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
Jun 25, 2018, 4:52 pm
#2386
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Programs: Hyatt LT Globalist, Marriot LT Titanium, UA 2.4MM, HH Gold, AS MVPG
Posts: 3,400
Just booked CX this Friday. LAX-HKG. Was going Saturday on JL SFO-HND. But this gets me a night in Hong Kong and into Thailand a day earlier and in CX F versus JL C. Even the HKG-BKK I managed to find a 777-300 with 2 F seats!! So excited!!! Did CX F last year and loved it!! Found the seats on QF (did not show up on BA).
Jun 25, 2018, 5:10 pm
#2387
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,750
I'm mainly interested in whether the rules have changed. I know that to find seats, I just have to search. Is searching QF still the way to go, and if I see it there is it bookable by AS?
April 16th, nonstop. 1 F and 1 J on the same flight, CX 873, using QF to search. I'm probably not going to travel until August-November 2019, so my detailed searching won't start for a few months.
Plus a few other April dates with 1 F but no J.
April 16th, nonstop. 1 F and 1 J on the same flight, CX 873, using QF to search. I'm probably not going to travel until August-November 2019, so my detailed searching won't start for a few months.
Plus a few other April dates with 1 F but no J.
In theory what you see on QF/BA should be bookable by all OneWorld Member airlines. The problem is, and you should have known this already, AS is not a OneWorld member but only a Partner of CX, so AS does not enjoy the same status as QF, BA, AA, JL, QR, etc etc.
This thread has had long history of DPs about AS does not see the same availability as what QF/BA shows.
In the past J is plentifully available - like 5J or even no number indicated (wide open) but that kind of availability has been long gone at least since 9 months ago, long before the Asia Miles restructured. These days if you see 2 to 3 J available on a single flight a few months or further out, count yourself lucky.
OTOH, it looks like close in availability has returned to the usual way.
Jun 25, 2018, 7:28 pm
#2388
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
I have part of the answer to missing J availability ex US. CX is now enforcing married segments/Journey Control for J award availability ex US. I can search SFO-HKG and find no J but if I search SFO-SIN I get J SFO-HKG-SIN (the SFO-HKG segment that showed 0J now shows J when searching SFO-SIN - confirmed via QF search). Most people here have always advocated searching segment by segment but if you want J ex US in the new world order you may have to search for the end-to-end journey. I am not sure if the AS booking engine handles married segments on partners. I know it did not handle it online for an AA married segment award a few months ago. Hopefully the agent booking engine can handle it but we need some data points.
Jun 25, 2018, 7:51 pm
#2389
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Washington, D.C.
Posts: 535
I've been holding off on booking a HKG-CGK award for early September. Up until a few days ago, BA's website was showing plentiful award availability in economy / business / first. Today, only first is available so I called AS to see if they could see the space. At first, the agent said there is a "system glitch" and they can't see CX award space, but after giving her the exact flight number she was able to see and book the award seat. Thankful to get the F seat on the date I need.
Jun 25, 2018, 10:24 pm
#2390
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Programs: Hyatt LT Globalist, Marriot LT Titanium, UA 2.4MM, HH Gold, AS MVPG
Posts: 3,400
I have part of the answer to missing J availability ex US. CX is now enforcing married segments/Journey Control for J award availability ex US. I can search SFO-HKG and find no J but if I search SFO-SIN I get J SFO-HKG-SIN (the SFO-HKG segment that showed 0J now shows J when searching SFO-SIN - confirmed via QF search). Most people here have always advocated searching segment by segment but if you want J ex US in the new world order you may have to search for the end-to-end journey. I am not sure if the AS booking engine handles married segments on partners. I know it did not handle it online for an AA married segment award a few months ago. Hopefully the agent booking engine can handle it but we need some data points.
Opposite was true for me. Maybe because of long layer in HKG (but less than 24 hours). When I searched LAX-BKK nothin from came up on QF site. LAX-HKG and then HKG-BKK did. Called AS and gave agent routing and date and she put each together. Added SFO-LAX as last piece of puzzle.
Jun 26, 2018, 2:27 am
#2391
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: BKK/SEL/YQG
Posts: 2,543
Close in has returned but I am talking about 2 award seats even on separate flights on the same day, even 1J 1F - not happening on what I am searching. Personally I could not care less about flying in F. I just want 2 seats in premium cabins either on same flight or flights within hours apart. Done this type of travel on our previous 3 or 4 flights either to or from HKG.
QF site is not showing any CX J or F seats between Oct 6 to Oct 24. Only MH flights are available.
Dont seem we will see availability returned to normal as 6 to 9 months ago.
QF site is not showing any CX J or F seats between Oct 6 to Oct 24. Only MH flights are available.
Dont seem we will see availability returned to normal as 6 to 9 months ago.
Jun 26, 2018, 10:53 am
#2392
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: SFO
Programs: BART Platinum, AA Plat Pro
Posts: 1,158
Same here. I was looking for anything ex-USA/CAN to HKG between 29 Sep - 10 Oct and nothing at all in a premium cabin for 2 PAX. A very rare single J of F seat, but nothing at all for 2 PAX. Ended up doing SQ F LAX-ICN (poor me) and will just buy a cheap Air Asia flight to get me the rest of the way.
