eponymous_coward

Do you have AS MVPG+ status or not? Any change will mean $125 if you don't.

It's all ?????s on availability and strategy. If sitting together is important. CX F seats are extremely private; while you can dine together using a buddy seat you're not going to be really "sitting together" in F. CX J in reverse herringbone isn't that much better (a little but it's not like side-by-side in a 2x2 configuration).

I'd probably do 1J/1F and, assuming you don't have OW Emerald status and the second F seat never shows up, use the F lounges for both of you instead of the J lounges and not dine together on the plane (TBH CX J food isn't all that fantastic, so dining in the F lounge isn't a terrible option). Give the F seat to the SO.

alaskaforlife

Yes I have MVPG. Good idea on the First Lounges since I am not OW Emerald. I'll be on the lookout for the second F to open up.

maverikbc

There are multiple successful DPs of stopovers at YVR, SEA, etc reported here. Why not HUCA? When the agent says no, I like asking them how I can alter my itinerary to make it work.

So my AS portion is booked as YVR-PDX F, PDX-LAX Y, but I wonder if I should change it to YVR-SEA F, SEA-LAX F. I've heard the new Boardroom has opened at SEA this week, with 12 beers on tap, both segments F confirmed to boot. This means that I'll need to leave and arrive 2 hours early.

PS: I've noticed my PDX-LAX F seat reward amount has changed from 15k to 40k, just because I booked my seat and I'm so far the only F pax

maverikbc

Many people are talking about food going downhill at CX F lounges at HKG after the contract gone to Sodexho. I was there last month, I can confirm. The food wasn't good. I know I was in Hong Kong, not Shanghai, but xiao long bao was much worse than $3 basket that I had in Shanghai hole in the wall place. The temperature wasn't proper. It tasted like they had a buffet in the kitchen, they just cooked them in advance and dump them on plates. Servers were inattentive. They were talking in Tagalog each other. I don't like when workers aren't talking in the local language (in this case Cantonese) or any languages that I understand.

I'll have several hours at HKG next time, I feel like exploring other lounges like QF, or just go to CX J lounge buffet and noodle bars to eat.

Flying for Fun

I enjoyed the QF Lounge in HKG moreso than the CX Wing F. I was flying QF Y to SYD but had access on the strength of my AS Elite status (MVPG+) The showers are good. Food was buffet style with a couple of made to order items. I feel that the CX Lounges in HKG are overrated but thay may be a result of first visiting them after the decline.

James

eponymous_coward

I've already stopped over in SEA on an international award multiple times, I know how that works. This is trickier because it was originally done as a 35k JFK-YVR CX F award (they have to reissue and charge me more to add the extra segments). You never know when some CS agent is going to note "don't let this jackass try and pull a fast one on you" in the record.

I didn't do it because it means buying a SEA-YVR positioning flight (or taking the train/bus to YVR, which will just kill an entire day+ more on travel), and also taking a very "meh" routing to Tokyo when you add in the positioning flights: SEA-YVR-SEA/PDX-SFO/LAX-HKG-NRT in order to save 35,000 miles, where everything except SFO-HKG is either in Y (AS, there wasn't a lot of F I could make work on timing), or in the equivalent of a domestic F product (CX has abolished F on most of their intra-Asia routes, and there is no guarantee of longhaul J on a lot of routes). In the end I decided I wasn't going to spend the extra money and time positioning back to YVR when I'm flush with AS miles.

At present I have SEA-SFO-NRT in JL F since I swapped the CX flights I booked for that. I'm pretty happy with that, though I may tack on a XXX-SEA segment to it once I figure out what it would be.

I tend to go to Pier F, but OK. That being said, CX J catering is no great shakes. Most inedible airline meal I've had in my flying was a CX J pork chop that should have been a doorstop. I'd still probably eat on the ground somewhere if I was in the J cabin and try and go light on CX's J food in the air. So you're saying spend the miles on 2J instead of 1F/1J?

alaskaforlife

Right now, I see JNB-HKG (2 Biz Seats open) but I see just 1 F and 0 J open for HKG-SFO. What do you all suggest I do? Wait a while or can they manually add the HKG-SFO later for me?

eponymous_coward

Happy

We have been on different flights out of HKG multiple time - there are flights only a few hours apart to LAX IIRC. Last year when we did that I was the one who took the later flight and we supposedly to meet up at LAX then onto SEA together. My HKG-LAX flight had a Med Evac diversion to SFO - this caused me missed the LAX-SEA flight - actually technically when I passed the boarding gate on way to the rebooked another hour late flight, the original flight was still boarding due to it had 30 or 45 min delay. But the gate agent refused to even listen to my question and claimed the flight was solidly full (yeah my F seat was given to a gentleman).
At the end when I arrived the Radisson just outside SEA it was only 30 min after my husband's check in.

