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 30, 2017, 9:01 pm
#692
Join Date: Jul 2012
Programs: Delta Gold, Alaska Gold 75K, LATAM Black
Posts: 3,393
Jun 2, 2017, 9:36 pm
#693
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: HKG/ SIN
Posts: 203
HKG- Europe award availability seems to have dried up (I usually check on BA but Alaska shouldn't have more availability than BA). It used to be very good, at least far out and to destinations like AMS, FRA, DUS, LGW or MAD (LHR or CDG obviously harder).
What gives? Is this an IT-problem or has CX decided to make much less awards available to partners? It seems counter-intuitive as they should be happy for any seat to be filled with their current struggles? Many routes don't even have PE or Economy awards?? The change is so massive and drastic that I suspect/ hope it's an IT problem but you never know. Does anyone have similar experiences/ additional insights?
What gives? Is this an IT-problem or has CX decided to make much less awards available to partners? It seems counter-intuitive as they should be happy for any seat to be filled with their current struggles? Many routes don't even have PE or Economy awards?? The change is so massive and drastic that I suspect/ hope it's an IT problem but you never know. Does anyone have similar experiences/ additional insights?
Last edited by GwailoSIN; Jun 2, 2017 at 10:27 pm
Jun 3, 2017, 12:26 am
#694
Ambassador, Hong Kong and Macau
Join Date: May 2009
Location: HKG
Programs: Non-top tier Asia Miles member
Posts: 19,804
I'm trying to rebook a late Sep trip to Europe and encountering difficulties also
Jun 3, 2017, 10:34 pm
#695
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Denver
Posts: 85
HKG- Europe award availability seems to have dried up (I usually check on BA but Alaska shouldn't have more availability than BA). It used to be very good, at least far out and to destinations like AMS, FRA, DUS, LGW or MAD (LHR or CDG obviously harder).
What gives? Is this an IT-problem or has CX decided to make much less awards available to partners? It seems counter-intuitive as they should be happy for any seat to be filled with their current struggles? Many routes don't even have PE or Economy awards?? The change is so massive and drastic that I suspect/ hope it's an IT problem but you never know. Does anyone have similar experiences/ additional insights?
What gives? Is this an IT-problem or has CX decided to make much less awards available to partners? It seems counter-intuitive as they should be happy for any seat to be filled with their current struggles? Many routes don't even have PE or Economy awards?? The change is so massive and drastic that I suspect/ hope it's an IT problem but you never know. Does anyone have similar experiences/ additional insights?
Just booked last week and flew HKG - USA in F. All the dates I had looked at on CX and QF websites correlated with what AS had.
Also had a few Europe HKG options, but did not book. Granted these are close in.
Agent took less than 5 min to book and issue ticket.
Jun 4, 2017, 5:28 pm
#696
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: IAH
Programs: DL DM, Hyatt Ist-iest, Stariott Platinum, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 12,795
So I am at the beginning stages of planning a CX J redemption that I'll make next month, but struggling with the positioning flight. I'll be going ex-IAH, and the only AS route I have is IAH-SEA, and then will have to add on SEA-SFO/LAX/YVR to get to a CX gateway city. If I was feeling really masochistic I suppose I could do SEA-JFK and pick up the CX flight from there, but I'm not sure if that would be kosher with AS routing rules. 
Guess my question is: how lenient is AS on booking the add on AS positioning flight in F if there is no saver availability? I'm looking out to next year and F saver space is very scarce on the IAH-SEA route, as in it might as well be non-existent. I ask because if I can't get the AS positioning flight in F, I'm tempted to just start the award in NYC to maximize my CX time and do JFK-(YVR)-HKG-SYD and get myself to NYC.
Guess my question is: how lenient is AS on booking the add on AS positioning flight in F if there is no saver availability? I'm looking out to next year and F saver space is very scarce on the IAH-SEA route, as in it might as well be non-existent. I ask because if I can't get the AS positioning flight in F, I'm tempted to just start the award in NYC to maximize my CX time and do JFK-(YVR)-HKG-SYD and get myself to NYC.
