Yiran Liu

First time booking CX award here. I'm trying to book 1F+1J or 2F from MLE to SFO. Currently AS can't see the availability that BA/QF/JL sees (which seem to be normal). My question is that If I book in J and F space opens in the future, would I be able to upfare it to F? If it is possible would AS charge me for the change fee? I'm a 75K but I will book the award using my wife's account which doesn't have the status.

Thanks

Flying for Fun

If you are booking for you and your wife together the Agent can take the points from either or both accounts. If you are on the same reservation you will have a fee waiver with 75K for both.

If there is 1F & 1J available, put your wife in F and you in J. Since they are in different cabins they will require separate PNR's, consequently, your wife won't have a fee waiver extended through your status so you want to to get her settled first.

If you find 2J reserve both on one PNR. If an F opens up, upgrade your wife first as above as you will have a fee waiver should another F open up later. The other way around your wife wouldn't and be assessed the change fee.

If an F award seat opens up you can upgrade anytime up to 3 days before departure for the points difference and a minimal difference in fees. I flew JNB-HKG//HKG-BOS in February. I upgraded HKG-BOS to F for 7500 miles and $3.85.

If either of you do get an F seat, you will both be able to access the Cathay Pacific F Lounges in HKG. Even on an award, the F passenger can guest a second passenger into the F Lounges.

I did mention up 3 days before departure. No CX bookings prior to 3 days before departure was imposed by Alaska in February. I am not 100% sure if that also applies to upgrading existing reservations. I would check with AS on that detail.

James

EDIT: The 72 hr restriction on award bookings is only on Asia to Asia awards and applies to CX, HU & JL.

dkerr

I thought that was rolled back for North America members and now only applies to overseas (maybe specifically Asia) members?

David

Flying for Fun

Hello David,

That is what I thought too but recall seeing something regarding the 72 hr requirement. I also wasn't sure as the OP is originating in MLE.

Upon further investigation it appears you are correct. The 72 hr restriction is only on ASIA to ASIA awards and applies to CX, HU & JL.

It is listed at #7 of the T&Cs under Asia to Asia awards.

Thanks,

James

Yiran Liu

Thank you James! Actually, I kept HUCA and the third agent was able to see the availability. So is the system or Agent? I do see on EF the flight goes from F6 to F3. Booked J+F on HKG-SFO and 2PE on MLE-HKG.

j.cerda

Thanks for the reply.
I talked to Alaska customer support and apparently the past couple of days points.com has been having issues posting miles to the Alaska Mileage Plan accounts.
It has been resolved now and the points should post instantaneously.
I verified it by purchasing some more miles last night with the 50% discount on miles going on right now.

I have ticketed 1 J and 1 F ticket on different flights the same day from HKG - LAX using Alaska miles.
What would be the best strategy to upgrade the J ticket to F?
When should I start looking for F availability?
Will Expert Flyer show Cathay Pacific F award availability?

Thanks!

dkerr

It is never too early to start looking. While CX is more likely to release more inventory in the two weeks leading up to flight time, I have seen availability appear months out for no clear reason.

ExpertFlyer will not show CX award inventory. But it is still useful for F because with exactly 6 seats in the F cabin you can tell from EF exactly how many remain unsold. If it says F6 then none are sold, and there is a good chance that one is available as an award. If F5 then there is a good chance that CX will release a seat at two weeks out, or randomly months out as I noted above. If F4 or F3 then 5-7 days out. If F2 then at 24 hours out, and if F1 then unlikely that they will release any... the flight will likely go out with one empty seat.

The easiest way to monitor for an award inventory release is with AwardNexus. It is not free to automate a daily search, but look for their "trip pass" option as I have found it useful and a fair price to pay. It alerted me to that 2nd F seat months from flight time and I was able to upgrade myself from J into F to join existing F that I had booked at 11 months out. In the week before flight time supplement awardnexus automated search with your own manual searches.

DAK

Flying for Fun

On my HKG-BOS flight I was able to upgrade to F @ T-11 days. The cabin was F3 after my upgrade. No additional award space was released. We departed with 3 empty F seats. I had the right isle all to myself. The flight had a very light load with ~50% of J empty too. It doesn't make sense from a dollar perspective for RM to open additional F in this case. If the flight is filling up, particularly in J (special/promotion) it makes sense to open additional F. Upgrades within the existing J pool would open up more J for revenue tickets. This is perhaps why we find random availability.

Excellent analysis though and a good strategy. I don't usually start looking for CX until 4-3 months out. That seems to be a sweet spot for me.

James

25milesfromhome

My wife was booked on CX884 HKG-LAX in F. Last week we received an email that she had been moved to J and a check showed that Cathay had downgraded aircraft. Called in to AS to ask if they could contact CX to see if they would release an F seat on the later flight. Was told to call back today to see how CX responded. So far so good, but when I contacted AS today, the agent initially told me that they had no way to contact CX and that I would simply have to wait: if an F seat was release, my wife would automatically be upgraded. Of course, I know that neither statement is true. I asked to speak to a supervisor who initially said repeated that AS could not reach out to CX. When I told her that this, in fact, had been done before for me, she changed to say that Cathay had been contacted and would not release a seat. She then rather snottily added that I could keep the business class seat or cancel the flight and take a refund. I am skeptical that Cathay was ever contacted. I'd like to follow up but am at a loss of whom to contact. Any advice? The later flight, in November, is still showing F5, so the only seat taken is my award.

PVDtoDEL

Try contacting a CX sales office and see if they're willing to add the flight you want to your reservation. Then call AS to reissue the ticket.

TheSYDTraveller

Is anyone a little bit concerned about the future of CX awards with MP given the situation with AM members themselves having a difficult time booking awards? Having had a look recently, from SYD-HKG and HKG-EU are all displaying no awards T-3 days.

j.cerda

Does anyone know why Cathay blocks 2A and 2K on the seat map?
The flight in March I'm looking to upgrade to first class shows F5 and A5.

What are my chances of 1 first class award opening up? When can I expect it to open up?

flytoeat

"Upgrade" meaning redeem a first class award? No one knows what will happen seven months away. If you read the thread, you'll find lots anecdotal information regarding release of first award seats.

jamienbaker

Bassinet seats. You can ring CX and request, agent will usually assign. Other times, not. I once had 5 award bookings in F, 1 seat for sale, and agent refused to assign either 2A or 2K, because "somebody with an infant might show up". I explained nobody in my group was pregnant, so there would be no harm in at least assigning one or the other. My logic fell on deaf ears, we had to assign at the airport. Too lazy to HUCA and with 5 seats booked it didn't really matter.

skimthetrees

Also, 1A and 1K are marked as preferred seats and CX will not normally assign them to non elite flyers so I was a bit surprised to be offered 1A as a non-elite flyer when calling to request seating recently. No other bookings in the cabin. I told the agent I wanted to assign a window seat and asked for 2A (since I know they will not normally put non status folks in 1A in advance) but the agent said, "you know 2A is a bassinet seat and you may have to move if it is needed later so how about I put you in 1A instead?" I said "sure" and she assigned me 1A.