Jun 28, 2017, 8:46 pm
Last edit by: eponymous_coward
Cathay Award Guide Using Alaska Airlines Miles
Note: Cathay flights cannot be booked using alaskaair.com. Mileage requirements in chart form available on alaskaair.com.
Routing Rules:
North American Gateway Cities:
Western
Vancouver
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Seattle (Spring 2019)
Eastern (Can not be used if traveling to west coast)
Boston
Chicago
New York (JFK & EWR)
Toronto
Washington
Award Chart Links*:
Asia
Australia
Europe
India/Middle East
North America
Anyone with 90 posts and 90 days can edit the wiki. Everyone else if you want something added to the wiki please comment in the thread.
Note: Cathay flights cannot be booked using alaskaair.com. Mileage requirements in chart form available on alaskaair.com.
Request your Partner Award reservation on Cathay Pacific by calling Alaska Airlines Reservations at 1-800-252-7522 (TTY: Dial 711 for Relay Services) 5:00 a.m. - Midnight (PT), daily.
- If it's not on the award chart, it's not allowed. For example EUROPE is To/From HKG only.
- Stopover are only allowed on any CX award for North America awards as destination or origin. For instance: intra-Asia awards do not get a stopover. It must be a North America->Somewhere or Somewhere->North America award to qualify for a stopover.
- The only awards that do not break at HKG are intra-Asia or North American ones. For instance, Australia-Europe/Middle East/Asia outside of HKG will be two awards (breaking at HKG). The AS award chart can be misleading about this and give you the impression you can fly an award like Australia/Europe-ICN, but the chart for these award types will show "Hong Kong".
- One stop-over allowed on one way award. You can build open jaw and other advanced routings by booking multiple one way awards. Please note change fee rule below.
- Allegedly stop-over only in Hong Kong, but some have posted success in other enroute cities such as YVR or SEA.
- As of 5 June 2018 changes/cancellations made to a booking will incur a $125 fee which is waived for MVPG/MVPG75K. Bookings made prior to 5 June will be allowed one complimentary change or cancellation for up to 60 days prior to date of travel.
- Awards can be booked 330 days in advance.
- Cathay and Alaska (or an Alaska flight operated by SkyWest/Horizon on behalf of Alaska) are the only airlines allowed on a Cathay award. No other partner airlines may be used on a single award (e.g. American, JAL, Emirates).
North American Gateway Cities:
Western
Vancouver
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Seattle (Spring 2019)
Eastern (Can not be used if traveling to west coast)
Boston
Chicago
New York (JFK & EWR)
Toronto
Washington
Award Chart Links*:
Asia
Australia
Europe
India/Middle East
North America
Anyone with 90 posts and 90 days can edit the wiki. Everyone else if you want something added to the wiki please comment in the thread.
Cathay Pacific (CX) Award Redemption, Booking and Availability – 2017 and Later
Feb 9, 2017, 1:00 pm
#196
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Victoria, B.C.
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, AA Gold LT
Posts: 1,941
You are right, sometimes it does match, sometimes it doesn't.
I have rule out phantom availability, as I have been able to book Cathay flights visible on BA.com with AA miles for example. I even hung up, and called again and spoke to a different AS agent, and received the same not available response with my Alaska miles, even though it really was bookable.
Feb 9, 2017, 3:39 pm
#197
Join Date: Feb 2016
Posts: 19
Just to chime in, this was my experience as well. I've only booked CX using AS miles once. It was a week or two ago, what the agent was able to see matched what was available on BA. Fed them flight #s dates, etc. One leg at a time and they were able to book it no problem. Kind of funny, every time I'd feed her the next flight she kept warning me that it might price out as a separate award. Very glad I had researched and read the various resources available so that I was confident in what I was doing. In the end 50K miles and I'm flying business class to asia with a stopover for a few days in hong kong.
Feb 10, 2017, 8:32 am
#198
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Just to chime in, this was my experience as well. I've only booked CX using AS miles once. It was a week or two ago, what the agent was able to see matched what was available on BA. Fed them flight #s dates, etc. One leg at a time and they were able to book it no problem. Kind of funny, every time I'd feed her the next flight she kept warning me that it might price out as a separate award. Very glad I had researched and read the various resources available so that I was confident in what I was doing. In the end 50K miles and I'm flying business class to asia with a stopover for a few days in hong kong.
Feb 10, 2017, 9:22 am
#199
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: NY
Programs: MR, UR, UA
Posts: 180
60-day change fee rule clarification
You guys must think I'm splitting hairs here but if I have an award that's >60 days out and I want to move it forward to <60 days from now, does the change fee apply? TIA
Feb 10, 2017, 9:58 am
#200
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: SEA, ORD, SFO
Programs: AS MVPG 75K, AA PLT, DL GM, SPG GLD, Hyatt GLD, SPG GLD
Posts: 202
You should be good. What matters is where you're at when you request the change, not where you end up.
Feb 10, 2017, 9:59 am
#201
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: LAX, LGB, SNA
Programs: AA EXP OWE, DL DM ST+, AS MVPG, UA, BA, WN CP, Hyatt E, Ritz Plat, HH GM
Posts: 3,185
Feb 10, 2017, 10:09 am
#202
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Feb 10, 2017, 10:37 am
#203
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: LAX, LGB, SNA
Programs: AA EXP OWE, DL DM ST+, AS MVPG, UA, BA, WN CP, Hyatt E, Ritz Plat, HH GM
Posts: 3,185
Feb 10, 2017, 10:44 am
#204
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Feb 10, 2017, 11:32 am
#205
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: NY
Programs: MR, UR, UA
Posts: 180
@brizone/CDKing/hiima: Thanks for clarifying. Very impressed with your knowledge.
