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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 Oct 29, 2017, 10:54 pm
  #1336  
formerly mattking2000
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: DXB
Programs: BA|AC|AZ|SPG|H|FPC
Posts: 1,175
Originally Posted by eponymous_coward
AS hasn't removed this feature.
Thanks -- would you happen to know the likelihood of 2 J seats being released shortly before school holidays for the JNB route? Some days are still showing J9/C9/I9.

Another question...would I be able to book DXB-HKG-USA now and then change to JNB when it opens up by paying the change fee and difference in points/tax, or is a region change (middle east --> africa) not possible after booking?

Thanks
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Old Oct 29, 2017, 11:02 pm
  #1337  
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Originally Posted by BA Humbug
Thanks -- would you happen to know the likelihood of 2 J seats being released shortly before school holidays for the JNB route? Some days are still showing J9/C9/I9.
It depends. Keep in mind CX oversells Y and does Y->J cabin opups. CX board probably has the best idea.

Originally Posted by BA Humbug
Another question...would I be able to book DXB-HKG-USA now and then change to JNB when it opens up by paying the change fee and difference in points/tax, or is a region change (middle east --> africa) not possible after booking?
It would be a ticket reissue no matter what so you'll pay the difference in points/tax and change fee.
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Old Oct 29, 2017, 11:10 pm
  #1338  
formerly mattking2000
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: DXB
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Posts: 1,175
Originally Posted by eponymous_coward
It depends. Keep in mind CX oversells Y and does Y->J cabin opups. CX board probably has the best idea.



It would be a ticket reissue no matter what so you'll pay the difference in points/tax and change fee.
wow that was an amazingly quick response, thanks ! I guess I shall lock it in for now and move over when they open things up thanks for all the help !
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Old Oct 30, 2017, 1:40 am
  #1339  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: London / Los Angeles
Programs: Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond Ambassador, Marriott Platinum, Hyatt Globalist, BA Silver
Posts: 1,630
Originally Posted by Happy
Use the CHARTS and ignore the maps. This has been an ongoing issue for those who dont read the Wiki.
Thanks. I did read the wiki but I am a little confused by it. It says award chart links, then lists the continents, but they are not clickable.

Where can I find the award chart you speak of that tells me whether Alaska regards Turkey as being middle east or Europe (since their map - which I know is incorrect- shows it as both).
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Old Oct 30, 2017, 12:10 pm
  #1340  
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Sunny Seattle
Programs: AS MVPG 75K, HH Diamond
Posts: 539
Originally Posted by Enigma368
Thanks. I did read the wiki but I am a little confused by it. It says award chart links, then lists the continents, but they are not clickable.

Where can I find the award chart you speak of that tells me whether Alaska regards Turkey as being middle east or Europe (since their map - which I know is incorrect- shows it as both).
Unfortunately, since alaskaair.com switched to the new layout for the award charts, there aren't direct links to the various region-to-region combinations any longer.

When region boundaries are ambiguous, as they certainly are for Turkey, it's easiest to either try some dummy bookings and look at the mileage price, or go to the partner airline's website and see how they define regions for their own FF program.
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Old Oct 30, 2017, 12:22 pm
  #1341  
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Originally Posted by Kieron
Unfortunately, since alaskaair.com switched to the new layout for the award charts, there aren't direct links to the various region-to-region combinations any longer.

When region boundaries are ambiguous, as they certainly are for Turkey, it's easiest to either try some dummy bookings and look at the mileage price, or go to the partner airline's website and see how they define regions for their own FF program.
A quick dummy booking shows IST as Europe for BA and EK.

Of course CX doesn’t fly to IST so it’s not all that relevant to the booking CX awards thread...
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Old Oct 30, 2017, 2:21 pm
  #1342  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Posts: 1,630
Originally Posted by eponymous_coward
Of course CX doesn’t fly to IST so it’s not all that relevant to the booking CX awards thread...
Fair point.. . I guess I was just curious as to where these charts were and I do understand now.
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Old Oct 30, 2017, 3:07 pm
  #1343  
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Originally Posted by Enigma368
Thanks. I did read the wiki but I am a little confused by it. It says award chart links, then lists the continents, but they are not clickable.

Where can I find the award chart you speak of that tells me whether Alaska regards Turkey as being middle east or Europe (since their map - which I know is incorrect- shows it as both).
You can input the region such as from North America to Asia, on those boxes above the map, it will then pull up the various charts (one for each airline partner that serves these 2 regions) on the right hand side.

That would be the easiest way to see what is allowed when booking a partner award on CX. The WORDINGS in the chart are IMPORTANT, so pay attention to their literal meanings. i.e. whether it is a one award or two awards on the routing you have in mind, is determined by those wordings.
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Old Oct 31, 2017, 6:44 pm
  #1344  
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Posts: 14
Looking for data points on new A350 SFO-HK Business award availability

I have been searching for several days on

business seat SFO-HK on the CX89x flight with A350 plane to no avail.

Wondering if CX are not giving out any award business seat to their partners?

There are plenty of CX87x flights business award seats flying 777-300ER. Just no CX89x on A350.

1 - Wondering anyone here were able to book any award CX89x SFO-HK business seats at all?
2 - Is this the case when CX starting the A350 flights in other routes earlier this year?

