skvanburen

I know Alaska can only book CX 330 days out but does anyone know what time the agents can first book at 330 days out/when is recommended to call and try to book?

Right at midnight PST when it goes from 331 days out to 330 (even though the call center closes at midnight PST)? First thing at 5AM PST? Normal business hours?

And I'm assuming it's still recommended to immediately ask to be transferred to the "partner award desk" since many agents often have trouble with CX awards?

mlqsko

I though this thread is about Alaska awards on CX... not AA, not CX.

skimthetrees

That is what I am talking about here, 25% infant fare for an Alaska award on CX to or from the US. Are you referring to something else?

WestCoastPDX

I booked HKG-LAX in First this morning, for travel March 25th, 2020.

Seeing lots of availability on BA, so snagged a seat.
Dennis in Phoenix got it booked in less than 10 minutes.
(am routed LAX-SFO-PDX currently to get home, but I'm sure I'll be able to get that cleaned up).

--
I know most people don't compare these things... but o/w ticket priced at $14k USD...

Also burned 55k AS miles last night on outbound PDX-SFO-SYD on Qantas in J.
125k total AS miles for business and first class to australia, asia and back.... yeah. These are the good old days.

mlqsko

Yeah, keep bragging, spread the word and this will last...........

skyx31

Hi all,


Sorry if this has been asked before. If I'm able to see 1x F seat available on Asia Miles, but neither BA, QF nor JL is showing F space (only Y is showing), does it mean that AS phone agent will not be able to book it too?
The flight is SIN-HKG-JFK in April next year. I've checked Asia Miles by individual and married segment, both methods are showing award space in J/F respectively.
Tried calling AS but the phone agent was unable to see any award space as well. As the SIN-HKG flight departs at 1:30am, would it help if I specifically tell the agent to search for departure after 1am?

I recall there's a FTer in this thread that was able to get the phone agent to attempt to ticket the itinerary successfully without seeing any availability on their end.

skimthetrees

If QF and JL cannot see it that is probably bad. You mentioned you checked AsiaMiles both ways but have you checked QF both by individual segments and combined? QF will not show the F icon on the calendar search unless F is available on both flights but it will show up F as mixed class when selecting the individual day. I see a ton of F in April HKG-JFK searching on QF. I would definitely try asking the agent to search with a time (maybe 1AM or 2AM from SIN?) but if you cannot find the flights on QF or JL you might be out of luck (but once again have you searched QF segment by segment and combined?). Which day are you looking at?

skyx31

Thanks for the reply! I've searched both QF and JL, both are not showing any flights at all for the SIN-HKG leg, while HKG-JFK only shows space in Y. I'm looking for flights on 26th April.

skimthetrees

It's a sad day for partners. CX now has a separate allocation for F awards for its own program. You are right, there is no partner F availability on 4/26 but there is via AsiaMiles. SIN-HKG in J on 4/26 in married segment only (for partners), you must have another CX flight with availability to connect to to get availability for that segment.

There is F availability on 4/27 SIN-JFK (J to HKG, F to JFK). How about that? If you really need to come back on 4/26 you can get SIN-ORD on 4/26 and make your own way back to JFK.

flyingislove

WestCoastPDX

This seems like a grumpy reply!

We're on FT, in an AS sub-forum, in a 41 page thread ABOUT Cathay redemptions. This entire thread is about this topic.

I posted a datapoint about what others are seeing - lots of J/F availability at the moment.
I snagged it. And I hope other people get theirs - I'm not scared I'm competing with other frequent travelers here... I see plenty of seats to go around.

Do you really think I'm giving away some secret code here?

skimthetrees

This is a very interesting question and one to which I do not know the answer. The best course of action would be for someone to try different times to determine the answer. There are a couple of times which would seem to be likely. My first guess today, given that CX opens its calendar at T-360 well in advance of AS, would be as soon as the AS calendar on the website adds a new day for booking. I am not actually sure but I think this happens at midnight Pacific Time so I would try booking right at midnight at T-331 (not T-330). I recall there was some processing going on to load JAL flights somewhere between 4-6AM in the morning at one point so if midnight at T-331 did not work I might suggest trying at 6 AM at T-331 (Pacific US). Anyone who has data points on this please update us.

CDKing

I'm confused what is the secret? booking window is open until early May now. Its not to shocking that space is available that far out since no one is flying those Vietnam mistake fares in 2020.

mlqsko

Do you really think anyone participating in this thread does NOT know the value of the AS redemptions?

And you're right, this thread is about availability on Cathay pacific. Of your entire post, there was just "Seeing lots of availability on BA, so snagged a seat." related to the topic, so thank you for your great contribution.

skvanburen

Thanks. To be clear you mean 2 or 3PM Eastern 331 days out?