andreiz

Quick sanity check: Is DXB-HKG-LAX (or other NA gateway) allowed with a stopover in HKG? If so, should be 70K for F award?

eponymous_coward

Per the wiki available on every page of this thread and alaskaair.com's searchable award charts:

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...s/award-charts

Flying for Fun

Yes , it is allowed and 70K for F. A steal as J is 62.5K. I flew JNB-HKG//HKG-BOS (4 day stopover) in F in February.

The DXB-HKG flight is a 3 cabin aircraft; Business, Premium Economy and Economy, without F so you would be in J for that leg.

James

andreiz

Thank you for detailed info. I have never booked Cathay awards via Alaska before, so I just wanted a sanity check.

anthonyparkersd

Anyone notice availability in First has just about dried up 14 days to departure for about every US city? (flying to HKG)

zosch

Hi all,
I read the wiki and according to the rules created the following itinerary (Both flights are CX redemption via AS miles):
<!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->Departure: SFO > HKG > BKK (Stopover for 10 Days) > SIN
<!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->Return: HAN > HKG (Stopover for 2 Days) > SFO

I checked BA and can see 2 J seats available (My wife & I) for most of the flights. We're planning to travel in fall 2019. Now my questions:
1) What's the likelihood of the AS agent seeing the same 2 flights available? Maybe it's completely random, maybe there's a system.
2) I was planning to get 1 J and 1 F (if available) and then hopefully upgrade the J to an F by paying the $250 fee closer to departure date when more F open up (hopefully). However, I also read that CX prohibits AS redemption bookins after T-3. Is that still in effect? And is an upgrade (J to F) considered a new booking?

Thanks a lot for your help!!

eponymous_coward

Stopover in BKK is NOT according to the rules, if you read the wiki.

I've tried to get a stopover in BKK and failed. I've been an elite on AS for over 10 years (not just some dude who read about "travel hacks so you can fly Cathay Pacific for 10 cents on the dollar" and bought some AS miles), but I guess it was "no waivers no favors" that day, and I didn't feel like doing the HUCA game until I found a sucker on the line. YMMV.

Unless you pay the F mileage and have yourself seated in the J cabin (with no guarantee F will open up), AS will be reissuing a new ticket because you will be refunding the J miles used for a J award and spending the F miles for a NEW F award. For all intents and purposes that is a new booking.

The close in restriction isn't for HKG-NA flights though, as far as I know.

zosch

Thanks for the response!

Regarding the BKK stopover: I did read in the wiki that officially HKG is the only stopover airport. However, multiple sources (Can't post the urls here but some of the bigger travel blogs) mentioned stopovers in BNE, YVR, BKK, etc. so I thought it might be worth a shot if I can find open seats. Will try my luck and "worst case" end my travel in BKK and book an additional intra-Asia flight to SIN.

Regarding J>F upgrade: I'm assuming you're joking but is it actually possible to book an F and agree to sit in J if no additional F opens up? Given the change fee and the marginal increase in points needed for F, I'd seriously consider it.

Thanks again!

25milesfromhome

I think the restriction is for bookings that are solely intra-Asia. So long as booking includes a North America-HKG segment, you're okay.

eponymous_coward

Yes, I am not joking, you could pay F miles for a CX award and sit in J (and hope that F opens up, and then ask AS to be seated in the cabin you paid for, they SHOULD be able to do this, assuming they don't screw the ticket up, not always a 100% proposition if you read this thread).

I think it's a terrible idea given that CX F is nowhere near as easy to get as it was some years ago (smaller cabins and tighter inventory management) because if F never opens up you're trading 20k AS miles for $125 (J->F to Asia costs 20k extra miles, a change fee is $125). It's not that marginal an increase in miles: 40% of a one way J ticket.

I would buy AS miles from you all day for .625 US cents a mile because it would be trivially easy for me to use them at 1 cent per mile, not too hard to get multiples of that. Waste of your money in my opinion; if you really REALLY want the chance at an F seat, book J and hope F opens up, pay the $125 if it does. J on CX is fine if all you want is travel in relevant comfort with "eh" airline food (I've had some CX J food, it ranges from perfectly fine to actually kind of terrible, eating in lounges helps reduce that risk of getting a bad meal). The J lounges in HKG are fine, F ones are better (and if one of you is in F you both can do the F lounges).

zosch

You're right, certainly not the best redemption value. Guess I'll go ahead with J & F and set an alarm on FrequentFlyer. Any days/dates that are more likely in terms of F award availability between HKG and SFO?

Also, anybody with insight regarding AS ability to book open award seats that I can see via BA search? Can you confirm it's completely random if they can see the same availability or not. Is Quantas more accurate?

eponymous_coward

Historical data may not be completely indicative of future results given CX's recent changes in their program.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...ne-2018-a.html

Availability to partners may be reduced.

The very obvious things (try not to fly around Chinese New Year's, Hong Kong-Bangkok gets a lot of leisure traffic around Christmas, etc.) are of course obvious.

Yes, you might use Qantas to check, or JAL. Or you could just call in... there is no hard and fast rule on what works and what doesn't, if you review the thread. Sometimes AS books when BA sees nothing. Sometimes AS won't book when BA sees seats.

My personal experience is BA has proven accurate, but YMMV.

Happy

BA is good enough to check availability except of course the close in 7 days - then you would need to use QF or JL to check (am I the only one feeling the JL new site is worse than the already bad old site to check partner international award?)

Just dont get your expectation on CX F up. It has been steadily declining in both hard product (old, only refurbishment was the upholdstery fabric as far as I could tell), soft product (subpar meal, with new cuts in both quality and quantity, low employee morale thanks to poor management decisions over the years). But for the price of AS award, it is still a no brainer to redeem. Just dont expect the Wow factor.

Also being mindful on AS changing award tickets especially if you have connections. Ever since they get rid of partner desk and "trained" every agent to be able to handle partner award, the outcome is far from ideal. i.e. always be prepared should something screwed up and you have no recourse...

jonlai9

Is Alaska still not showing CX rewards on their website, and CX rewards have to be called in?

If a CX reward shows up on BA, is it guaranteed that I can book it through Alaska when I call in?

Thanks.

soy