eponymous_coward

It's not to be believed, because the A350 fuselage has a width of 5.97 m and the A330 has a width of 5.64 m (777 is 6.2m). The A350's J had some problems on the first round of seats, but they all should be using CX's newest Zodiac product, which is a refinement on the older product used for 77Ws and A330s. The A330s are being fitted into the narrowest cabins so they are the "tightest".

That being said you'll probably live if you get CX's tightest fit for a lie flat seat (as well as their somewhat older model) for a two and a half hour flight.

Yeah, you should be fine. At least you're not flying their Premium Y-er, I mean "regional J" product like I am HND-HKG in a few months. Which is basically AS F + a small DL-style IFE screen, no real at seat storage (IOW their longhaul Premium Y product). Which is perfectly survivable on a 3-4 hour flight, if behind what even TG gives you, and WELL behind what SQ is going to have fleetwide pretty soon (lie flats everywhere).

bdhaliwa

Does JL still show CX availability? I have used it in the past but I don't think it has been showing any CX availability of lately, wasn't sure if that was tool related or not.

skimthetrees

Yes. You have to select either a CX specific partner search or OneWorld search to get CX results from JAL.

Someone here, sorry, I forget who, claims the CX search on JL most accurately reflects AS availability. This may be true. I just booked a flight in CX F where CX showed no availability, JL and QF showed availability, BA did not show any availability. I was on a CX Asia Miles waitlist and so was a bit peeved when they started offering space to partners without opening space in their own program so I called Asia Miles to see if they could help clear my waitlist and the clueless agent on the phone told me that it is what it is. If Asia Miles does not show award space there was nothing he could do except tell me to wait, pray, and hope they would clear it one day (even though CX was making the space available to partners). Then I called AS and booked the seat which was available to AS the same as it was to JL and QF. CX Asia Miles waitlist appears broken, at least if you have no status.

Flying for Fun

That is my experience when using QF for CX availability and 100% of the time AS saw what I did. No issues booking CX when feeding them specific flights and always beyond HKG. I have booked CX in as little as 8 minutes with the BOI crew.

It may have been me you are referring to as I have posted about this before.

James in Puerto Vallarta.

skimthetrees

I got a BOI agent who was great too this time. Booked in maybe 10-12 minutes. I told him right off the bat I was looking to book a CX award and he said he could take care of that for me and he did. I always make sure to tell even the knowledgeable agents that the flight is leaving around midnight and they need to put in a time of 1AM to search or they will not find the flight. I have not booked many CX flights but I have never had a problem booking through AS when I verified availability through other partners before calling. Down to the last seat they see what I found on partners. I check multiple partners before calling.

And, yeah, it probably was you who suggest JAL results as a perfect match to AS for CX availability. Thanks for the tip!

VegasGambler

When I booked my CX award, I saw it on multiple partners but the AS agents were not able to see it. I tried two different phone agents as well as texting. I told them about the "hour=1" trick as well. They could see Y but not J or F.

Then I called back the next day and the first agent I spoke to was able to see the space and book it right away. I'm not sure if all the previous agents were doing something wrong, or if it was a temporary issue with the system.

skimthetrees

It is difficult to know. Was this definitely inside the 330 day window? I would tend to suspect poorly trained agents but AS IT is poor so who knows?

VegasGambler

It was about 4.5 months out, so well inside 330 days. Again, they were able to see Y space so the flights were there. Just no premium cabin space (despite there being as many as 5 J award seats showing up for some of the flights on the BA site -- BKK-HKG seems to have lots of J availability. Several flights today are still showing J9 on EF).

Anyway, it worked the next day, so no big deal. The extra day did not cost me my HKG-SFO F spot.

Mauibaby2008

pinniped

Interesting! Downgrade offers are sort of a test of the Endowment Effect.

Would I pay $2000 cash right now to upgrade from PE to J? No way, that's crazy!
Would I accept $2000 cash to downgrade from J to PE? Hmmm....I gotta think about that for a moment... (Ultimately, I too would likely say yes.)

$1k would be the Endowment Effect point for me. I could easily see myself saying no to both the upgrade and downgrade offers.

VegasGambler

That's illogical. Sort of like a "hold" recommendation from a stock "analyst".

rufflesinc

CX seems to be loosening the iron grip on F awards this year. Finally released one F seat on Dec 31 HKG-ORD that was F6. The only other award seat on that flight is PEY so it remains to be seen if we will keep the DL nonstop we already booked or fly mixed cabin.

miuk

J availability also seems to be missing. Checking for Feb 2020, HKG-LAX and you dont see the usual 4 seats availability like usual.

reverted

Anyone know what exact time AS reps will see the next available date of CX flights at the 330 mark?

rufflesinc

IIRC , it was around 10am-12pm eastern daylight