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
Jul 16, 2018, 12:09 am
#2461
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Australia
Programs: QF, AS, BA, SQ, CX, IB
Posts: 58
Hi Charlie Thomson,
If you are able to action the availability quickly, there is reasonable availability popping up around T-14 to T-10 for CX F and J. You'll need to not look at the obvious tourist centres though, as it seems half the world is currently focussed on a very limited set of Departure and Arrival codes.
If you are able to action the availability quickly, there is reasonable availability popping up around T-14 to T-10 for CX F and J. You'll need to not look at the obvious tourist centres though, as it seems half the world is currently focussed on a very limited set of Departure and Arrival codes.
Last edited by relaxonbarton; Jul 16, 2018 at 12:18 am Reason: correction
Jul 16, 2018, 12:16 am
#2462
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Australia
Programs: QF, AS, BA, SQ, CX, IB
Posts: 58
I had an experience on Friday where I needed 2 x J between Australia and HKG. Dis all the usual checks and availability was there for 3 successive dates on QF and BA so placed the call to AS. Fortunately I got a highly capable agent in Boise. She could only see one seat on my preferred date and 2 seats on my least preferred date, I asked her to go back and review the dates from the beginning, and she said she could see the seats but CX wasn't releasing them to her. She then went the extra yard, and after about 6 or 7 minutes got them and was able to ticket them for me. I wasn't able to get a handle on what she actually did to get them, but it seems that the system makes it difficult, but not impossible. So perhaps the view that AS isn't able to access all CX availability is not completely true and really its the AS IT implementation that is just not helping to access seats that are able to be booked.
Jul 16, 2018, 7:58 am
#2463
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Tokyo
Programs: Marriott Plat, HH G,Hyatt E,*A Gold, OW Emerald.
Posts: 3,023
Jul 16, 2018, 2:37 pm
#2464
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 19
I had an experience on Friday where I needed 2 x J between Australia and HKG. Dis all the usual checks and availability was there for 3 successive dates on QF and BA so placed the call to AS. Fortunately I got a highly capable agent in Boise. She could only see one seat on my preferred date and 2 seats on my least preferred date, I asked her to go back and review the dates from the beginning, and she said she could see the seats but CX wasn't releasing them to her. She then went the extra yard, and after about 6 or 7 minutes got them and was able to ticket them for me. I wasn't able to get a handle on what she actually did to get them, but it seems that the system makes it difficult, but not impossible. So perhaps the view that AS isn't able to access all CX availability is not completely true and really its the AS IT implementation that is just not helping to access seats that are able to be booked.
Jul 16, 2018, 6:29 pm
#2465
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Is it just a HK issue. I found space in J no problem using iberia avios JFK-YVR
Jul 16, 2018, 7:19 pm
#2466
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,754
Jul 16, 2018, 8:57 pm
#2467
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Bay Area
Programs: HH, PC, SPG, MR, GP, US, UA, AA
Posts: 3,453
Just told by 4 reps. that MLE-HKG-PEK does not qualify for a free stopover. Any idea what's going on here? Thanks.
ETA: the 5th rep told me that in AS rule manual, it specifically prohibits stopover at HKG for all India-Asia routes.
ETA: the 5th rep told me that in AS rule manual, it specifically prohibits stopover at HKG for all India-Asia routes.
Last edited by rdchen; Jul 16, 2018 at 9:44 pm
Jul 16, 2018, 10:00 pm
#2468
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,385
Read the wiki. Your routing does not touch North America. No stopover; in fact it is two awards since that award breaks at HKG. So you can have a “stopover” by paying for two awards and building in the “stopover”.
Last edited by eponymous_coward; Jul 16, 2018 at 10:05 pm
Jul 16, 2018, 10:30 pm
#2469
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: YVR to SEA
Posts: 2,534
They already told you the rule. No stops allowed. The award chart always starts or terminates in Hong Kong unless it's to or from north America.
Jul 17, 2018, 8:17 pm
#2470
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 19
I'm planning for north america-HKG-australia in Sep 2019, I know it's too early to book but wanted to get flights in order and phone it in as soon as they become available. My question is whether flight schedules change dramatically - if I do my planning in Aug/Sep 2018, when the seats open for booking, will the timetables change enough to undo all of my planning? (All of this is notwithstanding the current issues with seeing availability)
Jul 17, 2018, 8:47 pm
#2471
Ambassador, Hong Kong and Macau
Join Date: May 2009
Location: HKG
Programs: Non-top tier Asia Miles member
Posts: 19,795
Change no
Jul 18, 2018, 2:25 am
#2472
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: West Coast, USA
Programs: Skywards Platinum
Posts: 3,747
Very frustrating. Not a single BKK-HKG award redemption available for the next 2 months in ANY class.
Jul 18, 2018, 3:29 am
#2473
Ambassador, Hong Kong and Macau
Join Date: May 2009
Location: HKG
Programs: Non-top tier Asia Miles member
Posts: 19,795
Jul 18, 2018, 2:24 pm
#2474
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Bay Area
Programs: HH, PC, SPG, MR, GP, US, UA, AA
Posts: 3,453
My bad, should have read the wiki more carefully.
Jul 18, 2018, 3:50 pm
#2475
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: LAX_AMS_MNL
Programs: AS MVP, AA EXP - 1MM, BAEC BRZ, BVY GLD, Hilton DIA, Hyatt GLB
Posts: 749
A lot of space just showed up guys. Grab em! im seeing some LAX-HKG 4 seats on BA.com 15 may '19