anabolism

If you have enough Starwood SPG points, you can convert those to Asia Miles with a 25% bonus for every 20k points you transfer. So, you can first use the Asia Miles site to determine if there is availability, and if so, you might be able to call and put it on hold while you transfer the points (I think you need at least a certain percentage of the total to be already in your account when you call).

25milesfromhome

My thinking was that SFO had fairly good demand and that CX has only so many 77G. But if you look a little further, you'll see I posted that my assumptions were wrong and that CX is planning on substituting a 77G on this route.

Thunderroad

Excellent advice from ckpeter, but I'd even take it slightly further in a couple of respects:

1. CX occasionally releases F seats sporadically, not only way in advance of the flight or in the weeks right before it. So it can make sense to keep checking.
2. One way of easily checking is to sign up for ckpeter's very useful awardnexus.com site. I believe that as an FT member you can join and run a limited number of checks for award availability for free. But even easier, for a minimal fee (I think $50), you get a status that allows you to have the site check availability for you on a daily basis, and it emails you if something opens up.

Orwaid

I think what people are saying is have some patience and flexibility.

CX will open up some F award space if their cabin is wide open a week or so before departure. Ty the 747 SFO-HKG. With 9 seats in F they usually have some midweek availability.

jamienbaker

One thing to be careful of - I don't know how long the transfer to Asia Miles takes, and whether AM will put the award on hold while waiting for the transfer. What I do know, is that transfers from SPG to AA hit every Wednesday morning, as long you transferred by midafternoom the prior Monday. And AA will put CX awards on a courtesy hold. Again, I don't have experience transferring to AM and I realize that AM sometimes has one additional seat in F beyond what has been released to partners. I'm merely pointing out that SPG to AA still earns the 25% bonus and is very reliable. Good luck.

jamienbaker

Don't forget option of flying Eagle to YYZ if they still offer first, or LGAORD, or JFKSFO...be creative with your CX gateway. Also, Expertflyer won't help, you need awardnexus.com if monitoring for CX awards. Or just use the BA site, which is what I do. Good luck.

In fact, I just used awardnexus to check LAXHKG, and found LAXNRTHKG on AA/CX on several days. but only in J. But you could grab that and hope more seats open inside of 4 or 5 days. Admittedly not as optimal as a JFKHKG nonstop. But is the point to fly CX F or go on vacation? (That's not me being snarky, it is a legitimate question).

friedablass

We actually need to be there for business from January 7-10, but we're leaving the Tuesday or Wednesday prior, to squeeze in an extended weekend vacation before we start on the business portion of it. I'm flexible to leave on the first or the second, but must return on the 10th. I have JFK-HND-HKG on hold with AA in biz and Cathay in economy, but the return is on the 13th because there was nothing else available, so I certainly need to change that.

I will sign up for awardnexus - thanks for letting me know about that. I was looking for award availability on Korean Air and someone there suggested Expertflyer so that's why I went there. They also have an alert service, but if awardnexus does the same and is more accurate, I'm certainly open to go there. I'm pretty new to trying to book long distance F or J awards because we don't have the opportunity to fly often on long distance trips. We stick close to home with our vacations being 1 to 3 hours away by plane and for such short flights we don't feel it's necessary to be in F or J.

friedablass

I have plenty of SPG to transfer, but nothing in AM (I actually would need to open an AM account), so is there any point in calling to see if they have 2x F available using AM miles?

SFO777

I currently have a single F seat on CX883, the 10:15pm LAX-HKG on 14JAN.
Have decided to cancel the trip. Anyone interested in coordinating a cancelation/rebook, PM me.

execplatscum

Just curious, currently holding a J award ORD to HKG this week Flight is sold out in first even for paying customers so likely the F award is just not opening up on this route. It appears I can get an F award via JFK but its one of those fly to LGA taxi to JFK options.

I have flown if Cathay F in the past and loved it. That said, the routing adds lots of extras (time in air, transfers between LGA and JFK) . Never tried the new CX business.

Am I crazy to even consider this routing?

SFO777

I'd do that in a heartbeat. The LGA-JFK taxi thing is easy... 20-30 minutes depending on traffic and about $30.

HumbleBee

Would take one extra connection but not 2.

ma91pmh

+1 Very easy transfer to JFK and away you go. New J is nice, but it is not F

anabolism

Booking CX awards using AA miles has very low taxes/fees, much lower than booking via Asia Miles. But, if there is space using Asia Miles and not using AA miles, the extra cost may be worth it.

You can sign up for a free Asia Miles account, then log in and see if there is award space. If so, you can initiate the transfer, but AM won't put the award on hold if you have zero miles (I believe they will if you have some percent of what's needed).

jamienbaker

The only time I've ever seen a difference between AM availability and what's made available to partners is inside of 7 days. By then, it is too late to transfer into AM. So it really seems that, given the reliability of SPG to AA transfers and fact that AA will put awards on hold, that AA is the way to go. Please correct me if I'm mistaken. I'll admit I'm biased - I transferred points to AM for a revenue upgrade J to F...but then my trip was cancelled. So the miles expired in the AM account due I had no use for them. This of course comes down to personal preference, but I would rather "bank" miles in AA where they can be put to plenty of uses. But then, I'm US-based...