kar don

Really? I have F award on cx and they said $125 to change... Can status match to 75k I guess.

eponymous_coward

He means if you booked J and want to change to F while keeping the same flights, a fee applies. If you want to change your F award flights inside of 60 days, a fee will also apply.

FWIW, the AA Plat status you mention in your profile matches to MVPG, not 75K.

kar don

Yes thanks for the help been a while since I updated that, I have SW Companion pass too which I would use.^

Winterfell86

Booked F for me HKG-LAX next September (331 days out). Booked J for my fiancé. AS agent told me to call again closer to departure to see if more F award opens up for upgrade. We did a "test" and the agent looked at HKG-LAX F availability the next week and saw lots of open space (1-2 F spots) on multiple flights. Who knows what the situation will be next Fall, but I'm getting excited!

this will be my first CX F flight.

edit: total for me was 70,000 miles and about $85 in fees. Fiancé was 50,000 miles and about $85 in fees as well.

Pulley

I am in same situation for our November flights LAX - HKG. I am going to start calling 2 weeks ahead of departure.

bronco29

Going from SIN to PEK via HkG. If I stop over in HKG for a few days, do I need 1 award or 2 awards?

eponymous_coward

Read the FAQ in the wiki at the page.

Last I checked Singapore and Beijing are in Asia, so that's Asia to Asia... no stopover. If you want to break for a few days it's two awards.

Hope that's clear. Common question in this thread, along with "can I get a stopover going Australia/Europe to (not HKG)". Answer is no. The only awards that get stopovers in HKG are the ones that touch North America.

Happy

I dont understand WHY people dont bother to read the Wiki before posting a question. Is it too much to ask people to spend a few minutes to read before posting the stopover rule questions gazillion times when the answer is in the Wiki? The Wiki is there for good reasons.

For that matter, the AS Charts themselves also are quite self-explanatory despite the interactive maps are somewhat misleading, the charts themselves are very clear with their wordings. I cannot see how people would still be confused.

Flying for Fun

I have already booked award tickets from SFO-DXB on EK in J first few days of January with a 26 day stopover before heading down to JNB. During the stopover I secured two F apartments on EY from AUH-SYD. QF Domestic F will get us to DRW (Darwin). I have been looking at options to get from JNB back to North America and looking for award space on CX.

Last night I found J availability for 2 on CX from JNB-HKG mid February, a 3 day stopover and then HKG-BOS on Qantas' website.

Today I called Alaska hoping they could see the availability. I provided the exact dates, times and flight numbers and Alaska could see the availability and it matched that shown on Qantas. Within 10 minutes they were secured. After a brief hold the Agent (Carly from Boise, charming and efficient) provided me with both the AS & CX record locators and a follow up email.

From the Cathay Pacific app I was able to select my seats. Total fees & taxes was ~$95 + $12.50 partner booking fee and 62500 miles. We will watch for F availability closer in on the HKG-BOS leg (no F cabin JNB-HKG) At 28 hours of flying that is about $4 & 2232 Mileage Plan miles per hour. lol We both achieved MVPG75K this last weekend so the 50,000 bonus miles made it even sweeter. 😁

First attempted CX booking, one success, zero fails. 😁 We have flown EK in F LAX-DXB//DXB-FCO (before devaluation). Excited to try EY F apartment and fly in one direction to get back home. The plan from DRW is to fly to DPS//SIN//DXB to catch our onward flight to JNB. It would be nice if we could start booking SQ awards soon.

We are working our way around the world to see friends we have made from prior travels.

Cheers

gtamaster

I'm new to the Alaska Mileage Plan so I'm hoping I can get some feedback from some experienced plan members. I'm planning for a trip to either Australia or New Zealand around May or June in 2019 and I would like to know which route would be easier to redeem J tickets.

These are the routes I'm considering:
YYZ-HKG-SYD/AKL
JFK-HKG-SYD/AKL
EWR-HKG-SYD/AKL
ORD-HKG-SYD/AKL

I'm from Toronto so the first route would be the easiest for me but I'm open to fly to New York or Chicago if it is easier to redeem J tickets.

I would really appreciate it if someone can let me know which route has the highest availability for J seats. Thank you.

Flying for Fun

Earliest you can book is T-331 days so you won't be able to book awards until June or July 2018 for travel in May or June 2019. Usually there is award space available when the award booking window opens and then tight until ~T-14 days for CX premium class. You will be flying into Southern Hemisphere late fall, winter so competition may be less for awards for your chosen dates while awards for the return to Northern Hemisphere summer, early fall may be more challenging. Don't forget you can do a stopover in HKG and also consider BOS. You best bet is to secure NA-HKG when the booking window opens and then add onward travel and returns as those booking windows open.

You can use Qantas' website to view availability a month at time and give Alaska the specific flights and times when you call in. CX cannot be booked online.

James

eponymous_coward

JFK has three daily flights. The others you mention have one. QED they will have the most award seats. You probably should also consider positioning to LAX or SFO as opposed to just East Coast cities as they also have multiple daily flights instead of one.

My understanding from the CX board is YYZ is one of the toughest gets in the system for premium cabin award availability, so be prepared to spend some cash for positioning flights.

Orwaid

Hi -

EWR/BOS/YYZ are tough to get award seats. Not impossible, but tough.

ORD is the easiest of the 1 fight/day departure cities.

If you are going from JFK, remember that CX 888/889 has the stop in YVR.

YVR has 2x/day, both flights tough to get, more often last-minute availability on the afternoon flight to HKG.

SFO easier than YVR, but tougher than LAX as noted in the earlier post.

Easiest LAX flight is usually the morning flight, but you have to leave the east coast the night before and stay in a LAX hotel to catch it.

bronco29

I did say I am confused in my subject line and I had read the wiki a few times before posting the questions. I felt sick that someone would post such nasty reply. If you don't want to reply thinking my question is not worthy for the answer, perhaps best is not to say anything. And just because it's clear as day to you, doesn't mean others do not have a problem, especially trying to read hastily through a small hand held device on the plane. I am sorry to post the question but do not feel your response is warrant.

callmedtop

Your post said nothing about reading the Wiki, and we aren't mindreaders. The point that Happy was trying to make is that it is extremely tiring to constantly have to spoonfeed information to new users that don't spend even a few minutes doing research. You're trying to get business/first class flights that cost tens of thousands of dollars at a very steep discount - the very least you can do is do your due diligence before asking others to do it for you.

To be totally honest, your question was fairly straightforward and could have been figured out on your own with 2-5 minutes of searching.

This is a welcoming, friendly community, but you get what you give.