Kafei

After all I have changed my itinerary flying from MEL to SEA instead to LAX as I can managed to have PE on the first segment MEL-HKG and J on HKG to SEA.
I am still calling AS on MEL to LAX for Dec 26 on #882 and #884 F seats within the 24 hours no change fee period.
Obviously Dec 26 is open in AS system but why the agent can't see it, I just don't understand.

D3XT3R

Seeing business class space on HKG-CPT, and vv, for November and December on BA. I have purchased and flown this route previously with AS miles using BA availability as a reference (as recent as November). Did not call to confirm availability with AS since the dates don't work for my specific needs but may be worth checking and calling if this is something you've been on the lookout for.

skimthetrees

If they are searching to change a married segment of an existing award it make take a little more doing. If you cold call and don't mention an existing award they should be able to find HKG-LAX on 12/26. Ask to speak with a partner desk agent experienced in booking CX awards. The only other thing I can think of, which should not be necessary for 882 and 884, would be to ask the agent to put a search time in the search, maybe 1PM for 884 and 5PM for 882?

If they cannot see it tonight I would check every couple of hours from after midnight tonight to 6-7 am tomorrow morning to cover the T-330 angle.

HKprince

Hi guys,

I booked an CX award 3 days ago for MXP-HKG on the 12th FEB in J. Today the Italian authorities have announced all flights to/from China including HK and Taiwan will be suspended. CX has not yet officially cancelled the flight on the 12th but they said 99% it will be cancelled.

Therefore, what is my recourse for this ticket? I have spoken with CX and they say they can't provide any rebooking/rerouting options because it is an AS award ticket. CX itself is not yet rebooking/rerouting revenue/award tickets on their own stock. I still need to travel to HK on the 12th. AS said they can only refund me the miles without penalty. But according to the CoC, aren't they under obligation to get me to HKG? I have read that they will book revenue seats on alternative flights if CX cancels. CX has agreed that they will reroute to other CX online hubs in EU. They also assured me they will send a message to all travel agents/ partner airlines regarding tickets needing to be rebooked/rerouted, once the guidelines are confirmed.

In this case, can I expect to be rerouted e.g. MXP-LHR-HKG with MXP-LHR on BA and LHR-HKG on CX? Will I also need to make sure there is AS award availability, or will this rebooked into any revenue fare? If I add an additional segment e.g. MXP-LHR, will I be charged the extra miles. I believe award tickets are treated the same as revenue tickets; I have a contract to go from MXP to HKG, and therefore it is AS's responsibility to get me there. Is this correct or am I way off?

Cheers guys

kindagot

I think CofC goes out the window when it is not in the airlines control. This is certainly the case for flights originating or ending up in EU and the compensation. For instance when the Iceland Volcano in 2010 disrupted flights there were many stranded people.

eponymous_coward

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/le...arriage/rule-7

I'd say "Airline service is being shut down to and from China by order of the Italian government" is pretty force majeure if you ask me (note that EU 261 regulations for compensation and changes specifically exempt force majeure as well). Also, AS tickets don't generally allow for multiple partners on an award, just AS + partner. Last I checked, AS doesn't fly in Europe. You are not allowed to combine BA+CX (if you could more people would do it ).

Let me guess, you bought some AS miles thinking you got a cheap J ticket? Well... this is part of why it's a cheap J ticket, 99% of the time it will work just like one, but you're in a much different place when something goes really wrong, because you aren't CX's customer right now because they don't own the ticket, and AS has no way to put you on their own metal if something goes wrong on CX's end.

I would say if CX does agree to change the ticket to a different city ex-Europe and will let AS reconfirm it if they change it, buy a cheap LCC ticket to FRA or something. That or use trip insurance.

Oh, and maybe see if there's any AY space to HKG...

Quinlanty

If there is award availability on the BA flight I would make that change now. Things are only going to get dicier, and being on an AS award tix really limits your options.

