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Cathay Pacific (CX) Award Redemption, Booking and Availability – 2017 and Later

Old Jun 28, 2017, 8:46 pm
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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.

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.
Routing Rules:
  • 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.
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Cathay Pacific (CX) Award Redemption, Booking and Availability – 2017 and Later

Old Aug 15, 2017, 9:08 am
  #1021  
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: New York
Posts: 183
Originally Posted by RTWonSAT
Been keeping track of last minute Cathay availability with Alaska for months now (Testing my theories and trying to book the second F for the honeymoon )

Few things I learned:
1. Subtraction system seems to be there for the J seats. (I.e BA shows 8, AS has 4) this was true for most of the routes I was looking at just to test out my theories.

2. Cathay reservation system definitely has a lag relative to BA and QF's award search. Sometimes I've called Alaska right after I see seats come up on BA, but multiple reps can't see it. However, 6/12 hours later *some reps can see the additional seats.

3. Most important: HUCA absolutely helps. I usually go through the MVP gold reservation line, but after trying the normal reservation line and finding a good agent that seems to know how to book a CX award ticket, they seem to always able to see the F seats and at least 1 J seat where BA shows availability (hence the delay theory in #2 )

TL;DR- Call the normal reservation and find agents that know CX well. Your chances of finding J/F seats increases significantly.

And yes, second F ticket was issued this morning after BA showed 2. (Only after 4 calls )
I'm in the same boat. I need one F ticket for our honeymoon flight on CX NYC-HKG on Nov 12. BA hasn't shown any availability for J or F for about 3 months now. Hopefully something turns up closer to the date.
Anlun is offline  
Old Aug 15, 2017, 5:40 pm
  #1022  
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,517
Data point - CX released 3 F awards HKGUSA on a flight that was F5, inside of 14 days. Alaska could only see 2. Several HUCAs. Each agent could only see two.

Jamie
jamienbaker is offline  
Old Aug 15, 2017, 5:51 pm
  #1023  
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 1,050
Originally Posted by jamienbaker
Data point - CX released 3 F awards HKGUSA on a flight that was F5, inside of 14 days. Alaska could only see 2. Several HUCAs. Each agent could only see two.

Jamie
If you claim those two, might the third then become visible to Alaska? Many years ago I ran into a case where an airline would only release one seat at-a-time to a partner. If not, then I guess the kids will just have to make do with row 11.

DAK
dkerr is offline  
Old Aug 15, 2017, 6:52 pm
  #1024  
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,517
Originally Posted by dkerr
If you claim those two, might the third then become visible to Alaska? Many years ago I ran into a case where an airline would only release one seat at-a-time to a partner. If not, then I guess the kids will just have to make do with row 11.

DAK
You know me well!

I'm going to try that. Split the kids, grab the one F that AS can see. If it doesn't immediately show the second, required seat, I'll grab the other via AA and just suck up the bad redemption value.

Jamie
jamienbaker is offline  
Old Aug 16, 2017, 4:58 am
  #1025  
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: SIN
Programs: KF, MPC, BAEC // Bonvoy, WoH, Honors
Posts: 1,461
Am looking to travel HKG-DXB and BA (edit: and QF) is showing 8 open seats on CX745 and 2 open seats on CX731.

Alaska agents can't see a single seat. Is this normal? How far down the priority list are AS members?

Last edited by Kilian Zoll; Aug 16, 2017 at 5:11 am
Kilian Zoll is offline  
Old Aug 16, 2017, 7:23 pm
  #1026  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 2,028
FYI I was able to book this morning for travel 331 days out. It was from Asia -> US so maybe that's why (time change) but just a tip for others looking to book at the opening of the window.

At the same time, I am dealing with a flight T-329 with 3 J seats available per BA/Qantas/JAL but 0 available to Alaska. The age-old frustration. I'm on HUACA #6 .

