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 12, 2017, 2:53 pm
#211
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: YVR
Programs: AA 1MM, Delta Gold, Marriott Plat, HHonors Diamond
Posts: 560
Just to add my own odd data point to this question:
Wanted to book F class YVR-JFK on Cathay. BA showed 0 seats on the day I was interested in. On a lurk I checked Asiamiles.com to see if they showed any availability and they did. So I tried calling Alaska. They were able to see the seat, book it, and I have a confirmed ticketed reservation even though BA was showing 0 seats.
First time I've seen THAT happen! But I LIKE it!
Wanted to book F class YVR-JFK on Cathay. BA showed 0 seats on the day I was interested in. On a lurk I checked Asiamiles.com to see if they showed any availability and they did. So I tried calling Alaska. They were able to see the seat, book it, and I have a confirmed ticketed reservation even though BA was showing 0 seats.
First time I've seen THAT happen! But I LIKE it!
Feb 12, 2017, 3:18 pm
#212
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: YVR, KUL
Programs: AC, MH, BA, AF-KL
Posts: 2,904
Just to add my own odd data point to this question:
Wanted to book F class YVR-JFK on Cathay. BA showed 0 seats on the day I was interested in. On a lurk I checked Asiamiles.com to see if they showed any availability and they did. So I tried calling Alaska. They were able to see the seat, book it, and I have a confirmed ticketed reservation even though BA was showing 0 seats.
First time I've seen THAT happen! But I LIKE it!
Wanted to book F class YVR-JFK on Cathay. BA showed 0 seats on the day I was interested in. On a lurk I checked Asiamiles.com to see if they showed any availability and they did. So I tried calling Alaska. They were able to see the seat, book it, and I have a confirmed ticketed reservation even though BA was showing 0 seats.
First time I've seen THAT happen! But I LIKE it!
Feb 12, 2017, 3:33 pm
#213
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: YVR
Programs: AA 1MM, Delta Gold, Marriott Plat, HHonors Diamond
Posts: 560
Feb 12, 2017, 5:34 pm
#214
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend, Moderator, Information Desk, Ambassador, Alaska Airlines
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: FAI
Programs: AS MVP Gold100K, AS 1MM, Maika`i Card, AGR, HH Gold, Hertz PC, Marriott Titanium LTG, CO, 7H, BA, 8E
Posts: 42,953
I have an upcoming flight I'd like to reroute into F [And destination] but despite F=6 availability is not showing up on BA's site. Perhaps I should just give AS a call.
Feb 12, 2017, 6:12 pm
#215
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: YVR
Programs: AA 1MM, Delta Gold, Marriott Plat, HHonors Diamond
Posts: 560
I did not. Normally you would need to find Z bucket availability though, not F, to grab the redemption seat in first, no?
Feb 12, 2017, 7:10 pm
#216
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: SEA, ORD, SFO
Programs: AS MVPG 75K, AA PLT, DL GM, SPG GLD, Hyatt GLD, SPG GLD
Posts: 202
Correct. CX doesn't allow EF to see their space in Z, sadly. But it can still be a useful data point to know what's going on in the F bucket and seat map. If you're a ways out and it's already F1, you're probably not going to see Z open up. They seem to always leave one final empty seat for last-minute sale (or now, for their Marco Polo members' redemptions).
Feb 12, 2017, 7:32 pm
#217
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,397
Data point: AS phone reps could find some Y+ where BA showed 2 seats LAX-HKG, and BKK-HKG in J where BA showed 4, but not F showing at 1 LAX-HKG.
It was also quite irritating to feed segment by segment like I usually do: they kept asking for date and doing searches before I fed the flight number (they tried searching BKK-SEA even though I went "no, I will give you flight numbers"). There also wasn't a transfer to the partner desk involved.... something is different in how this is being done.
It was also quite irritating to feed segment by segment like I usually do: they kept asking for date and doing searches before I fed the flight number (they tried searching BKK-SEA even though I went "no, I will give you flight numbers"). There also wasn't a transfer to the partner desk involved.... something is different in how this is being done.
