skimthetrees

This route is in the Alaska award chart. Did you mean you cannot search for it online?

I would not hold much hope that MEL-HKG would be operating in June-July. How about SYD-HKG? Any space there?

Flying for Fun

The AU-HKG route is only available on CX. You can't book the route on QF as the OP stated. The CX award terminates in HKG unless you are continuing on to North America. Any other CX flight, including within Asia would require booking a second award.

CX had already announced futher cuts in May & June down to 3% of capacity in May & 5% of capacity in late June. CX will only be flying 5x weekly to Sydney & 3x weekly to Melbourne from June 21-30th, May & the first three weeks of June will only see 2× weekly to Sydney.

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...assengers.html

I would be more concerned about quarentine requirements and tranist restrictions if the final destination is not HKG.

James

Mister P.

Yes, I meant Qantas is not included in the Alaska award chart for Australia - SE Asia, only Cathay or Singapore Airlines.

As mentioned earlier, I can see award space on CX in their Asia Miles program, but not when looking through American or BA (they might be blocking award space to other airlines).

skimthetrees

Yes, you are right about AS not allowing AU-HKG on QF. I missed the mention of QF.

CX frequently holds extra space for their own members so it is not surprising there is space via AsiaMiles but none for partners.

With the severe reduction in flights noted by James I would guess it will be more difficult to book this with AS miles. If your original reservation is still in the system I would try calling AS and asking for their CX liaison to request the new dates you are interested in since CX cancelled the flight, keeping in mind flights in June and July are still at a high likelihood of being cancelled and AU is likely to require all incoming pax to quarantine for a number of days. If it works for you it may be better to delay the trip for a few months.

Mister P.

Thanks. I think the original booking still is in the system, will call back Alaska and try that option. I am aware that HKG (and many other places) will be closed to transit for the foreseeable future, trying to get back to Europe once things calm down a bit.

mlqsko

By the time things calm down in Europe, HKG/SIN will be open for transit

Mister P.

Quick follow up, just spoke to Alaska: after explaining the situation to the agent, she checked with the partner desk: unfortunately the desk is not submitting any requests at the moment as airlines keep cancelling flights. Only option for rebooking would be if actual award space comes up (I am guessing space visible on BA / American).

Flying for Fun

skimthetrees finds JL award flight availability on CX to closely match what AS can book. I have had great success searching on QF and booking with AS.

James

eponymous_coward

So, you're trying to book Australia-Europe in late June-early July using AS miles? Originally using separate tickets CX/AY, based on your posts in those threads?

Honestly? Too soon. Way too soon. Schedules are still too much in flux. God only knows if CX, AY, whoever will have award inventory close in. Nobody is going to do a bunch of gyrations begging for award scraps from a partner to rebook you on a partner award flight just to have it cancel a few weeks later. You're probably going to have to book close in.

You're either going to have to live with uncertainty as to whether or not you can actually travel, and see if awards are available, or shell out the money for actual cash tickets if you want any guarantees. But you should wait and do it closer in. You'll probably have a reasonable idea of what you can do, who's going to allow transit, where you can get to, about two weeks in. Maybe you get a refundable cash ticket and keep plugging away the AS angle until hours before departure. At this point if your actual goal is "I want to get to Europe" rather than "I want to save money and redeem AS on those miles I got so I could fly business class on the cheap" you should just be prepared to shell out actual cash.

Mister P.

Thanks. Yes, I am fully aware this is an evolving situation, and most countries are closed for transit at the moment. Looking at award options, as at least there is some flexibility on that front. Thanks for the tips, in any case.

Mister P.

Just a quick follow up question, it seems that CX has released some award space for MEL-HKG but only available as married segments (ie. it will only show up on American if booked with an onward connection to Europe, for example). Given that AUS-HKG & HKG-EUR has to be booked as 2 separate awards with Alaska (Im ok with that), do you think the Alaska agents will be able to find similar space? Any special tip / instruction I should tell the agent? Thanks in advance!

Flying for Fun

Since AS will be two awards, they will not see MEL-HKG availability for the first award if it is only available as a married segment. Is HKG-Europe available as a standalone redemption? I think I would hold off until you are sure you can transit in HKG. Checked baggage on 2 seperate PNRs will complicate things in HKG too, although, the HKG transfer desk will arrange pick-up of your baggage from baggage claim, clear it through customs and retag it for your onward flight. I would allow 45 minutes for them to complete that for you so make sure your transit time allows for it.

Other options may present themselves sooner. There isn't anything you can say to AS either. Either there is AU-HKG & HKG-Europe space available for AS to book as seperate awards or there isn't. You can't book AU-HKG-Europe so they certainly won't see the married segment nor can they divorce it for two awards even if the could.

James

Mister P.

Thanks! Yes, HKG-Europe is available as a standalone redemption, but not AUS-HKG. Just to clarify, CX still can check through luggage on separate PNRs, no?

eponymous_coward

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...e-tickets.html

Flying for Fun

Thanks, I wasn't sure and didn't have time to research it. AS makes it very easy to interline your bags onto other carriers on seperate PNRs. I flew LAX-SEA-YVR-JFK-HKG only having to claim & transfer the baggage at JFK. In YVR the baggage connected to CX without needing to collect & transfer. I transferred from HKG to Macau and the ferry service collected the baggage in HKG and I picked it up in Macau.

James