rje444

What's the best strategy of booking 2 flights with a stopover in-between?

I want to book using Alaska miles for CX SYD-HKG in J, then a stopover in Hong Kong for several days, and then HKG-JFK in J.

I think I should make the booking as soon as tickets are released to AS, at 330 days.

Do I need to book the 2nd segment (HKG-JFK) on the same day as the first segment (SYD-HKG), as 1 ticket, and then switch the date for the HKG-JFK segment a few days later, when the later dates are released? Or is there a better way to go about this? I should lock in the date I need for my first segment, right? Because if I wait a few days until the second segment is released to book the correct dates, it seems I'd stand a good chance of finding that the first segment has all been taken, right?

I know if I book both segments, and then change the date of the 2nd segment that I'll have to pay a change fee for 2 people, and would like to avoid that, but will do so if there are no other options.

skimthetrees

If you have a lot of flexibility on dates it might be better to just find flights with availability for both segments before booking. If you have a limited window of dates you can travel or you want a specific day then I would grab the SYD-HKG when you can because I seem to recall this is a tough route to get J availability on. You can either book SYD-HKG by itself and days later add the flight HKG-JFK to the ticket or you can book SYD-HKG-JFK and change the date of the HKG-JFK later. Either way, adding a new flight segment or changing the date of a flight segment, will incur a change fee. The only way to get the stopover without the change fee is to book the stopover on the original ticket and not change it. Either of the ways you mentioned will work but no avoiding a change fee if you add or change a flight. What you cannot do is combine tickets. You cannot book two separate tickets, one ticket SYD-HKG and a separately booked ticket HKG-JFK and combine them into one ticket.

tdot_guy

Is there a way other than BA search to find CX F availability ? I'm looking for East coast to HKG or HKG to East coast in Oct/Nov and there is absolutely nothing available on BA. I missed a chance to book last week and now I cant see anything

rje444

You can check for CX F availability on the Qantas website, and also on the Japan Airlines website.

tdot_guy

I tried , you can only search 1 day at a time and I found no CX awards on QF website, I'll try JAL.

Thank you.

minz56

You can do a calendar search on QF if you check the box "Flexible with dates" when you open the "Depart" calendar.

The fact that you are finding nothing on either BA or QF probably means there is nothing.

MAH4546

skimthetrees

Maybe in the Good Ol' Days that was true. It is not always true now.

tdot_guy

Good to know , thank you all. I dd not know how to use QF tool, its better than BA .

Flying for Fun

It is my interpretstion that "unaware of the flexible date calendar" the poster found QF cumbersome so he wanted to try the JL website.

There have been reports of successful redemptions with AS where inventory did not match or exist on QF/BA.

James in Kigalu

estnet

[deleted b/c wrong airline mentioned - sorry

VegasGambler

That's not true

estnet

Whoops sorry brain glitch - of course I'm wrong mea culpa

conde

Definitely untrue. The JL web site clearly makes CX flights an option

slickpokerdealer

Been a while since I looked at redeeming AS miles for Cathay. Is the below article still true?

https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea...ow-to-book-it/

Do we need to have a married segment (LAX-HKG-BKK or LAX-HKG-SIN) to find business/first award space to HKG on CX?