Last edited by Larch2017; Oct 31, 2017 at 6:46 pm Reason: clarifying question
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Old Oct 31, 2017, 7:01 pm
  #1345  
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Originally Posted by Larch2017
1 - Wondering anyone here were able to book any award CX89x SFO-HK business seats at all?
Originally Posted by Flying for Fun
CX has a third flight on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. CX 859 the 9:10 am flight is on the A350-900 and arrived in HKG at 3:05 pm. I booked CX 859 in J today for January 20th with a stopover before onward travel to DPS (Bali). YVR-HKG//HKG-DPS in J 50,00 miles $87.50 in fees, taxes and partner booking fee.
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Old Oct 31, 2017, 7:11 pm
  #1346  
 
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It looks like CX 893 out of SFO is, at least tonight, scheduled for 1:35 AM, so you might be running into the late-night need-to-search-for-one-in-the-morning-flights problem.
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Old Nov 1, 2017, 12:42 am
  #1347  
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
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Originally Posted by Larch2017
I have been searching for several days on

business seat SFO-HK on the CX89x flight with A350 plane to no avail.

Wondering if CX are not giving out any award business seat to their partners?

There are plenty of CX87x flights business award seats flying 777-300ER. Just no CX89x on A350.

1 - Wondering anyone here were able to book any award CX89x SFO-HK business seats at all?
2 - Is this the case when CX starting the A350 flights in other routes earlier this year?
What dates are you looking for? LAX/SFO-HKG are tough in J but seems to be better out of YVR especially on the A350. Keep in mind the A350 only operates Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from YVR and it is an excellent departure time at 9:10 am getting into HKG before 5:00 pm +1 day. I believe the A350 from SFO operates on the same days.

As stated on my last post I was able to book YVR-HKG//HKG-DPS on the A350 for January 20th about 10 days ago for 50K. Just prior I picked up 2 CX J JNB-HKG//HKG-BOS in late February for 62.5K each. I am piecing together a 7 week RWT starting Jan 2. We are Flying A380 SFO-DXB on EK in J with a 26 day stopover before A380 J DXB-JNB. During the stopover I used AA miles for 2 EY F Apartments from AUH-SYD. QF domestic F will take us to Darwin (DRW) and a sardine can ULCC for th 2 1/2 flight to Bali (DPS). KLM paid Y on their daily DSP-SIN-AMS B777 service will get us to SIN for a little over $100USD with seat selection, baggae included. Now working on the last leg from SIN back to DXB to catch the onward flight to JNB. Hoping awards can be booked soon on SQ. EK (QF codeshare) SIN-DXB have four daily flight with F and J availability but can't be booked as awards on AS. Luckly in my searches, AS was able to see the exact availability I saw and the booking process had them reserved within 10 minutes of calling in after feeding AS the dates and flight numbers.
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Old Nov 1, 2017, 9:26 am
  #1348  
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Originally Posted by Flying for Fun
What dates are you looking for? LAX/SFO-HKG are tough in J but seems to be better out of YVR especially on the A350. Keep in mind the A350 only operates Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from YVR and it is an excellent departure time at 9:10 am getting into HKG before 5:00 pm +1 day. I believe the A350 from SFO operates on the same days.

As stated on my last post I was able to book YVR-HKG//HKG-DPS on the A350 for January 20th about 10 days ago for 50K. Just prior I picked up 2 CX J JNB-HKG//HKG-BOS in late February for 62.5K each. I am piecing together a 7 week RWT starting Jan 2. We are Flying A380 SFO-DXB on EK in J with a 26 day stopover before A380 J DXB-JNB. During the stopover I used AA miles for 2 EY F Apartments from AUH-SYD. QF domestic F will take us to Darwin (DRW) and a sardine can ULCC for th 2 1/2 flight to Bali (DPS). KLM paid Y on their daily DSP-SIN-AMS B777 service will get us to SIN for a little over $100USD with seat selection, baggae included. Now working on the last leg from SIN back to DXB to catch the onward flight to JNB. Hoping awards can be booked soon on SQ. EK (QF codeshare) SIN-DXB have four daily flight with F and J availability but can't be booked as awards on AS. Luckly in my searches, AS was able to see the exact availability I saw and the booking process had them reserved within 10 minutes of calling in after feeding AS the dates and flight numbers.
I could follow your itinerary on the 7 weeks RTW trip more or less but I could not figure out where the "YVR-HKG//HKG-DPS on the A350 for January 20th" fits in.

Reading your post I thought you are going to Bali the long way via Middle East and Australia already. Then you return to DXB to pick up the other detour to JNB.
From JNB you will be back to BOS with a stopover in HKG.

So where is the YVR-HKG//HKG-DPS fits in on the 7 weeks RTW trip? Or it is a separate trip altogether?
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Old Nov 1, 2017, 9:47 am
  #1349  
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
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Originally Posted by Happy
I could follow your itinerary on the 7 weeks RTW trip more or less but I could not figure out where the "YVR-HKG//HKG-DPS on the A350 for January 20th" fits in.

Reading your post I thought you are going to Bali the long way via Middle East and Australia already. Then you return to DXB to pick up the other detour to JNB.
From JNB you will be back to BOS with a stopover in HKG.

So where is the YVR-HKG//HKG-DPS fits in on the 7 weeks RTW trip? Or it is a separate trip altogether?
I thought that might raise some question. lol Excellent that you noticed it. I booked the CX J YVR-HKG//HKG-DPS for my brother to meet us in Bali as a Christmas present. He will follow us to SIN and then part as he continues onto India & Nepal.
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Old Nov 1, 2017, 6:14 pm
  #1350  
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Originally Posted by Flying for Fun
I thought that might raise some question. lol Excellent that you noticed it. I booked the CX J YVR-HKG//HKG-DPS for my brother to meet us in Bali as a Christmas present. He will follow us to SIN and then part as he continues onto India & Nepal.
Now that makes sense - the booking is not for yourself but the brother. Nice X'mas present!
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