skimthetrees

You answered one of your questions: something changed since Tuesday.

A little investigation would give you the other answer. It is not specific to travel date, AA shows no Y or J availability all year from JFK to HKG, only 1F on some days. If AS sees the same availability that AA does then that is bad news.

Since the lack of availability seems to affect both AA and AS but not other partner programs it may be that this is a region based restriction specific to the US. If so AA members should be able to work around it but AS Mileage Plan members will be left out.

mattdk88

Received an email yesterday that I had been downgraded on HKG-SFO from business to economy (CX892 May 15). CX is still selling business class on their website though. Already have backup flights on JAL due to CX situation, but still disappointing.

kayexalate

Got the same dreaded email that:
1. my flight SFO-HKG was canceled on 5/28
2. I was rebooked on SFO-HKG on 6/1 in Economy
3. My connecting flight from HKG-BKK on 5/29 is still there in business!

now looking for backup plans, but even if I can cobble something together, I'm pretty worried my return on 6/11 (BKK-HKG-SFO) in business will also be canceled!

Carfield

Once again, there is a 9 countries ban in Hong Kong now (USA/UK/Australia/Canada/France/India/Pakistan/Nepal/Philippines), as well as a ban on all transit flights except from Mainland China and Taiwan. Those rules are currently scheduled to expire on April 20, but they are expected to extend, as Omicron really hits Hong Kong hard. I really don't think flying CX is a good idea for the near future, as well as in the rest of 2022 and even early 2023. Even if the countries ban is lifted, I expect the transit ban to continue. I really urge you to look for a backup plan and am almost 100% guarantee that your flight will not happen at all in June. Cathay is literally running one or two flights per month to these major Asian cities, in order to get around Hong Kong's stringent flight suspension rule (four covid arrivals will get you a suspension for two weeks)! Unfortunately, those rules will not be lifted anytime soon.

You really need to look at alternative flights now. Your return flight is almost 100% going to be cancelled. If you must go on this trip, you need to look elsewhere now. CX is not going to happen at all in the summer and I will argue for the rest of 2022.

For those of you who still wants to book CX award, please don't book any non-refundable hotels or side trips because the percentage of your flight going is really low even in early 2023.

Carfield

babypuwet

The F flights finally came back to being bookable on AS when it was showing on AA and BA all along and I at least have that piece booked. Now my problem is that I can't book a connecting flight intra-asia that is showing business class availability on both BA and AA. One AS agent mentioned something to do with married segment and another said it had to be the same class of service for the entire route. I am not sure of the first one, but the second one I believe is false as I can go on AS website now and book a mixed class itinerary (one example is JAL JFK-HND-TPE).

skimthetrees

So long as you pay for the highest class of service you can mix. Maybe their system does not handle pricing it but you should be able to get it manually priced if there is availability.

CX has been known to have married segment availability in the past, especially towards the end of schedule. It depends on the date of travel and routing. What is your final destination?

babypuwet

Final destination is TPE, so I am looking to add on HKG-TPE onto my already confirmed JFK-HKG in January 2023 for Chinese New Years. BA and AA both show multiple business class seats when searching that individual segment (F not offered as all flights are showing as a A330 w/o F), but AS can't see any availability.

skimthetrees

I've got good news and I've got bad news. The good news is I do see tons of HKG-TPE award space on multiple partners including AA in that time frame which leads me to believe that space is probably available to AS. The bad news is that there is married segment logic making this not bookable as a connecting itinerary. I can see this by checking with some partner searches. This means you will not be able to do the simple thing of adding a connecting flight from HKG to TPE at this time. This is different from much married segment logic we see. Typically the marriage logic prevents you from booking one segment individually (you must book a connection) but the current logic on this route prevents you from booking a connecting itinerary (you cannot book as a connection).

You can possibly work around this due to the fact that Alaska allows stopovers. You probably can get Alaska to see and add a flight HKG-TPE that creates a stopover in HKG (so the flight must depart more than 24 hours from when your JFK-HKG flight is scheduled to arrive). This should be pretty easy. Call the partner desk during business hours and tell them you want to add a CX flight to TPE (making sure the flight you ask for creates a greater than 24 hour stopover).

