Jun 28, 2017, 8:46 pm

FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides

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.

Quote:

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.

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

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Feb 23, 2018, 2:14 pm

#1741

beckoa

A FlyerTalk Posting Legend, Moderator, Information Desk, Ambassador, Alaska Airlines

Join Date: Dec 2006

Location: FAI

Programs: AS MVP Gold100K, AS 1MM, Maika`i Card, AGR, HH Gold, Hertz PC, Marriott Titanium LTG, CO, 7H, BA, 8E

Posts: 42,953

Ha, I missed the CX CPT announcement. Good for them ^ When I flew CX to JNB years ago, I had to do an awkward shuffle to get to my SA flight to CPT [Granted it was my first A340 flight] but a nonstop is nice ^

Feb 23, 2018, 6:52 pm

#1742

CDKing

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Dec 2007

Location: BOS/ORH

Programs: AS 75K

Posts: 18,323

Quote:

Originally Posted by beckoa

I wish I had grabbed the F flight HKG-JNB back then but F was dropped earlier than expected so i cancelled that trip instead of taking the downgrade. It will be nice to avoid JNB when i finally get to Africa. Too bad its a short seasonal flight. I'm going to try to go in November instead of my usual trip to China.

Feb 24, 2018, 2:17 am

#1743

beckoa

A FlyerTalk Posting Legend, Moderator, Information Desk, Ambassador, Alaska Airlines

Join Date: Dec 2006

Location: FAI

Programs: AS MVP Gold100K, AS 1MM, Maika`i Card, AGR, HH Gold, Hertz PC, Marriott Titanium LTG, CO, 7H, BA, 8E

Posts: 42,953

Quote:

Originally Posted by CDKing

Well with CX, one can do both!

HKG is a nice stopover to break the trip up. Those 12-15 hour flights back to back do get long, even in F.

Feb 24, 2018, 10:26 am

#1744

CDKing

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Dec 2007

Location: BOS/ORH

Programs: AS 75K

Posts: 18,323

Quote:

Originally Posted by beckoa

Well with CX, one can do both!

HKG is a nice stopover to break the trip up. Those 12-15 hour flights back to back do get long, even in F.

Oh I know, for May i'm doing CX F/J BOS-HKG (2 nights) HKG-DXB (1 night) then booking AA award (hopefully) on EY F AUH-SYD

Feb 26, 2018, 12:02 am

#1745

Edgerfly

Suspended

Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: SEA, FLL, Martha’s Vineyard

Programs: AS MVPGold75K, Hilton Gold, IHG Platinum, Pan Am million-miler

Posts: 2,019

I know the availability doesn't align for the longhauls many times, especially for first class on the OneWorld tools. But usually on inter-Asia flights the availability is usually correct and the AS agents can see it. For some reason the BA and QF tools are showing plenty of space in J from SIN-HKG on the 01:15 flight, 6:50 flight, and 14:00 departure that stops in BKK. The AS agents don't see any J seats on the 14:00 departure, and I don't know why. Even though it has plenty of award seats. I wonder if it is because it's a direct flight with a stop over in BKK? I'm going to call and try them to price it out as SIN-BKK-HKG and see if they see anything.

UPDATE: Had them try to price it out as SIN-BKK-HKG, but said no seats were available BKK-HKG... weird. Also I did it myself where I typed it in on the British tool where the SIN-BKK has J, but the BKK-HKG does not have J. So I guess the agents are seeing the space correctly.

This will be interesting if a later flight does opens up from SIN-HKG that I want after the 72hr mark, and if they break the new rules for a 75Ker. Hopefully it opens before the 72hr mark.

Last edited by Edgerfly; Feb 26, 2018 at 12:37 am

Feb 26, 2018, 12:33 am

#1746

Edgerfly

Suspended

Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: SEA, FLL, Martha’s Vineyard

Programs: AS MVPGold75K, Hilton Gold, IHG Platinum, Pan Am million-miler

Posts: 2,019

Quote:

Originally Posted by beckoa

Well with CX, one can do both!

HKG is a nice stopover to break the trip up. Those 12-15 hour flights back to back do get long, even in F.

LOL... I could stay on CX and EK F forever. When I do the HKG-JFK run in F, I don't want to get off the plane when we land. Especially if it's an empty cabin you pretty much have to yourself, and the staff takes excellent care of you.

Feb 26, 2018, 8:40 pm

#1747

VAFlyerSAN

Join Date: May 2009

Location: California

Programs: AS 75K Gold, UA Silver, Marriott LT Platinum, Hyatt Explorist, National EE

Posts: 236

Availability matched what Cathay's site showed. I was able to book Business on SUB-HKG-SFO. HKG-SFO on A350

50,000 AS miles one-way plus $88.31 in fees (Taxes and Other Fees: $60.81, Ticketing Fee: $15.00, Partner Award Booking Fee: $12.50).

The agent was going too fast and it takes a few minutes to confirm. It showed an error on her screen, but it finally responded with confirmed after waiting a bit. She mentioned she's never really had a successful partner award booking. Made her night.

