Jan 7, 2019, 9:47 pm
Last edit by: JDiver
Awards: All Cathay Pacific / CX (Including First and Business Class)
Questions, Availability, Discussion
Questions, Availability, Discussion
For the current thread, please see here.
NOTE: As of 15 Jan 2017, JFK CX flights have relocated to Terminal 8.
Please feel free to use this thread for questions regarding CX Economy, Premium Economy, First and Business Class award redemption using AAdvantage miles, as well as questions regarding award availability, routings and related issues. Please go to the Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Forum to discuss or ask about meals, equipment, service, etc. on CX, as there is an existing wealth of information there - and this is the American Airlines AAdvantage Forum
.AA Flight award chart for oneworld® and partner airlines
Other related threads that may be of interest:
FT Discrepancy between CX Award Search and AA availability: Discrepancy between QF and CX award search and AA availability
FT How , When to Select CX Seats on CX Award: How / when to select seat on a Cathay (CX) award / flight (consolidated)
FT Cathay Pacific Experience - Seats / Interline/ Baggage FAQs: Cathay Pacific Experience / Seats / Interline / Baggage FAQs
Also, for Rules about awards, see AA oneworld and Other Airline Partner Award information, rules (2015 on).
NOTE:
1) Only "MileSAAver" awards apply to oneworld and AA partners.
1a) Premium Economy seats are not available with AAdvantage awards, may be soon as AA sells Premium Economy Feb 2017.
2) Awards on Cathay Pacific and subsidiary KA / DragonAir may be booked through AA.
3) aa.com does not reveal CX awards; you must call AA (1-800-882-8880) to book a CX award (though you may find BA, JL or QF websites may reflect CX award availability). As CX/KA awards can not be booked online on aa.com, you must call (no fee).
3a) Be aware that what you see on the BA, JL, or QF sites may not be visible to the AA reservations folks. You may want to note the flight on which the F award seat is shown as "available" on those sites and if the AA agent doesn't see any availability suggest that the AA agent check that specific one again. If the AA agent still cannot see it, thank them, hang up, and call back a little later.
3b) Sometimes CX will make flights available for award booking to CX frequent flyers, but not release the seats immediately for other oneworld frequent flyers. Usually though, the seats, if not taken by CX frequent flyers, are released after a while to other OW programs.
4) Although CX may release seats for award earlier, AA can book them no more than 331 days prior to departure. The awards that CX does release are available as early as 355 days prior to departure for CX and BA frequent fliers, and sometimes that means the awards you want w AA miles will be snatched up prior to the 331 day mark.
*** AA does not have a set schedule to load flights. They can load it anytime after midnight 331 days out. Most of the time it is within a couple to 12 hours of that. Other times, it can be a full day or a day and a half afterwards, especially on the weekends where there's most variability. Unlike JL award space, it is not a specific time of day.
4a) Keep in mind that when booking eastbound space to North America that it's one day later in HKG so that space usually becomes available 330 days in advance to North America; this is not always true, since CX has already loaded the availability a month prior to AA - it is just up to AA to load and release the seats on SABRE, so it typically ends up being 330 days out, but not necessarily.
4b) Similarly... if you are trying to book westbound, US->HKG->Somewhere then AA may not be able to book the HKG->Somewhere segment 331 days in advance of the US->HKG flight, if it is still 332 days out in HKG. As it is the flights from US->HKG that are hardest to get, if you find a seat US->HKG at the 331 day mark when it is first available for booking through AA but cannot book the continuation, you can just put that US->HKG segment on hold with AA, then call back the next day when connecting flights will be loaded into the system to try to book the onward flight from HKG.
5) CX tends to initially release award seats farther out, and then again closer to the day of departure if there is remaining F or J seat inventory available, so keep checking back with AA up to the last practicable minute. AA will ticket partner awards/changes up to 4 hours prior to departure.
5a) So is there a pattern to how many seats CX releases? They seem to consistently release 5 J award seats and 1-2 F award seats on long hauls to/from North America at 355 days out. For intra-Asia flights, they often release just 4 J seats.
