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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


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

Old Jan 2, 2019, 9:03 pm
  #3061  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,386
The CX mistake F/J fares over New Years are going to have a significant effect on award availability, especially in F. My fear would be that CX would allocate more of the diminished space that remains to their own program and make even less available to partners for the rest of 2019 until they get out from under honoring those mistake fares. So, yes, definitely manage expectations for premium cabin CX award availability via AS in 2019.
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 2:44 am
  #3062  
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Join Date: Aug 2018
Posts: 590
Originally Posted by skimthetrees
The CX mistake F/J fares over New Years are going to have a significant effect on award availability, especially in F. My fear would be that CX would allocate more of the diminished space that remains to their own program and make even less available to partners for the rest of 2019 until they get out from under honoring those mistake fares. So, yes, definitely manage expectations for premium cabin CX award availability via AS in 2019.
I won't even look for CX F flights in 2019. Will focus on 2020+.
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 7:10 am
  #3063  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Originally Posted by kapooncha
I won't even look for CX F flights in 2019. Will focus on 2020+.
Time for me to focus on burning my AA miles with Qatar Qsuites
CDKing is offline  
Old Jan 3, 2019, 11:11 am
  #3064  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,386
Originally Posted by kapooncha
I won't even look for CX F flights in 2019. Will focus on 2020+.
If you are looking for 1 F seat and you find it, great, take it. But if you are planning to take a spouse and book one of you in J with the hope of F opening up, the odds of this happening are now much less likely in 2019.
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 5:21 pm
  #3065  
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: "the world is my country"
Programs: Alaska 100K (aka OWS)
Posts: 806
Just snagged two J class from SEA-HKG-SIN for November. Used Qantas search, and there were other dates available. I prefer the F product, but have enough pajamas already
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 6:19 pm
  #3066  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Posts: 590
Originally Posted by ukinny2000
it does boggle the mind to go all the way to VietNam with the idea of only doing an immediate turn. I mean, to each their own but when you have places like the gigantic Hang Son Doong jungle cavern to explore there, it seems a shame to not make the most of it.
https://rapidtravelchai.boardingarea...-direct-turns/

If that's what they were thinking, they may be in for a rude awakening.
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 7:31 pm
  #3067  
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Programs: A3 *G, AA exePlat, AS MVP 75k Gold, JL sapphire, UA silver
Posts: 4,026
when people have 10+ tickets in F class. site seeing is not something too important.
pbd456 is offline  
Old Jan 4, 2019, 6:11 am
  #3068  
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Seattle
Programs: AS MVP100K, Hilton Diamond, IHG Gold
Posts: 3,212
Redemptions are gonna be slim to none this year. On my HKG-JFK flight there is one seat left in F over a weekend in February. I’m surprised that they are honoring these tickets with so many F seats taken. I assumed these bookings took up half the cabin in F, not the whole thing. Albeit my one flight is just one example, but I really wonder how many seats and capacity ended up being taken by the mistake fare?

Update: I asked about the return JFK-HKG. It’s completey full lol... save those AS miles for CX awards in 2020 folks. What boggles my mind is if this mistake fare took up so many F seats, how are they honoring it? All their inventory to NA is gone. I wonder if they will water down the product now.

Last edited by NWplatinum; Jan 4, 2019 at 6:57 am
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Old Jan 4, 2019, 8:52 am
  #3069  
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Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: SEA
Programs: Alaska Airlines MVP Gold
Posts: 300
Originally Posted by NWplatinum
All their inventory to NA is gone. I wonder if they will water down the product now.
Inventory to JFK has been most impacted, but even then there's usually one flight each day at F4+. Looking at ORD/BOS/LAX, there is still quite a bit of availability (even some F6 A1). I doubt they would honor the fare if it wiped out all inventory.
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Old Jan 4, 2019, 9:19 am
  #3070  
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Originally Posted by ft543
Inventory to JFK has been most impacted, but even then there's usually one flight each day at F4+. Looking at ORD/BOS/LAX, there is still quite a bit of availability (even some F6 A1). I doubt they would honor the fare if it wiped out all inventory.
I'm still the only one if F for my upcoming award out of JFK but as expected most of the other flights that day are F2 or less
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Old Jan 4, 2019, 6:20 pm
  #3071  
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,341
Originally Posted by CDKing
Time for me to focus on burning my AA miles with Qatar Qsuites
I shorted AS miles (four digit balance, burned this year) and went long *A. Feel pretty good about that one.
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Old Jan 4, 2019, 7:24 pm
  #3072  
soy
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: DUB-BOS
Programs: various
Posts: 3,651
Originally Posted by NWplatinum
. What boggles my mind is if this mistake fare took up so many F seats, how are they honoring it? All their inventory to NA is gone. I wonder if they will water down the product now.
Ha Ha, I hear they are planning a special service for those on this fare, with Korbel and tinned tuna replacing the Krug and Caviar

