jamienbaker

No kidding. I had already explained to the OP that he couldn't/shouldn't reliably use BA.com for SGNJFK at all if the goal was to fly CX. Married segments and overnight connections have rendered segment-by-segment searching on BA.com to be a thing of the past. AA.com does the job just fine. End of story.

Well, not really. I am curious whether a BA agent could marry the same segments as AA.com offers up. But I'm not inclined to call and ask. Unclear why the OP is trying to pursue a BA.com solution, we've already corrected him (and your JL tool recommendation was similarly useful).

Oh well.

skimthetrees

Agreed, there are many problems with using BA to search for a CX award, especially on AS. Unless folks understand the limitations of the BA search they should probably be using another search engine first (and second) unless they are actually using Avios to book with BA. For CX awards on AS I like the QF search as a broad brush check of availability with their calendar search and then double checking with JL's CX partner specific search. QF handles married segments with ease. I also may use BA as a triple check but if BA results differ I ignore them. They are not relevant to CX availability booked through AS's Mileage Plan.

I suspect a BA agent could book married segments over midnight but it's only an educated guess. I would not hesitate to try it if I needed such an award booked with Avios.

jlimftalk

I was in the same boat using BA. Then I used AA and found space looking segment by segment. Called up AS to book and it went through. As other have stated BA is no good at looking for space on CX

Kremmen

I also had that much better experience recently. There was a CX time and flight number change and CX just changed it. AS initially emailed me a few hours later (yes, later!) saying my flight had been cancelled and that I'd have to phone them and then a day after that another email said I was reconfirmed on the new flight.

However, subsequently the flight was cancelled anyway, so I contacted AS to change to next year. I tried online chat and the agent said that there was one seat available on the date I wanted but I'd have to phone to pay the tiny change in taxes. The agent I got on the phone couldn't see availability on any day in the last half of July for one of my sectors. Eventually, I got transferred to the international partner desk and they were able to see one of my preferred days but not the original one. However, by the time she had booked it, the original day had reappeared. (This was a couple of minutes over an hour after my original enquiry.)

The two main points I take from this are:
1) Keep plenty of time for contacting AS. While some AS agents know how to see CX flights, some still have no clue.
2) When speaking to agents who can find CX flights, the inventory exactly matched what I was seeing on QF and JL/CX. (Including the original day disappearing for an hour.) Really nice to not have the previous issue of CX holding back inventory from AS.

asdfghjk

Thanks guys for the insights.
Now, talking about searching by segment, why doesn't AA show me any CX flights for SGN-HKG? It only shows Malaysia Airlines. This is the segment I am interested in.
I will try JL later as suggested.

jamienbaker

Because of married segments. SGNHKG awards aren't being made available. SGNHKGJFK awards most certainly ARE. Same with DPS, for example.

skimthetrees

That far out (next July) CX is only willing to make the SGN-HKG segment available for partner awards if it is married to (booked together with) another CX segment. CX will typically not release non-married intra-Asia award space until closer in. Could be 9 months out, 6 months out, or whatever they decide. So if you want to book the SGN-HKG segment using AS miles for next July now you will need to book SGN-JFK via HKG which includes SGN-HKG. Ask the agent to search for SGN-JFK on CX without mentioning HKG.

CX's AsiaMiles program typically makes those awards available to their own members without the married segment restriction so it is likely you could book SGN-HKG by itself now if using AsiaMiles but when using AS miles you will (for now) need to book SGN-HKG-SomeWhereElse.

RaSiDa

If CX is only releasing married segment on intra-Asia, does it need to be a thru connection?
Like can it be a connecting flight with a lengthy stopover?

Eg. 9/12 SGN-HKG; 9/25 HKG-JFK?

jamienbaker

I would try booking it as married. Then call and change the long haul since those flights are readily available as awards.

sbs2716g

asiamiles have eliminate stopover for their own award. So guess most likely it will apply for AS awards on CX.

jamienbaker

That is not correct.

skimthetrees

What jamienbaker says. More than 24 hours is not a connection it is a stopover and is not married and you will not be able to book it if one or more of the segments requires a marriage. You must book as a through flight with less than 24 hour connection then call back after ticketing and ask AS to change the North America segment date to create a stopover. There must of course be availability for the changed N.A. segment.

jrl767

newsfeed article from South China Morning Post indicates CX is parking 72 jets (40% of its fleet; up from 60), and a “sweeping restructuring“ plan could be announced next month

https://apple.news/AhP5YptxhT5au9b8ZJWxwTQ

asdfghjk

By searching on AA.com, I can see that CX has released SGN- HKG awards seats up until the end of June. Do you know how often CX releases these awards seats to partners? Monthly/weekly at the nine month mark? What date of the month? Thanks.
​​​​​

pinniped

Stopovers still exist for CX awards using AS miles. I just booked one for summer 2021.

Whether the approach of booking the married segments first and changing one later works, I do not know, but that's a slightly different discussion. It would seem worth a try: I know when I've changed an itin before, the agent didn't need to re-query parts that weren't changing. But I don't know if the system throws up special logic about the married segments or not.