After you book with a > 24 hour stopover keep monitoring married segment availability until you see flights in your date range have the connecting restriction removed, then call back to change your HKG-TPE flight to be a connection. If changing the stopover to a connection does not immediately work you should be able to change it after a few months when CX removes their connecting flight marriage logic. Or, do not book a stopover and just wait until booking the HKG-TPE flights are allowed as a connection.

If you book with a stopover you might be able, shortly after it tickets, to call the partner desk and ask them to move your flight to the day of your connection. This may have a better chance of working if you are simply requesting a date change to the same flight number on a different day, or not, it's a possible strategy to try.

If it were me I would book with a stopover and look to change it to a connection. First trying to change the date on the HKG-TPE ticket after ticketing and if that didn't work then wait until the marriage logic is removed to change it which should happen eventually. Worst case you get a day stopover in HKG. If HKG does not reopen and you are not allowed to enter and you still have not been able to rebook as a connection you should be able to call the partner desk, explain the situation, and ask them to contact their Cathay Pacific Liaison to request changing the HKG-TPE segment so you have a connection (asking CX to accommodate you due to special circumstances).

Please report back on your results. This will help others in similar situations.

Edited to Add:
The no-connection married segment logic on this route seems to be booking region dependent. QF and BA do not seem to be affected. AA, AS, and JAL are restricted.

Another back-up option if you feel HKG will open to tourists by Jan. is to book HKG-TPE separately, on CX metal, booking via AA, BA, QF, CX or whomever you can. CX can interline the two tickets on their own metal when you check-in, but would be unable to do it if HKG were closed to tourists, so there is a risk with this method.

babypuwet

Thanks for the detailed insight! Very helpful. I will definitely report back once I get it sorted out.

southbeach82

Hoping to book a speculative booking for my family through AS for YYZ to HKG but need 3 seats in J. But I can't seem to find any availability for Dec-Mar for 3 seats. I saw another post mentioning that there is only 2 seats showing for AS, is this the case going forward? How many seats did AS have in the past? I've only looked for 2 in the past.

skimthetrees

Even Asia Miles is only releasing 2J awards on CX flights (in that date range as of today) so you are not going to find 3J awards on CX YYZ-HKG anytime soon. Will HKG even be accepting arrivals from tourists then given China's botched Zero Covid policy? Unless just transiting I would look to another carrier and destination. Even if just transiting there is more risk of cancellation on CX due to China's Zero Covid policy so CX would not be my first choice. Possibly JAL from another airport?

Carfield

I also want to remind everyone that despite the lifting of nine countries ban and transit ban on April 1, non-residents are still not allowed to enter Hong Kong, and most importantly, the rule that "four passengers tested positive for Covid on arrival within 7 days = 14 days suspension of bringing passengers to Hong Kong" has not been lifted. That explains why CX runs most inbound flights (Back to HK) only twice a month and will continue to do so in the near future. So unless that flight suspension rule is lifted, I will not book any CX award flights in advance. You are just asking for troubles. Not to mention HK residents still have to be quarantined for 7 days at a designated quarantine hotel too on arrival. It is better than 14 and 21 days, but it is still bad.

Some parts of Asia are reopened to the world, but not China or Hong Kong in 2022 and even early 2023.
I feel bad for some of you with a large Asia miles account balance, but it is better if you use them on Oneworld or other partner airlines.

Carfield

985X

Just called AS trying to help a friend with PVG->North America. Zero award availability for next month, which is understandable since most routes are flying 2X MONTHLY. AS told me they could see the flights but seems like only revenue fare class are available. So now I have to book him on Hainan to YYZ, *if* he intends to travel.

dkerr

CX website publishes a schedule through June and the flight frequency is laughable, only a handful of flights from New York over the whole month. Trying to book a paid ticket in September shows the same, only a handful of dates available. For October it is back to daily. But I don't believe it. I have no confidence in Cathy or Hong Kong SAR getting their act together by Sept/Oct so I just canceled two award flights I had and replaced them with SQ (much more expensive, but I have much higher confidence in them).

eponymous_coward

AM is actually not a terrible choice for West Coast J TATLs, and if Japan opens up, PNW-TYO. They also price lower on BA YQ ex-US than AS does.