Kafei

I have tried at least 6 calls to AS in the last 8 hours and told them it's a new booking looking for flights from MEL to LAX (married segment) also different scenario HKG to LAX and more, still no F seats are available on #882 and #884 for Dec 26, they saw the flights but no partner seats available.
Anyhow the 24 hours no change period is over and I am grateful I got the J seats on MEL - SEA routing.
This is a interesting experience but lost a lot of nerve cells from the process.
Thanks everyone for your input.

pinniped

Has Alaska issued any travel advisory related to the coronavirus outbreak? We're traveling through HKG to SIN and BKK in March. Hope to still make the trip if it's safe, but would want to move it later in the year if not. Not terribly concerned with getting AS to force us onto other flights with no avialability...we have date flexibility. We could just cancel and start over if we had to. I'm just wondering what their specific policy is: no waivers unless flights are actually changed/canceled, or leniency if the US state department issues a travel advisory?

percysmith

pinniped don’t you go by the travel advisories of the operating carrier?

rustykettel

See

Award cancellation fee on Cathay F due to Coronavirus

Nothing officially posted either for coronavirus or basis for their waiver policy, but the agents have been cancelling tickets on request for full refunds.

HKprince

Thanks all for the advice. I guess I will plan to fly out of another EU port on CX with available award seats. The CX flight I have from MXP is not officially cancelled yet, so will wait 2-3 days before I change my flights.

From what I understand speaking to AS agents, they are offering a waiver for redeposit of miles and refund or free date change for all awards to Asia.

hur88

It took me no less than five different calls to book LAX-HKG-TPE over Christmas in First.

Every rep (Boise, Phoenix, Seattle) had a hard time seeing anything despite AA, JL, QF, and BA all showing married segment space.
I even tried feeding specific flight info, and having them search LAX-TPE instead of LAX-HKG and still and nothing showed.
Finally I got a rep in Boise who just kept refreshing her system, calling a support desk, and realized that for some reason she had to search without putting in a class of service for the first class segment to show.

Despite all that, she couldn't get business class on the HKG-TPE to show, so I'm ticketed in coach.
That's no big deal though. When/if CX opens business class space without married logic, I will call in and have them reissue.

This was a frustrating ordeal to say the least.

sams64

Posted a while ago about my search for award flights for my honeymoon SEA>HKG>FCO>SEA and figured I'd give an update since this forum was very helpful.

Easily got two seats in U on CX SEA>HKG for Sep 2020 right at the 330 day mark. The HKG>FCO leg had Economy space at the 330 day mark, but no U space so I booked the economy. The AS service rep was kind enough to put a note in the booking to waive the change fee down the road if they found U space on the same flight since I was specifically looking for U and told me to keep calling back. I monitored the BA daily to see what U space looked like from HKG to all of the CX European destinations figuring 13 hours in U to Europe and then a quick re-positioning flight was a preferable option. Definitely learned early in that process that space in BA's system doesn't mean AS has access to those award spaces, too. Ended up calling the AS partner reservations desk every day for 2 months and eventually snagged two seats in U on the same flight to FCO I was already booked on! I had started to give up hope, but definitely was worth the effort.

FCO>SEA was a struggle and I eventually realized that finding good award options on that pairing was basically not worth the effort or cost in miles (what the heck is up with the AS award miles valuation on Aer Lingus?!), so I just resigned myself to buy tickets with cash. Fun fact, most airline websites require you to book seats in the same class of service RT. However, Air Canada doesn't! I was able to get 2 business class seats FRA>YVR on their 787 with a return leg I'll throw away in economy for just over $3k. I won't earn AS miles, but it is a much nicer hard product than AS partner options and for significantly cheaper.

We're doing a side trip from HK to Bali, too. I had hope that space would open up on CX HKG>DPS so I could just add a leg to my SEA>HKG award at no additional miles and since it's the only direct flight option, but man those award spaces go fast. After two months of trying I decided to take advantage of AS's 50% miles bonus when buying miles around the holidays and snagged RT business class seats via Singapore on SQ for about $1,400 in purchased miles.

All told we'll be in the air for 50 hours 41 minutes, cover 22,577 miles, with 3 airlines, on 7 aircraft (A350-900, 777-300, 787-10, A330-300, A380-800, A350-1000, 787-900), thru 7 airports, visiting 6 countries, in 18 days. This is my first time flying business class internationally and first time on a few of these aircraft (A380, 787) so I'm probably as excited about the flight as I am the destinations.

RE the virus concerns, as a buddy said last night "it will either be resolved by September or we'll all be dead, so don't worry about it". So for now I'm going to try and not stress about it and see how things shake out much closer to departure.

Thanks everyone for your insights and tips!

hieunha

I just booked 4 reward tickets on Cathay Pacific using Alaska Miles. One thing that I did not realize is that we have to pay for ticketing fees because they are booked via phone. When asked, the agent said this fee is not waivable. This is true for your experience? Thanks!