EDIT: Even tried long-selling to no success. That's 8 total agents I've spoken to. They are seeing 0 J for the entire week on DPS-HKG despite BA/Qantas/JAL sohwing J3 or J4 every day (and on the CX flight, not the KA one). Very frustrating. I will likely book with AA miles instead.

Last edited by callmedtop; Aug 16, 2017 at 7:47 pm
callmedtop is offline  
Old Aug 16, 2017, 8:46 pm
  #1027  
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Chicago
Programs: Hyatt Glob, AA EXP, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 23
HKG-DPS or DPS-HKG has been an anomaly. I've called once about them and they seem to not see any availability what so ever.....
RTWonSAT is offline  
Old Aug 16, 2017, 9:07 pm
  #1028  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 2,028
Originally Posted by RTWonSAT
HKG-DPS or DPS-HKG has been an anomaly. I've called once about them and they seem to not see any availability what so ever.....
Thanks for the data point. After many, many CX F bookings, that's one anomaly that I never ran into.

I will call AA and put DPS-HKG at least on hold for now.
callmedtop is offline  
Old Aug 16, 2017, 11:09 pm
  #1029  
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,517
Just booked DPSHKG in J for later this week. Hardly an anomaly.
jamienbaker is offline  
Old Aug 17, 2017, 6:05 am
  #1030  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 2,028
Originally Posted by jamienbaker
Just booked DPSHKG in J for later this week. Hardly an anomaly.
Do you have any tips on what I might be missing here? Agents see the flight, but see 0 in J (9 in Y) and long-selling produces the same result.
callmedtop is offline  
Old Aug 17, 2017, 8:12 am
  #1031  
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Chicago
Programs: Hyatt Glob, AA EXP, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 23
Originally Posted by jamienbaker
Just booked DPSHKG in J for later this week. Hardly an anomaly.
How many J space were there on BA/QF? Not doubting you, wanted more info to figure out the pattern.
RTWonSAT is offline  
Old Aug 17, 2017, 8:27 am
  #1032  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 2,028
Originally Posted by RTWonSAT
How many J space were there on BA/QF? Not doubting you, wanted more info to figure out the pattern.
Some dates had 3, some had 4, AS could see none. I know some people have said the rule is J-4 but I have seen many examples where that is not the case, and I also imagine intra-Asia is a bit more lax.
callmedtop is offline  
Old Aug 17, 2017, 9:05 am
  #1033  
 
Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 2
What is the pattern of releasing award tickets in Y? I'm trying HKG-YYZ for June 2018 but only 2 days in the month have Y availability (one of the days has 7+ tickets, the other has unspecified number of tickets). Will more Y tickets be released sometime down the line?

Also, just wanted to confirm that NRT-HKG-YYZ is allowed as a one-way for 30,000 miles despite a little bit of backtracking?
jetson833 is offline  
Old Aug 17, 2017, 9:30 am
  #1034  
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: ORD [formerly] + HKG
Programs: CX Diamond, AA exExPlat, BAEC exGold, HH Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, Starriott Titanium, GE
Posts: 2,966
Originally Posted by jetson833
What is the pattern of releasing award tickets in Y? I'm trying HKG-YYZ for June 2018 but only 2 days in the month have Y availability (one of the days has 7+ tickets, the other has unspecified number of tickets). Will more Y tickets be released sometime down the line?
Just a friendly reminder, YYZ route is one of the hardest for redemption availability across the whole network.
Also, just wanted to confirm that NRT-HKG-YYZ is allowed as a one-way for 30,000 miles despite a little bit of backtracking?
Yes. You can even do a stopover.
G-CIVC is offline  
Old Aug 17, 2017, 6:45 pm
  #1035  
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,517
Originally Posted by callmedtop
Do you have any tips on what I might be missing here? Agents see the flight, but see 0 in J (9 in Y) and long-selling produces the same result.
I stand corrected. I've done several DPS bookings in the last couple of days but with American Airlines. I also post on their page. So I should not have commented here as I've not yet tried booking DPS via AS. I apologize for any confusion.
jamienbaker is offline  

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