Jun 26, 2018, 11:06 am
#2393
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 14
Argh. I've been trying for five days to book HKG to LON via CX using Alaska Airmiles, ideally on 18 May 2019. First there was a glitch where no partners' systems could see any CX award inventory. Now Alaska Air still can't see anything. I'm so regretting transferring the last SPG points I needed for this flight to Alaska!!!
Jun 26, 2018, 11:30 am
#2394
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: New York, NY
Programs: AA ExPl, DL PM, UA Silver, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium, probably some others
Posts: 4,091
I found space on a JFK-YVR flight in F during the first week of July that showed up on the QF site.
Looks like a few new rules are coming into play with CX space on AS, based on what I've experienced and have been reading:
1) There MAY be new married segment logic that makes searching more difficult than the days of searching leg-by-leg for space, so if you're looking for a connection routing, try searching both XXX-HKG-YYY and XXX-YYY.
2) BA is no longer a reliable or even close-to-reliable source for CX availability. QF may be semi-reliable. It seems like your best bet in searching for CX space now is to simply call AS.
Looks like a few new rules are coming into play with CX space on AS, based on what I've experienced and have been reading:
1) There MAY be new married segment logic that makes searching more difficult than the days of searching leg-by-leg for space, so if you're looking for a connection routing, try searching both XXX-HKG-YYY and XXX-YYY.
2) BA is no longer a reliable or even close-to-reliable source for CX availability. QF may be semi-reliable. It seems like your best bet in searching for CX space now is to simply call AS.
Jun 26, 2018, 8:27 pm
#2395
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,750
I found space on a JFK-YVR flight in F during the first week of July that showed up on the QF site.
Looks like a few new rules are coming into play with CX space on AS, based on what I've experienced and have been reading:
1) There MAY be new married segment logic that makes searching more difficult than the days of searching leg-by-leg for space, so if you're looking for a connection routing, try searching both XXX-HKG-YYY and XXX-YYY.
2) BA is no longer a reliable or even close-to-reliable source for CX availability. QF may be semi-reliable. It seems like your best bet in searching for CX space now is to simply call AS.
Looks like a few new rules are coming into play with CX space on AS, based on what I've experienced and have been reading:
1) There MAY be new married segment logic that makes searching more difficult than the days of searching leg-by-leg for space, so if you're looking for a connection routing, try searching both XXX-HKG-YYY and XXX-YYY.
2) BA is no longer a reliable or even close-to-reliable source for CX availability. QF may be semi-reliable. It seems like your best bet in searching for CX space now is to simply call AS.
Married segment is nothing new. It has been there since last year, and not just affecting AS. using AA miles have the same issue when trying to find availability. Often if you tag on bkk or sin you will find seats but if you just look for us-hkg you dont.
BA blocks 7 days close in since last year. It is "per CX request" to guard against fraudulent usage of Avios.
Blindly calling AS if you feel lucky or you have too much time in your hand.
Jun 26, 2018, 10:16 pm
#2396
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: New York, NY
Programs: AA ExPl, DL PM, UA Silver, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium, probably some others
Posts: 4,091
There are no new rules other than there are a whole lot less CX premium cabin seats available than before, but again that is the case since last year, just getting much worse in recent months and now essentially to NIL in most dates. This is about the only NEW "rule" and is not just affecting AS but also affecting all partners.
Married segment is nothing new. It has been there since last year, and not just affecting AS. using AA miles have the same issue when trying to find availability. Often if you tag on bkk or sin you will find seats but if you just look for us-hkg you dont.
BA blocks 7 days close in since last year. It is "per CX request" to guard against fraudulent usage of Avios.
Blindly calling AS if you feel lucky or you have too much time in your hand.
Married segment is nothing new. It has been there since last year, and not just affecting AS. using AA miles have the same issue when trying to find availability. Often if you tag on bkk or sin you will find seats but if you just look for us-hkg you dont.
BA blocks 7 days close in since last year. It is "per CX request" to guard against fraudulent usage of Avios.
Blindly calling AS if you feel lucky or you have too much time in your hand.
Jun 27, 2018, 8:45 am
#2397
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: SEA
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 759
Data point that might be weird - have a routing where both BA and QF show availability (BA on US-HKG and HKG-destination, QF on US-destination) but AS is saying they don't see anything. That seems different than what other recent posts are saying so I figured I'd mention it.
Jun 27, 2018, 8:56 am
#2398
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: 718
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Platinum, IHG Diamond
Posts: 967
Data point that might be weird - have a routing where both BA and QF show availability (BA on US-HKG and HKG-destination, QF on US-destination) but AS is saying they don't see anything. That seems different than what other recent posts are saying so I figured I'd mention it.
Jun 27, 2018, 9:29 am
#2399
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: MCI
Programs: AA Gold 1MM, AS MVP, UA Silver, WN A-List, Marriott LT Titanium, HH Diamond
Posts: 52,559
So is the best we can do, as users of AwardNexus, ExpertFlyer, etc., to continue to look at QF availability and go from there, knowing it isn't necessarily a 1-for-1 with what Alaska can actually book? (e.g., There's no way to look at exactly what AS can see?)