Feb 13, 2017, 12:05 pm
#218
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: SEA, ORD, SFO
Programs: AS MVPG 75K, AA PLT, DL GM, SPG GLD, Hyatt GLD, SPG GLD
Posts: 202
Data point: AS phone reps could find some Y+ where BA showed 2 seats LAX-HKG, and BKK-HKG in J where BA showed 4, but not F showing at 1 LAX-HKG.
It was also quite irritating to feed segment by segment like I usually do: they kept asking for date and doing searches before I fed the flight number (they tried searching BKK-SEA even though I went "no, I will give you flight numbers"). There also wasn't a transfer to the partner desk involved.... something is different in how this is being done.
It was also quite irritating to feed segment by segment like I usually do: they kept asking for date and doing searches before I fed the flight number (they tried searching BKK-SEA even though I went "no, I will give you flight numbers"). There also wasn't a transfer to the partner desk involved.... something is different in how this is being done.
I think there still are - inexplicably, incredibly - a bunch of CS reps out there who don't realize they aren't equipped to do this award, wasting everyone's time before they just transfer you to the Partner desk.
Feb 13, 2017, 2:41 pm
#219
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: YYZ, HKG, MFM
Programs: AC35K, AS MVP, WS Gold, ITA EP, Marriott Plat, Hyatt-Explorist, IHG Diamond
Posts: 2,019
Quick booking
Just booked CX J from YYZ-HKG-JNB, stopover in HKG for 44 days 
Tax + booking fee comes to $112.40 USD, and 62,500 AS miles ^ What a good deal!!
Also, the number of seats matched on BA.com, when I asked the agent the remaining seats left on the flight.
Tax + booking fee comes to $112.40 USD, and 62,500 AS miles ^ What a good deal!!
Also, the number of seats matched on BA.com, when I asked the agent the remaining seats left on the flight.
Last edited by Jma12; Feb 13, 2017 at 3:25 pm
Feb 14, 2017, 6:49 pm
#220
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Bay Area
Programs: DL SM, UA MP.
Posts: 12,729
Question is whether J or F saver availability on CX is goo 330 days out or not?
Or are people only finding availability close in?
Feb 14, 2017, 8:19 pm
#222
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,763
BA, QF and JL are tools to use to search for CX availability which is not shown on either AA or AS sites.
BA is the easiest to use and has less phantom availability than QF. JL is the most reliable but is also the hardest to use tool. Instead of calling AS and asking the agent to look up and down for you, the better approach is to do the homework yourself, find the available seats then call AS to book it.
Plenty of J as up to 8 seats are seen at schedule opening. 1F no matter what.
CX releases awards 360 days out. Both BA and QF can book them. I once booked thru BA with Avios a day earlier than AA opened up the booking window during the pre-deval frenzy. So I took the inventory out before AA could access it. Then within the 24 hours free cancelation window I called BA to cancel - the inventory went right back to CX award inventory. I called AA to book that seat while nobody was looking (may be EF ALERT was not quick enough, lol.)
After AA deval now you can see inventory showing up randomly between the initial window and the departure time.
I have booked 2 x 1F for a HKG-LAX in late Dec last year for an early Sept travel this year., long pass the opening of the booking window.
For the record our travel date still see many J seats on the 4 flights, one flight had 5 and another flight had 3, with 1 and 2 on the remaining 2. Even 1F seat was seen on one flight. That is Sept travel - less than 7 months from now.
Close in openings are quite reliable if not during peak traveling time.
So instead of keeping asking others questions why dont you just go check BA site and see for yourself on the availability scenario?!
Feb 14, 2017, 8:32 pm
#223
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Bay Area
Programs: DL SM, UA MP.
Posts: 12,729
Oh I don't have any AS miles yet.
Thinking about signing up for SPG Amex and looking out for the AS miles sales.
Either that or use UR points to book on *A.
Just scouting.