5b) Patterns for west coast routes: Because LAX has 4 daily flights to HKG, it tends to be the easiest option for blocks of 3 or more J award seats. SFO and YVR only have 2 daily flights and even if 5 award seats were initially released at 355 days prior to departure, some of those may be gone by the time the 331 day mark rolls around. If you need 4 or 5 J award seats on these west coast routes, either use Avios to book at 355 days or consider routing through LAX where there may still be availability at 331 days out.
5c) Pattern for release of close-in (within about 14 days of flight) award seats? Driving Rain reports that using BA.com it appeared that on three consecutive Sunday evenings at exactly 1030pm Eastern Daylight Time inventory would open up for "close-in" CX flights (i.e. flights roughly within 14 days of that Sunday) to and from the US. While there were changes here and there periodically during the week, sweeping changes occurred on Sunday nights at 1030. Driving Rain reports that it seems that on Monday mornings in Hong Kong (i.e. 1030pm EDT on Sunday) someone at CX HQ consistently did a run through the inventory and freed it up. No guarantees, but a person looking for close-in flights might want to plan to check with AA shortly after 1030 PM Eastern Time on Sundays to see if anything has become available.
6) AA does not charge "YQ" surcharges [what they sometimes call "fuel surcharge"] on CX/KA award segments (BA Avios does), thus the taxes and fees on your "free" ticket on CX or KA are almost always significantly less than for the same routing on BA.
6a)
6b) There is a Hong Kong Departure Tax (HK) of $120 HKD (approx $15.50 USD) on every segment departing Hong Kong. Exemptions apply. If your ticket includes this tax and you qualify for an exemption, a refund can be applied for either in person at HKIA landside or via post to Civil Aviation Department. AA charges this tax for children under 12 years of age despite the exemption. In order to obtain a cash refund at HKIA, you will need passenger passport, passenger boarding pass, passenger ticket receipt showing the fare calculation line which will show the HK tax being charged. This receipt can be obtained at any AA counter worldwide including HKIA as well as Airport Express in-town check-in (AA check-in). As the AA counter at HKIA operates only during limited hours, Airport Express in-town check-in would be the the convenient option.
7) Not all CX flights offer First class; CX Business is markedly different on long haul and regionally configured aircraft.
8) If you're looking for multiple seats in First on a particular flight but can find only some but not all that you're looking for, take what's available in F, then take the rest of the seats you want on J (if available) on the same flight, and check back periodically to see if an F seat has opened up for award. There is no additional charge (in money, although there will be in miles) to change to an award to a higher cabin of service (e.g., J to F, Y to F, Y to J) as long as the award keeps the same origin/destination airports.
9) In general, rerouting to different flights after you have redeemed an award will not attract a monetary penalty so long as the originating and destination airports are the same (connection airport can differ without triggering change fee) and you are using oneworld carriers. For this reason, be aware of potential alternate routings and check them, too. For example, CX uses LAX, SFO, ORD, JFK, and BOS as ports of entry to the US from HKG (and also YVR and YYZ in Canada), so if you have one F and one J award seat on a non-stop from HKG to ORD, you might check flights from HKG to LAX for available seats in F, and if they are available, reroute from your HKG-ORD to HKG-LAX on CX, then continue LAX-ORD on AA First.
9a) Note the above rule also applies if you change the dates of flight but retain the same originating city and destination city. If you are flexible in your travel dates be sure to periodically check availability on other dates as well.
10) Be aware your award must conform to some rules on a) MPM (Maximum Permitted Mileage - your award routing can not exceed 125% of the most direct routing available); a useful tool is Great Circle Mapper.
11) The Most Significant Carrier (transpacific usually, CX in most of these posts,) must offer a non-"constructed" fare between your origin and destination (you might find an unconstructed fare between DFW and SIN, but might not from Killeen to SIN).
12) If you can't pick your CX seats online, either due to them being blocked or you just want to call, you need to first get the CX PNR from AAdvantage at 1-800-882-8880. Then call CX at 1-800-233-2742. Some seats that are blocked on CX website are assignable via AA reservations. Close to departure AA can even assign 2A, 2K.
Note: if the Cathay Manage booking tool doesn't appear to recognize your CX PNR, you need to enter your first name AND middle name, separated by a space, in the "First Name" field.
