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
May 21, 2017, 3:05 pm
#646
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: YVR
Posts: 1,082
EWR-SEA
and
LAX-HKG-SYD
So your questions is kind of moot. Book your EWR-SEA award whenever you want. Then you can book LAX-HKG-SYD whenever that becomes available.
May 21, 2017, 6:18 pm
#647
Join Date: Mar 2016
Programs: Alaska MVP
Posts: 48
Haven't been able to figure this out (and I know there's an old post on it in this thread, but the answer seemed to be inconclusive: are the Maldives (MLE) considered part of Africa or Asia on Alaska's award chart? I'm wondering if MLE - HKG - JNB would be a valid routing...
May 22, 2017, 7:41 am
#648
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Canada
Programs: UA*1K MM
Posts: 23,300
Haven't been able to figure this out (and I know there's an old post on it in this thread, but the answer seemed to be inconclusive: are the Maldives (MLE) considered part of Africa or Asia on Alaska's award chart? I'm wondering if MLE - HKG - JNB would be a valid routing...
May 22, 2017, 9:14 am
#649
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,387
Haven't been able to figure this out (and I know there's an old post on it in this thread, but the answer seemed to be inconclusive: are the Maldives (MLE) considered part of Africa or Asia on Alaska's award chart? I'm wondering if MLE - HKG - JNB would be a valid routing...
Anyways, like the wiki and other posters say, two awards, breaking at HKG. It doesn't touch North America and it isn't intra-Asia.
May 23, 2017, 7:40 pm
#650
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: SJC / DPS
Programs: AS G75K, UA Silver
Posts: 1,757
I read through this thread for some tips before trying to book my first CX award.
JAL showed one F seat on a LAX-HKG flight in a month. Called it in, agent knew immediately how to book it, so grabbed it. Called a couple hours later to add a HKG-MNL segment, and was done without issue or any fee since it was within 24 hours.
Color me impressed, easy and a good value overall. The only issue was getting down to LA from SFO, since Alaska doesn't fly that route, and VX still isn't allowed to be mixed with CX. Awards like this and the extremely generous RDM earnings have me switching to AS next year from UA ^.
JAL showed one F seat on a LAX-HKG flight in a month. Called it in, agent knew immediately how to book it, so grabbed it. Called a couple hours later to add a HKG-MNL segment, and was done without issue or any fee since it was within 24 hours.
Color me impressed, easy and a good value overall. The only issue was getting down to LA from SFO, since Alaska doesn't fly that route, and VX still isn't allowed to be mixed with CX. Awards like this and the extremely generous RDM earnings have me switching to AS next year from UA ^.
May 23, 2017, 9:41 pm
#651
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 read through this thread for some tips before trying to book my first CX award.
JAL showed one F seat on a LAX-HKG flight in a month. Called it in, agent knew immediately how to book it, so grabbed it. Called a couple hours later to add a HKG-MNL segment, and was done without issue or any fee since it was within 24 hours.
Color me impressed, easy and a good value overall. The only issue was getting down to LA from SFO, since Alaska doesn't fly that route, and VX still isn't allowed to be mixed with CX. Awards like this and the extremely generous RDM earnings have me switching to AS next year from UA ^.
JAL showed one F seat on a LAX-HKG flight in a month. Called it in, agent knew immediately how to book it, so grabbed it. Called a couple hours later to add a HKG-MNL segment, and was done without issue or any fee since it was within 24 hours.
Color me impressed, easy and a good value overall. The only issue was getting down to LA from SFO, since Alaska doesn't fly that route, and VX still isn't allowed to be mixed with CX. Awards like this and the extremely generous RDM earnings have me switching to AS next year from UA ^.
Or fly SJC-LAX (route is relaunching)
May 23, 2017, 10:33 pm
#652
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: SJC / DPS
Programs: AS G75K, UA Silver
Posts: 1,757
In the future, does AS allow an open jaw AND stopover when connecting? For example, could I do SJC-SNA / +1 LAX-HKG on the same ticket?
May 23, 2017, 10:49 pm
#653
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,387
Yes, technically I probably could have, but I've already done my one free change and it isn't worth the $125 to add that on. Instead I just booked a $50 one way from SFO-LAX. Not complaining, it's still an excellent value.
In the future, does AS allow an open jaw AND stopover when connecting? For example, could I do SJC-SNA / +1 LAX-HKG on the same ticket?
In the future, does AS allow an open jaw AND stopover when connecting? For example, could I do SJC-SNA / +1 LAX-HKG on the same ticket?
Last edited by eponymous_coward; May 23, 2017 at 11:01 pm
May 23, 2017, 10:59 pm
#654
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
Yes, technically I probably could have, but I've already done my one free change and it isn't worth the $125 to add that on. Instead I just booked a $50 one way from SFO-LAX. Not complaining, it's still an excellent value.
In the future, does AS allow an open jaw AND stopover when connecting? For example, could I do SJC-SNA / +1 LAX-HKG on the same ticket?
In the future, does AS allow an open jaw AND stopover when connecting? For example, could I do SJC-SNA / +1 LAX-HKG on the same ticket?
