SESTAR

Tried that. Still no luck. Both BA and JAL show availability but AS cannot see them.

almost.victoria

I had a v. interesting time making my first award redemption - and it happens to be CX with AS. They quoted me a total of $58ish for taxes and fees for JFK-HKG-TPE in F (late December/NYE actually).

All the people I talked to were helpful, at the minimum cordial and at times straight up friendly (one in particular went and manually pulled up each and every segment for my window to check availability, and then even allowed me to put the award reservation on hold for a short period so that I could get the miles in place).

Given how difficult it was to find F availability, based on your collective experience, do you think it will be easier or harder to find Y/W fares? Thinking about surprising a friend for the same route (JFK-HKG-TPE) in mid December when they finish school as a grad present.

PV_Premier

I assume you mean Y/W awards. They're typically easier than F and J of course, but not necessarily a slam dunk (particularly W).

Edgerfly

Just to help people, I used BA and JAL's tool to find CX space but many times it was phantom space.

The best tool by far, and it has never been wrong on CX availability to AS, is Qantas' tool.

jasongc87

Hi All,

I've live in DC and booked 2 Business class tickets from JFK-HKG and and returning HKG-LAX. I'm getting up to DC on an separate ticket on an AA flight and have a separate AS award from LAX to DCA on my return flight. I have about an hour and twenty minutes for my connection in LAX, below the min connection time, but I'm willing to try it. I have TSA precheck and Global entry.
Anyways, I'd really like to change my return ticket from HKG-LAX to HKG-JFK and have been checking Expert Flyer and BA's Avios website multiple times a day and haven't seen anything open up in September. I was playing around on the Avios site for departure dates in the next week and randomly saw F open up two flights this morning, then saw it disappear. Has anyone here been successful in changing their ticket once travel has begun and been able to snag F or C seats? I've read that inventory opens up a week out from departure, and sometimes day of departure. What have people's experience been in changing their tickets with AS partner desk? Does anyone know if there is a specific time when CX replenishes award tickets available for redemption on AS?

tranceformer978

A couple of weeks ago I booked a J class flight BOS-HKG-BKK on one award totaling 50k miles. Today I tried to book the return BKK-HKG-BOS and was told there was no availability but I'm seeing them on BA. I HUCA and was told the same thing. I asked to search each segment individually and only then could AS see the availability. I was told I had to book each segment individually costing me a total of 72.5k miles. Has anyone ever experience something like this?

eponymous_coward

The agent's wrong (you should be able to get a stopover both ways in any event). Ask for a supervisor or HUCA.

tranceformer978

Will do. Thanks.

mumum17

Yes, I agree the Quantas' tool was accurate for our use. I booked 3 business class from ORD-HK-JNB for next March with a layover in HK.

yurch10

Was trying to book two First awards JFK-HKG; wanted same day but realized it'd be separate flights bc Cathay usually opens just one seat at a time. I used both Qantas and BA website to confirm availability. Unfortunately, Alaska was only able to see one of the flights with a first seat. The other flight had nothing, and even the one connecting in Vancouver had nothing despite showing availability on the other sites.

I ended up booking the one, and just taking a business class on that same flight. After booking the one First, I searched again on BA and it was gone, so their website had already updated.

Anyone have any ideas on path forward? Seems like Alaska will charge 60 days in, but that is likely the best hope to find another First award?

I'm also planning to keep calling to check for different days, but not sure how useful that will be. Seems clear that they have limited space compared to what the other sites are showing.

PV_Premier

there is a decent chance you'll see another F seat inside 14 days on the same flight. you'll have to pay $125 change fee to get it, and only you can decide if it's worth it for the F experience over J. if i was traveling w/ a companion i'd be hard pressed to leave one of us in J while the other gets to experience F if the difference was just 10K miles and $125.

really all you can do is keep checking, and call anytime you see a seat available on a flight that represents a palatable solution for your problem.

my personal approach to traveling w/ companions is it is first most important to be on the same flight, especially if downline connections are involved. after that, it's important to be in the same cabin. and finally, if/when feasible, in adjacent seats.

yurch10

Good stuff, thanks. Think my first option will be to see if I can switch days at some point over the next couple weeks. The flights would get in within 4 hours of each other, and the layover is another 6 hours from when the second flight arrives. Would hate to miss what, by all accounts, is a pretty sweet first class lounge in HKG (been to main one, The Wing?, but not the smaller one).

If I can't do that, I'll just wait it out for the final 14 days. Looking back, I'll have to check the 9:30am HK time to see if something opens up. Certainly agree a $125 fee is well worth being together/enjoying first.