13) Up-cabin visits (i.e. J pax joining F companion in F cabin) are not permitted per CX policy, though have been granted under special circumstances. But putting crew in the awkward position of being asked to violate policy is generally frowned upon. Down-cabin visits are permitted ex-USA. However, on flights to the USA, down-cabin visits are not permitted and this rule is vigorously enforced.
Posts made in 2017 may be read in ARCHIVE: 2017 AA Awards in Cathay Pacific / CX, KA...
Posts made in 2016 may be read in ARCHIVE: AA Awards on Cathay Pacific (2016).
Posts made in 2015 may be read in ARCHIVE: AA Awards on Cathay Pacific (2015).
Posts made in 2014 may be read in ARCHIVE: Awards: CX / Cathay Pacific / (inc. F and J) - 2014.
N.B. Older posts have been moved and archived to: Cathay Pacific / CX (inc. First and Business Class) award - ARCHIVED.
ARCHIVE: 2017 AA Award: Cathay Pacific / CX, KA availability, etc. (master thd)
May 24, 2017, 8:35 am
#361
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
With this talk of using QF, JAL, and CX website for award availability... what happened to BA for CX availability?
May 24, 2017, 8:44 am
#362
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,541
BA continues to be useful outside of T-6 (days before departure). In fact, BA can book CX flights ~25 days before AA can, so in this sense it remains a highly valuable currency.
May 24, 2017, 9:56 am
#363
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: NYC
Posts: 1,756
I'm guessing here... but the limitation at the QF web site is that the dates are grayed out... that is un-selectable by the user. It is the QF web site user interface that is imposing the restriction. However as KVS is interacting directly with the QF web site they are not bound by what is selectable... they can force down any date they like. So I am guessing that they just post down "tomorrows" date and the QF back end reservation system has no advance-of-flight-time restrictions and so happily responds.
If you know what you are doing (ie, are a trained web developer) then you can use a tool like Tamper Data (a Firefox add-on) to see the data flow and modify what is sent back up to the web site to "replace" a date 7-days-from-now with e.g. tomorrow's date. Warning and I repeat... you need to know what you are doing, and this is speculation on my part.... I have not gone to look to verify this.
DAK
If you know what you are doing (ie, are a trained web developer) then you can use a tool like Tamper Data (a Firefox add-on) to see the data flow and modify what is sent back up to the web site to "replace" a date 7-days-from-now with e.g. tomorrow's date. Warning and I repeat... you need to know what you are doing, and this is speculation on my part.... I have not gone to look to verify this.
DAK
May 24, 2017, 10:27 am
#364
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
OK, so the other search engines are just for last minute (err... day) bookings, got it. I don't have the flexibility so I guess I can stick with BA.
May 24, 2017, 10:49 am
#365
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,541
Jamie
May 24, 2017, 11:41 am
#366
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
Didn't quite get your post. BA can NOT be used to book CX awards inside of 6 days before departure. Doesn't matter if you try to use the site or call BA. In other words, BA's site and currency becomes worthless inside of 6 days. Others have opined as to the usefulness of other sites, including KVS. Best bet is you need to call AA, as they need to see the award in order to book it - and we know AA doesn't necessarily see CX awards on a consistent basis.
Jamie
Jamie
May 24, 2017, 11:52 am
#367
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,541
Good luck all the same - Jamie
May 25, 2017, 8:46 am
#369
Join Date: Sep 2015
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 158
I'm looking to book 2 CX F awards (with AA miles) for April next year. I've been looking at BA and there is tons of availability for the end of the schedule (4-5 seats for the dates I'm looking at). These will become bookable by AA next week.
This far out, does the BA availability match up with AA? I've noticed if I search for two pax instead of 1, BA returns "No availability" but if I search for 1, it shows the 4-5 seats. Should I expect to only be able to book 1 seat? In the past it seems BA and AA have matched up well for CX availability (few months in advance) but it depends on the agent you get. Some insist there is nothing, which is an entirely separate issue.
This far out, does the BA availability match up with AA? I've noticed if I search for two pax instead of 1, BA returns "No availability" but if I search for 1, it shows the 4-5 seats. Should I expect to only be able to book 1 seat? In the past it seems BA and AA have matched up well for CX availability (few months in advance) but it depends on the agent you get. Some insist there is nothing, which is an entirely separate issue.