Feb 10, 2017, 3:27 pm
#206
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 3,166
Does AS still have the issue of randomly not being able to see CX award space in premium cabins? (F and J)
Feb 10, 2017, 3:43 pm
#207
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,397
trying to book DPS-HKG-LAX-SEA via CX using AS miles. Called many times, Alaska agent wasn't able to find the availability for DPS-HKG. whereas, JAL & BA site shows 4 seats in economy available. Also called AA to check DPS-HKG availability and AA agent said there are 2+ award seats available! It is getting frustrating!
And that is what I am trying to figure out.
You are right, sometimes it does match, sometimes it doesn't.
I have rule out phantom availability, as I have been able to book Cathay flights visible on BA.com with AA miles for example. I even hung up, and called again and spoke to a different AS agent, and received the same not available response with my Alaska miles, even though it really was bookable.
You are right, sometimes it does match, sometimes it doesn't.
I have rule out phantom availability, as I have been able to book Cathay flights visible on BA.com with AA miles for example. I even hung up, and called again and spoke to a different AS agent, and received the same not available response with my Alaska miles, even though it really was bookable.
Just to chime in, this was my experience as well. I've only booked CX using AS miles once. It was a week or two ago, what the agent was able to see matched what was available on BA. Fed them flight #s dates, etc. One leg at a time and they were able to book it no problem. Kind of funny, every time I'd feed her the next flight she kept warning me that it might price out as a separate award. Very glad I had researched and read the various resources available so that I was confident in what I was doing. In the end 50K miles and I'm flying business class to asia with a stopover for a few days in hong kong.
Is there a rule of thumb when booking Cathay flights using AS points?
I needed to go to New York. The flight from Seattle was 30K in coach. So I decided to look at going from Vancouver on Cathay. Sure enough at BritishAirways.com I was able to find a couple of dates (as we are close to departure) next week that had standard business class (and first class too) available between Vancouver and JFK.
Anyhow looking at Feb 17th for example AS couldn't see anything JFK-YVR for the return in any class of service. So I asked the agent to check other dates and she said the following day the 18th there was availability in business. So I booked it.
British Airways was showing
one business, one first on the 17th
3 business and one first on the 18th.
So the pattern I noticed was there needed to be MORE THAN 1 seat bookable to use my Alaska Miles on Cathay. What do you think???
Then I called up AA and booked using 30K AA points the date (17th) that I wanted. And for data point, AA could see the exact same as BA. Just Alaska couldn't.
I needed to go to New York. The flight from Seattle was 30K in coach. So I decided to look at going from Vancouver on Cathay. Sure enough at BritishAirways.com I was able to find a couple of dates (as we are close to departure) next week that had standard business class (and first class too) available between Vancouver and JFK.
Anyhow looking at Feb 17th for example AS couldn't see anything JFK-YVR for the return in any class of service. So I asked the agent to check other dates and she said the following day the 18th there was availability in business. So I booked it.
British Airways was showing
one business, one first on the 17th
3 business and one first on the 18th.
So the pattern I noticed was there needed to be MORE THAN 1 seat bookable to use my Alaska Miles on Cathay. What do you think???
Then I called up AA and booked using 30K AA points the date (17th) that I wanted. And for data point, AA could see the exact same as BA. Just Alaska couldn't.
I had some mismatch issues today when dealing with a simple booking. I was booking a simple one-way redemption for HKG-LAX in J for August. I was using BA and JL to match availability.
The first flight (and my preferred flight) I asked for showed 3 available seats when searching via BA and JL. The AS rep could not find any seats. The second flight I asked for showed 1 available seat when searching via JL and BA and she was immediately able to find a seat, so I booked that flight.
She seemed competent but I figured I would call back and see if another agent could find a seat on my preferred flight which was still showing 3 available seats in J via BA and JL. I called an additional four times today and none of the reps were able to find availability in J, all were able to see availability in Y on that specific flight.
The first flight (and my preferred flight) I asked for showed 3 available seats when searching via BA and JL. The AS rep could not find any seats. The second flight I asked for showed 1 available seat when searching via JL and BA and she was immediately able to find a seat, so I booked that flight.
She seemed competent but I figured I would call back and see if another agent could find a seat on my preferred flight which was still showing 3 available seats in J via BA and JL. I called an additional four times today and none of the reps were able to find availability in J, all were able to see availability in Y on that specific flight.
Feb 10, 2017, 4:08 pm
#208
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: NY
Programs: MR, UR, UA
Posts: 180
After hanging up I went to CX website and put in confirmation #. Turns out both segments were in J. Go figure
Feb 10, 2017, 8:53 pm
#209
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: LAX
Posts: 10,912
It appears AS only charged me taxes/fees for 3 tix out of 4 (at least there are 3 identical charges on cc). Pnr looks ok both on as and cx with ticket numbers listed... any reason to be concerned?
Feb 10, 2017, 8:55 pm
#210
Join Date: Jul 2012
Programs: Delta Gold, Alaska Gold 75K, LATAM Black
Posts: 3,393
For peace of mind I would follow up with them.. imho.. never know what nightmare if could cause later