May 23, 2017, 11:38 pm
#655
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: HNL <-> BOS
Posts: 382
I've looked through this thread and the second CX thread for AS redemptions and saw one anecdote about a year back.
Are you able to change a flight/cabin class once you've started your itinerary?
I'm doing ICN- HKG (7 day stop) -LAX for two people. One ticket is completely booked in F and the other ticket as you might guess is ICN-HKG in F and HKG-LAX in J. My concern is the higher likelihood of an F seat being made available during those 7 days I'm in HKG.
Are you able to change a flight/cabin class once you've started your itinerary?
I'm doing ICN- HKG (7 day stop) -LAX for two people. One ticket is completely booked in F and the other ticket as you might guess is ICN-HKG in F and HKG-LAX in J. My concern is the higher likelihood of an F seat being made available during those 7 days I'm in HKG.
May 24, 2017, 1:51 am
#656
Join Date: Apr 2008
Programs: AS MVPG
Posts: 454
I've looked through this thread and the second CX thread for AS redemptions and saw one anecdote about a year back.
Are you able to change a flight/cabin class once you've started your itinerary?
I'm doing ICN- HKG (7 day stop) -LAX for two people. One ticket is completely booked in F and the other ticket as you might guess is ICN-HKG in F and HKG-LAX in J. My concern is the higher likelihood of an F seat being made available during those 7 days I'm in HKG.
Are you able to change a flight/cabin class once you've started your itinerary?
I'm doing ICN- HKG (7 day stop) -LAX for two people. One ticket is completely booked in F and the other ticket as you might guess is ICN-HKG in F and HKG-LAX in J. My concern is the higher likelihood of an F seat being made available during those 7 days I'm in HKG.
May 24, 2017, 5:09 am
#657
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,536
In response to you and as a follow up to my earlier post, yes and no. Earlier this week I was flying TLV-HKG-SFO in J with a companion in F for the HKG-SFO leg. Of course, F opened up when I was in HKG. The agent wasn't able to upgrade my HKG-SFO flight as the journey had already started. I came up with this solution: redeemed a new HKG-SFO flight in F, and cancelled the J res. I can use it on the same routing anytime within the next year.
May 24, 2017, 8:50 am
#658
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: HNL <-> BOS
Posts: 382
In response to you and as a follow up to my earlier post, yes and no. Earlier this week I was flying TLV-HKG-SFO in J with a companion in F for the HKG-SFO leg. Of course, F opened up when I was in HKG. The agent wasn't able to upgrade my HKG-SFO flight as the journey had already started. I came up with this solution: redeemed a new HKG-SFO flight in F, and cancelled the J res. I can use it on the same routing anytime within the next year.
I may do this then. In your experience jamienbaker, since it looks like you redeem CX F quite often, should I hold out any hope that they release another award seat outside of two weeks from departure? My departure date is 12/28 and cabin is currently F5.
May 24, 2017, 8:56 am
#659
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,536
Thank you for your reply. I don't see myself flying HKG-US within the year after travel so won't be able to do that unfortunately.
I may do this then. In your experience jamienbaker, since it looks like you redeem CX F quite often, should I hold out any hope that they release another award seat outside of two weeks from departure? My departure date is 12/28 and cabin is currently F5.
I may do this then. In your experience jamienbaker, since it looks like you redeem CX F quite often, should I hold out any hope that they release another award seat outside of two weeks from departure? My departure date is 12/28 and cabin is currently F5.
EDIT: My CX travel is exclusively in August, and my greatest success is JFKHKG early in the month. HKGJFK towards the end of the month is tougher due school return, I've never succeeded in getting 4 awards in that direction, only 2 and the second of those usually inside of 24 hours (hence the need to break the award, as referenced above). Hope this clarification helps - Jamie
May 24, 2017, 9:07 am
#660
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 7
Hey folks
Apologies if this is already answered. Did a quick search but didn't find a definitive recent answer.
On this page https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...rd-charts.aspx if I choose US->Asia it shows the terms:
"8. Excludes Hong Kong. The following blackout dates apply for travel between North America and Asia in 2017: Jan 1, Jan 26 - 31, May 12 - Jun 30, Jul 14 - Aug 19, Sep 30 - Oct 10, Dec 8 - Dec 31"
Just want to be clear. By "Excludes Hong Kong" does this mean during the above dates:
Hoping it is #1 .
Thanks!
Apologies if this is already answered. Did a quick search but didn't find a definitive recent answer.
On this page https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...rd-charts.aspx if I choose US->Asia it shows the terms:
"8. Excludes Hong Kong. The following blackout dates apply for travel between North America and Asia in 2017: Jan 1, Jan 26 - 31, May 12 - Jun 30, Jul 14 - Aug 19, Sep 30 - Oct 10, Dec 8 - Dec 31"
Just want to be clear. By "Excludes Hong Kong" does this mean during the above dates:
- I can book award travel to HKG, but I cannot book travel to say NRT? or
- I can book award travel to NRT but not HKG?
Hoping it is #1 .
Thanks!