If not, we're now on the same flight, but I'm in J. I've done the CX First before, but the fiance hasn't. Plus, a lady ain't gonna be flying J while I'm up front, so that argument was finished before it began

Anyhow, thanks again. Wasn't sure if there was anything I did wrong wrt availability on BA/Qantas, as the last few posts seemed to imply the phantom availability wasn't really an issue anymore. It still is!

ChiefNWA

Looks like my suspicion is confirmed... I've booked CX both with AA and AS before (been about a year since last) but tried to book some flights to India today. Checked BA and saw plenty of availability on the flights I wanted. Called AS and they saw none of it.

We checked JFK-HKG in Feb and only a few days popped up (she claims) with PE but nothing in J or F (I'm looking for J). I ended up just taking the first seat she found which was BOS-HKG, 11 hrs in HK then HKG-BOM. Not ideal, but better than nothing at this point.

How long has this 'phantom' space issue been going on? The 2nd CSR I spoke to said she's noticed it as well when I mentioned BA was showing space. The 1st rep got confused and thought I was trying to book BA...

Happy

It really depends on several factors.

We have traveled the US-HKG route on both directions many times. In general we try to travel on the same day same flight, 1 in F 1 in J is no big deal for us especially husband does not care whether he is in F or in J. For whatever reason, the purser and the FAs are particularly nice to him when he sits in J and I sits in F. He got the brownie points from all the cabin crews. lol. Last Sept the purser insisted to give him the F PJ even though he already changed into a PJ pants from QR. He claimed QR's more comfortable even though it was not "organic cotton" the CX's being made from, but manmade fabric albeit very soft.

I think the most important thing to keep in mind is - Reticketing could go wrong if the agent is not competent. AS agents are not anywhere near as competent as AAgents when handling reticketing on Partner awards. The extra 10K / $125 are very minor consideration. But a SNAFU made by the agent resulting one to lose the award seat is a real danger on the reticketing. The DPs reported here do not give me confidence to have AS reticket CX award at close in, let alone last minute when we are out of the country.

When we use AA award we would try to change the 1J to F when F opens up, not only AA does not charge, but AAgentd are quite accustom to last minute changes on upgrading CX flights, even up to a few hours to departure.
I did such change in Feb when we were in Hong Kong 2 days before flying. New ticket came within 3 hours. Husband's noon flight was wide open while my 4:30pm flight (the preferred time) did not see release. I finally gave up and called AA from Hong Kong to move myself to his flight which turned out only 2 of us for the whole F cabin.

When we use AS award, especially if it is a return from HKG to US, after a long trip, we dont want the complication to reticket with AS as there are enough DPs on AS screw up when doing last minute changes. It is hard enough to fix AS SNAFUs when this happens but you are still at home, haven't started your trip yet. It would be 10 times harder to try to get it fixed when you are in Hong Kong or somewhere in Asia, when AS agents just lost your booking in the process of rebooking. It did Happen every now and then. And the results are not pretty.

We sometimes do 1F on each flight that are a few hours apart. Our upcoming trip the inbound is booked with AS award. Right now we are on 2 flights 3.5 hours apart LAX-HKG. Then on the same flight LAX-SEA. Husband is once again on the earlier flight around noon from HKG, and I would be on the 4:30pm flight. In order for me to have enough time to clear immigration /. custom at LAX, I would need to have 3 hours connection upon arriving LAX. So husband would be "stuck" at AS LAX lounge for 6.5 hours. He does not mind that a bit.

Travel in CX premium cabins to us is primarily for the comfort and the quality of sleep. On our Feb return, husband had lunch at The Wing, went to sleep shortly after we were at cruising altitude. He did not wake up for breakfast until an hour before landing, and only because I thought he should eat something. So he had some congee and fruits - that was all the foods he had for the whole flight in F. That would be unimaginable for some here.
We dont need to "experience" the flight when we are doing this 2 to 3 times a year. It primarily is the more comfortable way to cross the Ocean. Nor do we need to be on the same flight / sit together / dine face to face - None of these means much to us. So we pick the schedules that would work for us, either travel in different cabins or different flights. But we would not travel on different date because that would make the logistics much harder.

At the end you would need to evaluate all the factors, which one is the most important to you and proceed accordingly.

Edgerfly

I had said QF's (Qantas) tool was the best for finding CX space as there never seems to be a discrepency in all the times I've booked CX with AS. I'm coming to eat my words, as this is the first time I'm seeing space on both QF and BA's tool and the Alaska agents are not seeing it.

It seems strange, but I guess CX actually does only release a certain amount of space to AS because if both BA, QF, and even JL's site are showing it open, it must be only for OW. I had thought when AS agents said "were only given certain space" was just them being ignorant, but I'm starting to actually believe that.