Barkinpark

Hello folks:
I have booked an award ticket on Cathay Pacific J class from JFK to BKK via HKG on Aug 25 (leaving at midnight), with a stopover in HKG. However, I am based in Northern CA. So, can I still add a feeder flight from SFO or SJC to JFK? I see that there is nothing available that arrives on Aug 24. However, there may be saver awards on Aug 21 or 22.

The first phone agent said that I couldn't have two layovers, and therefore refused to book the flight for me. Yet, I have done a similar booking (though I eventually cancelled it) before. I find AS award flight booking agents to be very mixed in terms of their knowledge of award flight rules. Thanks in advance.

ezak

The keyword here is "stopover" not "layover". The agent is correct - you can't have two stopovers. If you've already used one HKG, then your feeder flight must arrive within 24 hours of your JFK departure. Are you sure your similar booking really had two stopovers (i.e. gaps longer than 24 hours between flights)? In my experience, I've never heard of exceptions made in terms of this rule.

On a side note, how long is your stopover in HKG? I thought they're still requiring a 7-day quarantine.

Barkinpark

Thank you for your quick reply. My stopover in HKG is about two weeks and I will have to quarantine. Booked the Marriott for this already. Thanks for the reminder.

I once booked SFO-ORD-HKG-BKK on J with the Asian segments on CX. The AS agent did book the SFO-ORD flight that arrived more than 24 hours ahead of the departure time of the ORD-HKG segment.

So, AS agents are just very inconsistent.

ezak

I’d have to agree. Especially that now partner award reservations don’t have to go through a special team, front line “regular” agents are very YMMV. Sometimes you’d find them messing up your ticket, sometimes you’d find them giving you a ticket that shouldn’t be allowed, like your earlier experience. Though in your case, I think you just got extremely lucky the last time, and the chances of getting another agent to do the same this time is pretty slim, even if you HUCA multiple times. Finding a stopover only a little bit over 24 hours might make it more likely to happen.

I’ve taken some international award flights from JFK this year, and I’m also based on the west coast. In the end, I figured it’s just easier to buy a separate revenue flight instead of trying to find an almost inexistent domestic saver award.