VegasGambler

Come on man. This adds up to less than 1% of the Krug posts around here. I would never even have heard of Krug if not for FT.

Flying for Fun

Did you count them?

RMDZidane

Hi tobikosan. I would keep looking all the way up to day of flight. I booked a J seat HKG-LAX about six hours before the flight. That was nerve wracking, but otherwise I was stuck in steerage on UA's 773 flight (10 across ).....that would've been depressing.
I used the Qantas search engine because it seemed more reliable to me. But I've also had luck with BA, to go with the disappointments. In fact I just used the QF chart to book a CX HKG-LAX flight in F early May. BA didn't show it available . Good luck!

bowlingformatt

Hi everyone.

This is likely a well-discussed question but I've been scouring for hours but can't seem to find a reasonable way to convert Amex MR points to Alaskan (for Cathay redemptions) now that SPG has stopped offering 1:1 conversion. Is there no way to do it now? Thank you!

Matt

eponymous_coward

Probably better off sending AMEX MR to BA Executive Club or CX Asia Miles rather than doing contortions for Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. Wait for a transfer bonus and you'd get more than 1-1. The award rates aren't as good (AM has some sweet spots though), but you get availability at 355 days to snatch spots that AS MP won't get until 330 days out.

Flying for Fun

Interesting! I just booked a CX F LHR-HKG followed by a CX F HKG-YVR-JFK with a one month stopover in YVR and I was only charged 70K Miles?

Is this the deal of the year or an April Fool's Joke??



Happy Award Hunting everyone!


James in Kelowna at T-2.5 hrs.

pinniped

This. The conversion contortions to get to AS will kill your value far more than paying the higher mileage rates will.

BA also has some nice sweet spots but I don't believe CX is one of them...at least not on the TPACs. I have a stash of BA miles and was looking to see if they'd factor into my planned 2020 CX run and it doesn't look promising, especially in cabins beyond regular Y.

Nazdoom

CX F tonight via AS miles JFK-(YVR)-HKG.

Thank you to everyone who contributed in this thread. My third CX F thru AS miles so far!!

eponymous_coward

For > 2k flight mile flights on CX, BA is pretty good, especially if they will let you pay part with cash, part with Avios. Business is only 2x coach until flight distance is greater than 2,000 miles. You basically end up paying $30-150ish and up to 10k Avios and get CX J (even if it's regional J, it's not a terrible price for the equivalent of F on an airline like AS or DL + lounge access, extra luggage). I find that doing that to get a "free stopover" in Hong Kong and using the free AS stopover on the US side instead of HKG can be more valuable to me- I booked BKK-HKG("stop" with BA miles)-LAX-SEA(stop on AS)-DCA with SEA-DCA in AS F (which would have run 50k Avios or 25k AS miles if I had booked the itinerary with the AS stopover in HKG and booked AS F as a separate trip- instead it was 8000 Avios and $90 to do BKK-HKG as an Avios booking).

CX fuel surcharges on shorthaul aren't obscene like BA "carrier surcharges", FWIW.

And oh yeah, AS allows some major backtracking on Hawaii/Mexico itineraries (Hawaii/Mexico-Asia are both the same cost as USA-Asia).

allset2travel

Congrats!

How far from departure date did you have to search? Thx.

Nazdoom

I found the space and booked last Monday. I had found availability for both Monday and Tuesday and based on available routing to position to JFK (separate ticket, AC lie-flat J via Aeroplan) I opted for Tuesday.

I previously booked SFO-HKG CX F back in November for this May but cancelled that as my schedule now permits a long trip in April. Because of the error fares that popped up last year, a lot of advanced availability now seems to be sparse, and so close-in is best bet.

banffflyr

Hey there, I'm looking for availability pn a YVR-HKG-BKK ticket next February but my search on BA's site only shows availability on the HKG-BKK segment when combined with YVR . Is this the "married segments" issue others have been referencing? I called in to AS yesterday to try to break these apart (e.g. build a 2 day stopover at HKG) however she said not possible. Is this a HUCA type approach? Thanks in advance for any feedback.

McSam18

Does anyone know what time at 330 days out space shows on AS? Curious if there is a similar situation to booking JAL with AA miles where it technically becomes available at 9PM EST 331 days out. Thanks!

Being the data point I wished to see, I called around 11 am MDT and they were able to see availability on the 331st day.

skimthetrees

JAL changed their release window to 360 days in advance. JAL releases the next award date at 10 AM JST (6pm PDT, 9 PM EDT as you mentioned above) and that is when AS and AA used to be able to book before the JL booking window increased to 360 days. Now it should be as soon as AS or AA opens a new calendar day for booking you should be able to book the space since AA and AS windows are much shorter than JAL's now. AS has done some blocking far out but I think with the new release schedule you can get around most of that with the calendar booking trick. The problem now is going to be similar to the CX/QF problem that other programs with a larger booking windows than AS, like BA, will have access to awards at the outside of the booking window many days before AS.

skimthetrees

It is married segments. If only one segment is restricted in the marriage, say HKG-BKK, book YVR-HKG-BKK married and then call back within 24 hours to change the non-restricted segement (YVR-HKG) to a different date with award availability. Others have had success with that on JAL.