May 25, 2017, 8:54 am
#370
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 27,238
The 4-5 seats is almost certainly phantom availability. It seems rare these days fo there ever to be more than 1 F award seat available when the booking window opens. Best strategy is to book 1F/1J and monitor the flight for another F release, although that's not likely to happen until at most 2 weeks before departure. Even then, no guarantee.
May 25, 2017, 11:00 am
#371
Join Date: Sep 2015
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 158
The 4-5 seats is almost certainly phantom availability. It seems rare these days fo there ever to be more than 1 F award seat available when the booking window opens. Best strategy is to book 1F/1J and monitor the flight for another F release, although that's not likely to happen until at most 2 weeks before departure. Even then, no guarantee.
May 25, 2017, 11:32 am
#372
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,541
As I expected- you are correct. Maybe I missed this in the wiki but it seems searching for the longhaul segment individually gives an accurate representation of availability. Anyone else find this? Or do I need to monitor for availability a different way? (After I book 1 F and 1 J seats).
I would also get an expertflyer account to alert you any time a seat is sold. This isn't quite as important, but I like knowing any time an F seat is SOLD on a flight I'm interested in.
Then, just start checking like a freak at T-14 days. Ignore speculation about time-of-day release, I've seen F seats released at 0710 in the morning (NY time), 2:20p in the afternoon, and 6:50p at night. You basically need to put the rest of your life on hold and concentrate on what's important
Good luck - Jamie
May 25, 2017, 11:34 am
#373
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: BOS/MHT/PVD/BDL
Programs: Belong to Many but No Longer Loyal to Any
Posts: 880
As I expected- you are correct. Maybe I missed this in the wiki but it seems searching for the longhaul segment individually gives an accurate representation of availability. Anyone else find this? Or do I need to monitor for availability a different way? (After I book 1 F and 1 J seats).
Last edited by flyaxa; May 25, 2017 at 2:26 pm
May 25, 2017, 11:45 am
#374
Join Date: Sep 2015
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 158
After you grab 1F and 1J, you should purchase an awardnexus account, which will check 1x/day for as long as you request. While unusual, I have gotten a 2nd F award notification from awardnexus at random times i.e. 4 months out.
I would also get an expertflyer account to alert you any time a seat is sold. This isn't quite as important, but I like knowing any time an F seat is SOLD on a flight I'm interested in.
Then, just start checking like a freak at T-14 days. Ignore speculation about time-of-day release, I've seen F seats released at 0710 in the morning (NY time), 2:20p in the afternoon, and 6:50p at night. You basically need to put the rest of your life on hold and concentrate on what's important
Good luck - Jamie
I would also get an expertflyer account to alert you any time a seat is sold. This isn't quite as important, but I like knowing any time an F seat is SOLD on a flight I'm interested in.
Then, just start checking like a freak at T-14 days. Ignore speculation about time-of-day release, I've seen F seats released at 0710 in the morning (NY time), 2:20p in the afternoon, and 6:50p at night. You basically need to put the rest of your life on hold and concentrate on what's important
Good luck - Jamie
I have EF sub, but no idea how to set an alert when a seat is sold.
Never did I ever think it was going to be so much more difficult to book our return on CX F than our outbound in SQ suites.
May 25, 2017, 12:11 pm
#375
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,541
Thanks! I appreciate the advice. It may be better to just book F on two separate flights to LAX instead of 1F and 1J to SFO (since seats won't open until under 14 days). At least they have multiple flights/day with F and if we aren't flying together might as well both be in F! We will be on our honeymoon so (for once) I don't think I'll be check flights like crazy.
I have EF sub, but no idea how to set an alert when a seat is sold.
Never did I ever think it was going to be so much more difficult to book our return on CX F than our outbound in SQ suites.
I have EF sub, but no idea how to set an alert when a seat is sold.
Never did I ever think it was going to be so much more difficult to book our return on CX F than our outbound in SQ suites.
As for EF, if you care - when you're looking at a simple flight availability, there are options to the right for flight details, seat map...and an exclamation point (or similar, I'm going off memory). Hit the exclamation point and it allows you to set up an alert. So for a CX flight that's F5, set it to alert you to when it is less than 5. Of course, if you're notified that inventory has dropped <5 then you have to set up an alert for <4, and so forth. It isn't mandatory, it's just something I tend to do.
Good luck!