asdfghjk

Hi All,
I booked a one-way business award ticket on CX using 50k Alaska miles, SGN-HKG-JFK.
​​​The first leg, SGN-HKG, is in economy since business seats were not available.
1. The agent told me that I can call back to check anytime. If business seats are available, they can change it for me without fee. My question is: Does CX release award seat periodically, or only at the beginning and few days/weeks before the flight?
2. When I checked online on AA.com, premium economy seats were available, but Alaska agent said none are available in her system. She said Alaska's inventory on CX is different from other airlines, so I cannot check it online. Is that true? If not, can you recommend a website where I can use to check for availability?
Thanks.

TravelingZoomer

AS inventory is different because they’re not a part of OW yet. Once they join award inventory will be the same with AA.

You should check periodically, but quite honestly it’s such a short flight and CX economy on that is really nice to begin with you’re not missing much, unless you really want that lie flat on a two hour flight or you have a layover in HKG and you don’t have J club access (which in SIN OW options are plentiful).

asdfghjk

Thanks for the information.
I will check with Alaska periodically then. I do not want to have J seat on that 2hr flight because of the benefits, I just want to seat together with my family members.

Flying for Fun

Pre COVID-19, I used QF to look for CX award availability and it accurately reflected what AS could see & book. I think now, it is a guessing game at best. As mentioned, once AS joins oneworld, inventory should be reflective to what AA is showing.

AS does not charge a change fee on a mixed cabin award if award space opens up in the cabin you have already "paid" for.

I would be suspect about PE. A quick perusal of random dates through next June suggests that the SGN-HKG route is being operated by a rwo-class A330. There are no PE revenue options on the route that I can see.

eponymous_coward

CX doesn't guarantee or sell 3/4 class longhaul planes on shorthaul (Y/Y+/J or Y/Y+/J/F) because they are highly prone to equipment subs last minute and they got tired of the headache of compensating passengers for downgrades.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...ent-swaps.html

Simply put, OP should not expect any Y+ to open up. If there is Y+ on day of departure they might get an op-up if they are CX elite, but I wouldn't expect anything on an AS award ticket, even one with a longhaul segment in J.

Flying for Fun

I appreciate your history. This is in no way age related.....

James

I also believd it will be quite some time before CX will need the capacity of a 4 cabin aircraft. As of July 28th, 2020 only 15 of 51 (after a fleet reduction) 777-300ER were in service. I can also see KA folded into CX and a lot of shorter intra-Asia flights operated on A320/A321 under one CX banner.

eponymous_coward

There are times where for efficient fleet utilization a CX longhaul craft is used on shorthaul, so it does happen, and OP could ask at the gate or very close in (worst thing that happens is "no"). It used to be the case that you could secure F or Y+ on the longhaul segment on award, or buy F/Y+ if it was on sale. (I nabbed CX F on a BKK-HKG segment for a stopover once- no Krug, but 2K on a CX 747 wasn't terrible for three hours. I've also had longhaul J on a CX 33E HKG-BKK, which made for a nice way to take a nap after 20+ hours of flying and stops coming over from the USA SEA-LAX-HKG). But this is no longer the case as CX just prefers to figure it all out close in rather than scramble everything every time they redo plane assignments...

I wouldn't be surprised if rather the opposite happens: KA and UO take over shorthaul intra-Asia from CX, using those narrowbodies and branding, and CX becomes a longhaul-only airline/brand.

Flying for Fun

Wouldn't that make for an interesting scenario in MP as we know it now? Much of Asia would be out of reach with NA to Asia also terminating in HKG unless continuing on to AU, India, ME or South Africa.

James

skimthetrees

This will probably not be an issue once the new higher priced OneWorld awards are introduced. You will be able to go beyond HKG.

eponymous_coward

The devil will be in the details of OW charts and how CX breaks up KA and UO.

I am not altogether convinced that the sky will be falling when it comes to AS joining OW. AA and AS prices for North America->North Asia itineraries are pretty close to one another. I also think there are a number of ways AS could go (maybe a distance based chart for multiple OW partners or new OW partners, keeping the old charts and awards for existing partners- which would get them out of having to have a universal region chart).

skimthetrees

Right, the sky is not going to fall...but I do think it will lower a bit. F awards is where I am worried we could see the biggest deval. Just look at the AA F award rates for CX, JL, and BA, to see where this could be headed. To the extent that AS can maintain their preexisting partner award agreements there may be little to no change but I am not sure the partner airlines will allow that. Hopefully at least when AS announces a change they will give a few months notice -- but I wouldn't count on it.

Flying for Fun

Yes, and hence the comment regarding "MP as we know it today!"

James

Flying for Fun

Isn't a little lower than infinity still infinity? I can see existing AS oneworld partnerships remaining intact until they expire and are renegotiated under the alliance. The bigger question is, "how many aircraft will be flying with a First cabin?" We already know QF is going to be at best a J airline through 2023. Will QF maintain their F lounge at LAX? Will it be required if CX is serving the city with A350's or 3-cabin B777s, that was already trending, what will repace BA 747s when their A380 fleet is spread out, will JL down guage too, especially to the relatively short US West Coast markets? JL F, TYO to SFO & LAX don't have a formal second meal service already and YVR, SEA & SAN don't get F service at all.

Potentially, there could be an overlap of the existing AS+One Partner awards with a multi-partner award chart.

More impotantly, for me, is the free stopover. That adds a lot of value to MP and differentiates MP from AAdvantage.

With Qsuites, I would book QR J to South Africa via DOH, over CX F,J via HKG. QR will open up more of Africa than what CX offers. I flew PDX-BOS(AS F)‐DOH-EBB-KGL(QR) last year on an AA award for 75K AAdvantage miles. It was outstanding. I will be returning next summer for a wedding so I am anticipating being able to book that through MP. A DOH stopover would be icing on the (wedding) cake.

James

eponymous_coward

AS award on BA J/F to Europe: 60k/70k
AA award on BA J/F to Europe: 57.5k/80k

AS award on JL J/F to Japan: 60k/75k
AA award on JL J/F to Japan: 60k/80k

As I was saying, if AS prices became AA's prices overnight, the sky would not be falling for those particular awards. It would be a devaluation, but... eh (and given that BA's J hard product is going to improve as their suites come online, it's actually an improvement to spend less miles on BA J).

The prices where AA really whacks you on the region chart in comparison to AS are the North America-Middle East/Africa/India/Australia awards... except AS is already whacking you on some carriers like EK (82.5k to India in J, compare to AA on QR at 70k) or SQ to those regions. That and AA doesn't allow anything like a North America->Asia 2->Asia 1 award (if they did you could fly CX F to Japan at the JL price). That's really the big hidden advantage here (plus the stopover)... which AS doesn't have to change (AA awards don't have stopovers... but CX AM multicarrier awards do, for instance).

Really, the only amazeballs bargain that stands out like a sore thumb on the AS chart in terms of mileage cost is CX's chart at this point (and for some awards, the difference isn't huge: CX J NA-Middle East or Africa isn't a huge difference on AA's chart). Could those get whacked on entry into OW? Maybe. AS hasn't changed the price on CX's chart for 13 years. That being said... CX may whack things themselves by dramatically shrinking their route network and their planes flying F cabins, and for all intents and purposes making the discussion moot. You already aren't getting an F cabin HKG-Australia and CX isn't flying F to North America at the moment...

NWplatinum

Whose safari ari in the wiki? He’s not a mod.