Thinking about signing up for SPG Amex and looking out for the AS miles sales.
Either that or use UR points to book on *A.
Just scouting.
Feb 15, 2017, 5:46 am
#224
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: YYZ, HKG, MFM
Programs: AC35K, AS MVP, WS Gold, ITA EP, Marriott Plat, Hyatt-Explorist, IHG Diamond
Posts: 2,019
My trip is on June 1st, just changed my HKG-JNB segment to July 3rd from the 14th. I will have a 30 days stopover instead.
AS gets less space release from CX for certain route. One example is HKG-DPS, CX completely blocks space to AS, but shows availability on BA.
You should get the BoA Visa if you are in the US, easy 25k miles!
Do you realize BA is just a TOOL. Since neither AA nor AS would show CX availability online? Nobody would book thru BA due to the very high level of Avios needed.
BA, QF and JL are tools to use to search for CX availability which is not shown on either AA or AS sites.
BA is the easiest to use and has less phantom availability than QF. JL is the most reliable but is also the hardest to use tool. Instead of calling AS and asking the agent to look up and down for you, the better approach is to do the homework yourself, find the available seats then call AS to book it.
Plenty of J as up to 8 seats are seen at schedule opening. 1F no matter what.
CX releases awards 360 days out. Both BA and QF can book them. I once booked thru BA with Avios a day earlier than AA opened up the booking window during the pre-deval frenzy. So I took the inventory out before AA could access it. Then within the 24 hours free cancelation window I called BA to cancel - the inventory went right back to CX award inventory. I called AA to book that seat while nobody was looking (may be EF ALERT was not quick enough, lol.)
After AA deval now you can see inventory showing up randomly between the initial window and the departure time.
I have booked 2 x 1F for a HKG-LAX in late Dec last year for an early Sept travel this year., long pass the opening of the booking window.
For the record our travel date still see many J seats on the 4 flights, one flight had 5 and another flight had 3, with 1 and 2 on the remaining 2. Even 1F seat was seen on one flight. That is Sept travel - less than 7 months from now.
Close in openings are quite reliable if not during peak traveling time.
So instead of keeping asking others questions why dont you just go check BA site and see for yourself on the availability scenario?!
BA, QF and JL are tools to use to search for CX availability which is not shown on either AA or AS sites.
BA is the easiest to use and has less phantom availability than QF. JL is the most reliable but is also the hardest to use tool. Instead of calling AS and asking the agent to look up and down for you, the better approach is to do the homework yourself, find the available seats then call AS to book it.
Plenty of J as up to 8 seats are seen at schedule opening. 1F no matter what.
CX releases awards 360 days out. Both BA and QF can book them. I once booked thru BA with Avios a day earlier than AA opened up the booking window during the pre-deval frenzy. So I took the inventory out before AA could access it. Then within the 24 hours free cancelation window I called BA to cancel - the inventory went right back to CX award inventory. I called AA to book that seat while nobody was looking (may be EF ALERT was not quick enough, lol.)
After AA deval now you can see inventory showing up randomly between the initial window and the departure time.
I have booked 2 x 1F for a HKG-LAX in late Dec last year for an early Sept travel this year., long pass the opening of the booking window.
For the record our travel date still see many J seats on the 4 flights, one flight had 5 and another flight had 3, with 1 and 2 on the remaining 2. Even 1F seat was seen on one flight. That is Sept travel - less than 7 months from now.
Close in openings are quite reliable if not during peak traveling time.
So instead of keeping asking others questions why dont you just go check BA site and see for yourself on the availability scenario?!
You should get the BoA Visa if you are in the US, easy 25k miles!
Feb 15, 2017, 11:40 am
#225
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 540
Are there routes where AS gets more space released than BA? Also, what is the sweet spot in terms of timeline for release of seats. I booked HKG-BNE in J for later this year, but I really want to do HKG-SYD. I booked BNE to at least have a way of getting to Australia, and wonder when I should be on the look out for space opening up in J to SYD. Thanks.