaded in, 355 days in advance.

2-3 weeks ago, there were lots of F seats available at various dates throughout the next year. Now, those seats resemble the very scarce availability of QF F seats.

This may be a temporary disappearance of the CX F seats, like EK a couple of months ago, but given that it has occurred at the same time as the recent
statements by CX, I think the party is over.

IceTrojan