Seriously, I could imagine them limiting the number of bottles of Krug they are loading. A first cabin full of FT maximizers could do serious damage to the Krug budget
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Old Jan 5, 2019, 2:41 am
  #3073  
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Seattle
Programs: AS MVP100K, Hilton Diamond, IHG Gold
Posts: 3,212
Originally Posted by eponymous_coward


I shorted AS miles (four digit balance, burned this year) and went long *A. Feel pretty good about that one.
Enjoy *A J. The problem with star alliance is you never get that wow factor, and get to fly first class (maybe except for SQ which is hard to find) for the most part. Whereas with mileageplan you can’t beat the F redemptions using AS for JL, CX, and EK. I love being able to take a shower at 40,000 feet with my AS miles.

Originally Posted by soy
Ha Ha, I hear they are planning a special service for those on this fare, with Korbel and tinned tuna replacing the Krug and Caviar

Seriously, I could imagine them limiting the number of bottles of Krug they are loading. A first cabin full of FT maximizers could do serious damage to the Krug budget
I asked in the mistake fare thread how they could honor the mistake fare given the loads on my flights, of which both directions have my JFK-HKG-JFK F cabins full. Admittedly, I am going over a bank holiday weekend, plus it’s close to Chinese new year. So it’s not a good judge of how much was given away. @channa explained and broke it down for me with the load factors. It really hasn’t impacted them that much in the grand scheme of things. This mistake fare basically gave CX more cash for award tickets they’d give away anyway for less money. Plus they never sell out their F cabins anyway, so might as well get $1500 for an empty seat. I’m assuming this is how they are justifying it. Not to mention the HUGE influx of a large sum of cash CX got on January 1st. I hope this gives CX more ideas to release deals like this in the future. They obviously are making some money on this mistake fare, or theres no way they’d honor it.
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Old Jan 5, 2019, 2:44 am
  #3074  
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1K, AA EXP, Hyatt Glob, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Plat, Total Wine & More Reserve
Posts: 4,443
Originally Posted by econ
For an upcoming trip in CX F booked with AS miles, is there any benefit (or even possible) to change my FF# on the reservation to my AA (OWE) one at check-in?

Couldn't think of any obvious benefit (not miles earning, get same lounge access), but just wanted to check in case I'm forgetting something.
Originally Posted by skimthetrees
Why wait until check-in? You might be able to change it online ahead of time on the CX site. At least I was able to change to a CX FF# after a partner booking.
Originally Posted by Visconti
Can't hurt if you're OWE, but, if you're on F, can't think of any obvious benefit. Regardless of OWE status, as a redemption, you can't select 2A or 2K, which are usually reserved for revenue pax. If not allowed online, as an F pax, you can call and certainly select other seats, which they'll be more than happy to do. Purser will make small talk with each F pax, so the OWE recognition stuff is irrelevant. Lounge invite is on your boarding pax, so OWE again is irrelevant.

I probably wouldn't bother, not really worth the effort, if you're F.
Reporting back. I couldn't change the FF# on the CX website until check-in opened. I did end up changing it during online check-in since I noticed that it gave me the option to do so then. And the above was correct in that I could still not select 2A, so I kept my original seat 1A. 2A ended up being empty anyways, but I thought 1A was perfectly fine.
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Old Jan 5, 2019, 2:52 am
  #3075  
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Seattle
Programs: AS MVP100K, Hilton Diamond, IHG Gold
Posts: 3,212
Originally Posted by econ
Reporting back. I couldn't change the FF# on the CX website until check-in opened. I did end up changing it during online check-in since I noticed that it gave me the option to do so then. And the above was correct in that I could still not select 2A, so I kept my original seat 1A. 2A ended up being empty anyways, but I thought 1A was perfectly fine.
You can get assigned any seat in the F cabin so long as it’s open if you call CX before departure. They block seats out in F for baby bassinets, but if you say “please assign me 2A and I’m willing to move at the airport if requested (I’ve never had to move)” they’ll assign you the seat before the flight. Reach out on twitter or call them.
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