zosch

HI there, I just booked CX business via Alaska miles from SFO to HKK. Super excited. However, the initial plan was to take advantage of the Alaska layover rule and get the second leg from HKK to BKK for free (3 days later). Problem is that the rep couldn't look more than 330 days ahead. Had to decide between waiting 3 days and then book the whole itinerary or just booking SFO<>HKK today. Decided that I didn't want to risk losing the business class seats so I locked in SFO<>HKK.

Question, can I call in 3 (or later) days and pay the $125 change fee per person and add the second leg for free? I'm pretty sure I've read that it's possible up until departure but can't find anything official.

Thanks a lot!

Flying for Fun

Yes, you can add the onward flight for no additional Miles at a later time. There will be a nominal charge for additional taxes in addition to the change fee. I would nicely ask if they could waive the change fee since the onwards flights could not be booked at the same time. While not policy, it doesn't hurt to ask.

I booked a CX J MEL-HKG last year. Two months later I added HKG-LAX in F. In this case it was additional miles too but illustrating that changes can be made.

James

wolfpacktrojan

QT31415

Have done SEA-HKG-JNB on one ticket, CX first, whole family (5). One of my proudest moments lol.

standbyalldtime

Those first class seats were never grabbed though, they are still showing F6 with no awards available anymore, when they were a week or two ago. I've been searching every day so I'm pretty familiar with trends.

The fact that there are awards in Jan 2020 is a good sign (I didn't search out that far) but maybe they pulled all 2019 award seats for the moment. It's also alarming that in my earlier example there was a flight within two weeks that was still F6, yet there weren't any awards for that flight.

I'm just trying to get a handle on close in award trends so I can hopefully jump on any flight that opens up two award seats within two weeks and change our awards to those.

NWplatinum

rufflesinc

Agreed, I have seen the same. The poster I was replying to was talking about seats being released between of T-14 and calendar opening.

The JL F seats seem to be going within 48 hrs of releasing , pretty consistently. I suspect they are not going with 24 hrs because people wait to grab the connecting flight in Japan. This seems to be a side affect of no CX F seats

MAH4546

First time booking Cathay via Alaska: I'm MVP Gold. Crazy me might just add a one day turn to Dubai or Jo'Burg just because the mileage difference is minimal (or zero?) and I like flying.

tobikosan

I am total newbie to EFlyer. So if I am looking for CX space on Dec 11th HKG-AKL do I have any options besides checking all the time to figure out the number and likelihood of J space opening? If I did sign up for EF and was looking for this kind of award availability on an airline they have access to then I would just set an alert with them, correct? Thx

pinniped

That thought has crossed my mind. The main goal of our planned 2020 trip is HKG to visit friends there and maybe run the HK marathon (February). And we will definitely add something else on since it doesn't cost more miles. But the thought has crossed my mind to do something unusual that I wouldn't do as part of a standalone trip, and JNB (or somewhere else in Africa) has crossed my mind. I've already been to Dubai (which would be cool if you're just doing a day turn).

Flying for Fun

I would definitely recommend CPT for a visit, JNB only for immediate turn or venture out to MQP for a Safari in the Kruger.

James

Charlie Thompson

I've been flying Alaska regularly for a couple years now for semi-regular busniess travel and looking to make a dream redemption come true. Would appreciate any feedback to my itinerary below.

My ideal itinerary is as such (trending for late-June 2019), based in PDX.

Fly CX first class YVR to HKG
Spend 5-6 days in HKG (free stopover)
Fly CX first class HKG to CDG

My questions are:

a) can I book these two flights as a single award utilizing Alaska's stopover policy?
b) is there a way to look for first class award availability for these seats? I've verified CX serves these routes with first class via Google Flights. I tried using the British Airways Avos search engine for one way awards but it was not showing all of the CX flights available. For example, on Satruday's CX has three depatures from YVR to HKG, of the three, one of the planes provides a first class cabin. When searching Avos, I only saw one of those three departures (CX 855) which is one of the planes that does not have a first class cabin.
c) Assuming the answer to a) is yes, is my best bet to simply call the Alaska reservation lines and hope for the best on award availability?

Disclaimer - I am traveling solo on this trip so hoping that will give me much better chances for making this award. I anticipate taking a more simpl and direct route back home on another airline in business class but I would love to take advantage of two first class CX flights for the price of one.

jinglish

AS doesn't have a North America-to-Europe chart for CX, so it'll have to be two separate awards.

minz56

a) No - this would be two awards at 70K each in F, total 140K.
b) If a flight doesn't show on BA (using Avios redemption) then the chances are that there is no award availability on the flights not showing.

When are you travelling? CX award space in F is very limited on North America/Hong Kong routes in 2019 due to an error fare earlier this year in F which they honored. All you can really do is keep checking on BA and if you see something call AS straight away to book.

sam_goh

Given that AS sees a bit less availability - what gateway do you all think it'd be the best bet to snag make a PE booking then hope for a last minute J to HKG from? Looking for the 2 week period after memorial day.

Prefer East Coast and as many as up to 4 tickets. Quick search shows PE is best from SFO and NYC atm.