Calculon

pdxflyer00

I'm looking to find 4 Y tickets together for summer '19 travel US-tokyo-seoul then seoul-somewhere SE Asia-US using CX award redemption. Is this feasible? After reading Wiki, am I understanding correctly that actually only stopover allowed is HK?

eponymous_coward

HK is considered to be in SE Asia...

f you book the award as USA-TYO-SEL on JL and ICN-HKG-USA on CX for the return, and took stopovers in TYO and HKG, you would be fine. But no, you are not allowed to book a stopover on CX outside of HKG. A routing of (example) ICN-HKG-SIN-HKG-USA on CX will be two awards (intra-Asia and Asia-North America).

I would probably try and optimize your routing, award type and order of visiting Asian destinations to make the coach tickets you have to purchase outside of the award as inexpensive as possible. If you use JL you get a free TYO stopover. If you use KE, you get a free SEL stopover, CX, HKG.

Truth777

So I'll be in New Zealand in fall 2019. Is it possible to go from Auckland-Sydney-HKG-Chicago for 80k in F? Or do I need to get myself back to Sydney on my own and then just book SYD-HKG-ORD?

eponymous_coward

CX doesn't fly AKL-SYD (there is a CX BNE-CNS flight but I don't think CX has local traffic rights so you couldn't book it as an AS award, even IF AS supported it). AS doesn't have an award for NZ-AU or allow multiple partners on an award.

So spend the $100-ish on a Jetstar flight to get you back to Australia?

NWplatinum

Truth777

What about AKL-HKG-ORD?

CDKing

Yes if you can find space.

eponymous_coward

pdxflyer00

Just checking....Is a Y class ticket 30K for this route? After looking at AK award chart I am assuming so?
Hoping to snag 4 tix about 11 months in advance. No idea is this is feasible. I know from prior family trip to Europe it is challenging to book a family of 4 traveling together using points, but I am hopeful. Unfortunately I do not have enough points to fly either another class or with one of the airlines with more availability. My plan is to fly SFO-Tokyo-Seoul to Asia on JAL then purchase flights with $$ to Bangkok and fly on return via CSX. Or maybe save the 5k points a piece and use CSX for both segments and purchase tix between Korea and Tokyo? Any tips/help would be appreciated.



Thanks!

CDKing

Yes, Asia to US using AS points is 30K points one way on Cathay. As to internal asia flights I don't know much about that as i don't stay long enough to hop around the region

eponymous_coward

YVR_Traveller

Anyone have any experience finding close-in F availability during early January? I know mid-Dec to early-Jan is usually peak season for leisure travellers and Y fares but not sure about J or F. I currently have 2 J return tickets secured on the YVR -> HKG route during the winter holidays and I would love to upgrade to F if possible. I know CX doesn't release more than 1 F seat until at least a week before the flight so I just wanted to try to figure out my chances by hearing other's experience trying to accomplish the same thing in the past.

Also, if there's > 3 revenue seats still available 1 week before departure, is there a really good chance that they release some seats during this time period?

Flying for Fun

Not quote mid January but I flew CX JNB-HKG Feb 14th and HKG-BOS Feb 18th this year. I found 2 J all the way through 3 months out in November and booked those. After booking 2 J JNB-HKG additional J seats remained available up to departure. One F on the HKG-BOS (no F cabin on JNB-HKG) segment at T-11 days. I called AS and upgraded to F for 7500 miles and an additional $3.85 in fees (75K). I continued to monitor for another F to open up until 4 hourd before departure. No additional F seats opened up and we departed with 3 empty seats (50%). For each of the 3 days before and the 3 days after my flight on February 18th there was F availability for HKG-BOS. Finding F to the west coast seems to be more challenging. I wasn't able to make anything work for the times I wanted.

It is highly unlikely that two F seats will come available at the same time. If you haven't already done so, I would suggest each award be booked on a separate PNR so one can easily be upgraded if ONE seat opens up leaving the other intact while you continue to monitor.

I have had very good success using QF's website to find availability and it has matched what AS has been able to see each time I have booked.

Keep in mind if you are booked in CX A350 out of YVR on Tuesdays, Thursdays or Saturdays there is no F cabin.

Hope this helps.

James

skimthetrees

IME it's easier to get to Asia on points than Europe.

4Y tickets on CX 11 months out is almost a guarantee SFO-HKG-BKK. Checking Qantas for availability I see 4Y on CX available almost every day 11 months out. The Alaska website does not show Cathay Pacific award space so use Qantas or BA sites to check it yourself or call AS directly to check availability. You must call AS to book CX.

Are you considering JAL because you want to stop in Japan and also Seoul? JAL also seems to have great 4Y availability 11 months out and JAL space does show on the AS website but there a couple of things to be aware of:

1) Tokyo has two airports HND and NRT. Search code "TYO" (Tokyo) to seach both airports. JAL flies SFO-HND and LAX-NRT for example.

2) Seoul has two airports, ICN and GMP. From Tokyo JAL flies to Seoul Gimpo (GMP). Make sure in the search box you select to search for all Seoul airports and not just ICN which I believe is the default.

3) Alaska allows a free stopover on a one-way award. You use this for the free stop but you may also be able to leverage it to find availability. Say SFO-HND is available but SFO-HND-GMP direct is not. By spending a night in Japan there may be HND-GMP space the next day if you do a one-day or longer stop (assuming no space for a direct connection the same day).

4) AS does not allow JAL awards inside Asia? I think. So If you search for HND-GMP you will get an error and never find anything. If you want a stopover in Tokyo and then HND-GMP you must search for both segments in one multi-city award on the AS website for it to show availability HND-GMP. So for the Alaska online award search click on "All Search Options" then select "Multi-City" (instead of one-way or round-trip), select "use miles", amount of travelers, For the departing flight you might select SFO-TYO 2/20/19 and directly underneath it under "Connecting flight (optional)" you might put TYO-GMP (or Seoul, all airports) 2/22/19 or whatever date you want to find both segments together on one ticket. AS reservations can help you but they charge a phone ticketing fee for reservations you could book yourself on the website (phone fee waived for CX flights since these are not bookable online).

ETA:
I do not know what your traveling situation is but if you can travel in separate cabins CX has good availability 11 months out for 2 Premium Economy awards on some flights so you may be able to fly 2 in Premium Economy and 2 in Economy on the same flight, at least as far as HKG. Premium Economy is going to be a much better experience than Y and PE awards are only 35k versus 30k for Economy. For the 5k extra if you can afford the few extra miles and can handle splitting your party 2PE+2Y then the 2 in PE will be much more comfortable.