Feb 26, 2018, 9:45 pm

#1748

beckoa

A FlyerTalk Posting Legend, Moderator, Information Desk, Ambassador, Alaska Airlines

Join Date: Dec 2006

Location: FAI

Programs: AS MVP Gold100K, AS 1MM, Maika`i Card, AGR, HH Gold, Hertz PC, Marriott Titanium LTG, CO, 7H, BA, 8E

Posts: 42,953

Quote:

Originally Posted by VAFlyerSAN

The agent was going too fast and it takes a few minutes to confirm. It showed an error on her screen, but it finally responded with confirmed after waiting a bit. She mentioned she's never really had a successful partner award booking. Made her night.

Excellent. Sounds like you taught another agent how to CX awards properly ^

Feb 27, 2018, 7:19 am

#1749

Edgerfly

Suspended

Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: SEA, FLL, Martha’s Vineyard

Programs: AS MVPGold75K, Hilton Gold, IHG Platinum, Pan Am million-miler

Posts: 2,019

Quote:

Originally Posted by VAFlyerSAN

It showed an error on her screen, but it finally responded with confirmed after waiting a bit. She mentioned she's never really had a successful partner award booking. Made her night.

This is usually due to CX not being able to confirm the ticket on their end immediately. So it usually takes some time for the CX ticket to be issued. Sometimes up to 24-48hours. Once they grab the space, they put the ticket in que to be ticketed. Not to worry, never had a problem with it.

Feb 27, 2018, 10:19 am

#1750

Flying for Fun

Join Date: Mar 2017

Location: British Columbia

Programs: AS MVPG100K, Marriott Marriott Titanium Elite, Hilton Gold

Posts: 7,263

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edgerfly

We flew JNB-HKG/3/HKG-BOS in the last two weeks. I booked two J seats in October and it was ticketed within minutes when I provided the flight details to AS. After booking there remained J space availability until day of departure on both segments. Matched exactly with Qantas Tool. At T-11 days an F seat opened up for HKG-BOS. I called AS from South Africa and had my ticket upgraded to F in about 8 minutes. Total cost, additional 7,500 miles and a difference in tax of $3.85. I was able to select my seat immediately. After my upgrade Expert Flyer showed F3 A3 which never changed and no further awards were released while F was available on the same flight 4 days before and 3 days after. We departed with three empty F seats. The flight had a light load so I guess revenue management couldn't justify serving extra Caviar and Krug. It was my first CX flight and I really enjoyed it. Food was good and service was impeccable. We departed from Gate 1 in HKG so we went to the Wing First Class Lounge. Even though my Partner was in business I was able to bring him in as CX allows a guest when traveling First. Lounge was nice, not spectacular. Surprised they served Smirnoff Vodka in the F lounge and F onboard. That was a disappointment. Much prefer EK lounges in SFO and LAX while their Business and First lounges in DXB are incredible.

James

Feb 27, 2018, 2:57 pm

#1751

Edgerfly

Suspended

Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: SEA, FLL, Martha’s Vineyard

Programs: AS MVPGold75K, Hilton Gold, IHG Platinum, Pan Am million-miler

Posts: 2,019

Sometimes it’s in minutes, sometimes it can be longer. YMMV

Feb 27, 2018, 4:55 pm

#1752

downtheback.

Join Date: Sep 2015

Posts: 48

Just ticketed JFK-HKG-MEL. Got the cathay record locater but it's not going through on Cathay site, so it can take up to 24/48 hours for that to work?

Feb 27, 2018, 5:07 pm

#1753

seawolf

Original Member

Join Date: May 1998

Location: NYC

Programs: AA 2MM, Bonvoy LTT, Hilton Diamond

Posts: 14,636

Quote:

Originally Posted by downtheback.

Just ticketed JFK-HKG-MEL. Got the cathay record locater but it's not going through on Cathay site, so it can take up to 24/48 hours for that to work?

It will show up instantaneously before you even hang up with the AS agent.. If it does not show up, check Qatar manage booking or checkmytrip app. If it does not show up, then you should call back.

Feb 27, 2018, 5:58 pm

#1754

downtheback.

Join Date: Sep 2015

Posts: 48

Quote:

Originally Posted by seawolf

It will show up instantaneously before you even hang up with the AS agent.. If it does not show up, check Qatar manage booking or checkmytrip app. If it does not show up, then you should call back.

Got it now. Thanks for the help.

Feb 27, 2018, 6:00 pm

#1755

Edgerfly

Suspended

Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: SEA, FLL, Martha’s Vineyard

Programs: AS MVPGold75K, Hilton Gold, IHG Platinum, Pan Am million-miler

Posts: 2,019

Quote:

Originally Posted by downtheback.

Just ticketed JFK-HKG-MEL. Got the cathay record locater but it's not going through on Cathay site, so it can take up to 24/48 hours for that to work?

until you get an email from Alaska airlines with the confirmation number, the ticket has not been ticketed. As someone said, it will still show up but it has not been ticketed yet and you may not be able to get seats on Cathay yet.

As I said it CAN take up to 24-48 hours, but usually it doesn’t take more than an hour

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