If flying CX F is important to the poster, then book 1F 1J on the same flight. Neither F nor J is good for "sitting together" as in the sense of holding hands and whisper to each other type of gesture... even in the middle section of the 1-2-1 J setting.
For us we prefer window seats of adjacent rows - the seat area seems slightly more spacious than the middle section and it is still quite easy to catch each other's attention should there be a need... esp by the person sits behind.
Food wise, J foods seem to have improved quite a bit from the past. At least there is no more the yucky looking casserole dishes any more. LOL.

eponymous_coward

That's good to hear; I know you've posted before that CX F food isn't all that either.

Happy

Right.

Hadn't flown CX F last 12 months. Flew J several times both the North America routes and the Australia routes. Definitely saw improvements in J meals. The HKG-MEL CX J foods were better than QF F MEL-LAX by a mile. The main course on the QF F we opted for some white fish - it came in a big chunk, very dry, and totally tasteless. The PP restaurants at Australia airports have some good foods, far better than QF lounge foods and the in flight foods.
As much as people complain about the HKG CX Lounge foods, QF lounges in their home airports are much worse. You are better off to head for PP restaurants for your pre-flight meals. IIRC there are 3 PP restaurants at SYD, MEL and BNE - a total of 9 PP eateries.
QF services at both lounges and in flight were less than desired. I would take the indirect route via HKG any day but there was no availability on CX, the Australia / New Zealand routes are very hard to find seats.

On related note, since you will fly JL F, we are quite disappointed on our April JL F JFK-NRT meal - both the Japanese version (I had that) and the Western version (husband had that) were VERY mediocre. Some "dishes" of the Japanese version were inedible - both the taste and the freshness were in question. I dont know if this is because JFK is outstation or not. All I can say is, the JL F foods we had on that flight, was worse than anything we had on CX premium cabins. I hope you will get better foods on your next JL F flight.
Seriously we dont understand the hoopla people have on JL. I would fly CX any day over JL - but the trip was to Japan (we had 2 cruises - one was circle Japan and the other was TPAC Tokyo to Vancouver) so CX would cost 2 AA awards (Asia 1 cannot transit Asia 2) versus JL is 1 award. Can't stand the JL J config so when F opened up we promptly switched.
The only good thing about JL is, the award availability is reasonably good and close in departure often have extra releases, starting from 2 to 3 weeks out. We no longer can count on CX doing the same thing.

Oh, JL has downgraded their PJ which now is very cheap, underwear look-alike material in poor quality. The top is very large but the bottom is 2 sizes smaller. Dont know how they come up with such proportion.

eponymous_coward

That's a big reason, plus the CX regional config HKG-HND/NRT at the tail end of that trip on a long travel day (and HND isn't as easy to come by as NRT, and I prefer HND as an airport for TYO to NRT). I think if I was breaking up the trip with a stay in HKG I'd be more inclined to keep CX F.

To keep the offtopic divergence brief - I find I like NH's J Japanese washoku meals out of SEA (have done multiple AV redemptions on their 788s, even if it does take me into NRT). I'd hope JL F and SFO are similar if better. From what I've heard that's not an unreasonable expectation.

overlord207

Hi guys,

Is this a possible itinerary to do award travel with one redemption? (SEA->HKG->MEL->SEA)?

This flight in cash:
Y is $1500~
E is $2300~
J is $6300~
F not available for this route below (this is because SEA -> HKG does not have F).

The cash price for Y/E is not bad, and we do earn good mileage with CX. However, hesitant to do that because the return is pretty long ( 9 + 12 w/ 2 hours in HKG). Any suggestions? Thanks.

eponymous_coward

Yes. it will price as a round trip (if you're asking "can I get this all on a one way" the answer is no). Did you read the wiki?

Also, HKG-Australia-HKG doesn't generally offer F either, so it would definitely price as a J award if the ex-HKG segments are all MEL or SEA.

overlord207

Yeah, I was under the assumption that it will be at least a RT, but wondering if it's priced as 3 awards, or just 2? Not sure since it's a separate award chart for Asia and Australia.

HKG->MEL on its own is 30k award on J
SEA -> HKG on its own is 60k award on J
MEL -> SEA on its own is 55k(QF)/60k(CX) award on J

So for this itinerary is it 120k or would I need to do 30k + 60k + 60k?

I'm looking at but not sure whether the return leg is valid due to the second bullet.