Jun 4, 2017, 6:58 pm
#697
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: YVR
Posts: 1,085
So I am at the beginning stages of planning a CX J redemption that I'll make next month, but struggling with the positioning flight. I'll be going ex-IAH, and the only AS route I have is IAH-SEA, and then will have to add on SEA-SFO/LAX/YVR to get to a CX gateway city. If I was feeling really masochistic I suppose I could do SEA-JFK and pick up the CX flight from there, but I'm not sure if that would be kosher with AS routing rules.
Guess my question is: how lenient is AS on booking the add on AS positioning flight in F if there is no saver availability? I'm looking out to next year and F saver space is very scarce on the IAH-SEA route, as in it might as well be non-existent. I ask because if I can't get the AS positioning flight in F, I'm tempted to just start the award in NYC to maximize my CX time and do JFK-(YVR)-HKG-SYD and get myself to NYC.
Guess my question is: how lenient is AS on booking the add on AS positioning flight in F if there is no saver availability? I'm looking out to next year and F saver space is very scarce on the IAH-SEA route, as in it might as well be non-existent. I ask because if I can't get the AS positioning flight in F, I'm tempted to just start the award in NYC to maximize my CX time and do JFK-(YVR)-HKG-SYD and get myself to NYC.
Last edited by pentiumvi; Jun 5, 2017 at 2:52 am Reason: Incorrect info
Jun 4, 2017, 8:41 pm
#698
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 2,028
OP, what do you mean by how "lenient"? If there is no award space, they won't book it, period. I would highly suggest purchasing a separate positioning ticket - way better and more reasonable than flying IAH-SEA-JFK or even IAH-SEA-LAX.
Jun 4, 2017, 9:51 pm
#699
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: IAH
Programs: DL DM, Hyatt Ist-iest, Stariott Platinum, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 12,795
OP, what do you mean by how "lenient"? If there is no award space, they won't book it, period. I would highly suggest purchasing a separate positioning ticket - way better and more reasonable than flying IAH-SEA-JFK or even IAH-SEA-LAX.
Jun 4, 2017, 10:06 pm
#700
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 2,028
What I mean is there is award space, but not at the saver level, given AS's apparent desire to not release saver F space on IAH-SEA. At the end of the day, it's clearly not a deal breaker, it's just a slight wrench and added expense. If AS would allow >1 partner per award this would not really be an issue.
Either way, I would fly to the closest gateway city on your dime via a non-stop flight and go from there. Two connections is just exhausting.
Jun 4, 2017, 10:48 pm
#701
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 599
The ymmv is mostly for whether you'll get a $125 fee assessed on not, depending on if the change you're requesting is due to a schedule-change/aircraft-swap etc or just a voluntary change.
Jun 4, 2017, 11:24 pm
#702
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,397
I figured as much...
What I mean is there is award space, but not at the saver level, given AS's apparent desire to not release saver F space on IAH-SEA. At the end of the day, it's clearly not a deal breaker, it's just a slight wrench and added expense. If AS would allow >1 partner per award this would not really be an issue.
What I mean is there is award space, but not at the saver level, given AS's apparent desire to not release saver F space on IAH-SEA. At the end of the day, it's clearly not a deal breaker, it's just a slight wrench and added expense. If AS would allow >1 partner per award this would not really be an issue.
I think "maximizing" CX J is questionable. The CX board is full of complaints about the food. We're not talking CX F (which I also think it is questionable to "maximize" but it is somewhat more understandable). J is meant to be reasonably comfortable but not lavish or luxurious. I wouldn't care for 20 hours flying in any J cabin (barely so in F). YMMV, but I would do IAH-YVR-HKG...
Jun 5, 2017, 2:28 am
#704
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: HKG/ SIN
Posts: 203
Close in availability is not relevant for me as I don't have the luxury of booking last minute long haul flights. My wife has to schedule her leave in advance even though I am a bit more flexible.
CX used to have a lot of availability 4-8 months out and that seems to have (mostly) disappeared.
Jun 5, 2017, 6:38 am
#705
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
The agent was definitely wrong. If you are on a F/J partner award you are eligible to be in F on the domestic legs, same as other programs as well If no saver F space then you get mixed cabin. Mixed cabin must also be in saver.