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.
Routing Rules:
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.
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.
- 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
#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.
#3062
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2018
Posts: 590
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.
#3064
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,386
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.
#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
#3066
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2018
Posts: 590
If that's what they were thinking, they may be in for a rude awakening.
#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.
#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.
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
#3069
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.
#3070
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
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
#3071
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,341
#3072
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: DUB-BOS
Programs: various
Posts: 3,651
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
#3073
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Seattle
Programs: AS MVP100K, Hilton Diamond, IHG Gold
Posts: 3,212
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
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
#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
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.
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.
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.
I probably wouldn't bother, not really worth the effort, if you're F.
#3075
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Seattle
Programs: AS MVP100K, Hilton Diamond, IHG Gold
Posts: 3,212
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.