Dave Noble

The information on the Cathay site will be correct for those booked on the Cathay Pacific flight number - you however are booked on an American Airlines flight that is operated by Cathay Pacific.

I would suggest your best chance is to contact AA and see whether it can assign you seats

The CX's policies will apply if booked on CX and if you were not on the codeshare, I doubt you would have issues

RedElmo

I tired AA first.. and they said its managed by CX and gave me a CX booking code to call CX... Then CX said they cant assigned a seat because I booked thought AA and will have to do it at check in.

Basically it sounds like if you book flights through third parties CX treat you like dirt.

Dave Noble

If you book on Cathay Pacific, you will get the benefits of booking on Cathay Pacific.

You chose however to book on American Airlines and the restrictions that may apply to American Airlines codeshares apply

Nothing to do with where you booked it

ryandelmundo

Last nite booked PHL-DPS with 35k AA miles. Perhaps not surprisingly, the AA part of the flight domestic was the tough part. Lots of CX flights to HKG available.

There is no CX locator on the ticket, my flights on CX show as BOOKING CODE X. CX site allows lookup with e-ticket number but it doesn't work.

I'm guessing my flight just hasn't worked its way into the CX system yet? Can anyone concur or have other ideas?

Cheers
RdM

zznoname

I'm thinking the CX, e-Ticket look-up thing is for CX issued ticket numbers. Your AAward is an AA issued ticket.

I just ask AA for the CX PNR #.

I thought "T" was the inventory code for AAward economy class:

http://www.flyerguide.com/Inventory_...ility_%28AA%29

hiima

You have to call AA for a CX PNR.

Red259

I think I'm go ahead and book some business seats for NY-HK with my AA miles. I really want first but do not see availability, but understand it can open up at the last minute. If there are business seats available on a couple of different flights, does it matter which one I pick or should I just select the best travel day for me? For example, some flights will have only one business seat open and others will have three. Is there a way to see if all the first class seats are booked on a plane yet (I tried using Kayak and made believe I was going to buy tickets and it claims it will sell them to me but I am not sure that is a reliable way to check to see what seats are still open and therefore may become available as rewards closer to departure date if still open)? Does CX use 777 on all their routes or are there different planes and the product varies widely between them?

dkerr

You can see how many F seats are available for sale using ExpertFlyer. As there are only 6 F seats on a CX 77W you know that if EF shows inventory as F6 then none are sold yet, F4 would mean two sold. This strategy does not work for J seats until the number left available for sale drops below 9.

CX have multiple configurations of 777 but for long haul it is either with or without first class, otherwise the product is the same. For short haul regional Asia flights there is no first class and business class seats are not the lie flat version. It is 2-3-2 seating rather than 1-2-1 configuration. Same holds true for A330 aircraft, configuration varies depending on long/short haul. You can see seat maps at ExpertFlyer too

DAK

Red259

I am trying expert flyer for the first time and do not see CX as an option for searching award flights. I am able to pull CX on a flight by flight basis, but its not listed as an airline in the awards tab if I want to do a multi flight/day search. Not sure if this is normal.

dkerr

ExpertFlyer cannot show CX award inventory. It is useful only for paid ticket availability. But as I describe this helps determine load.

DAK

Red259

What would be the best move here. I can book business tickets with AA award for NYC to Hong Kong in late june. Coming back the only thing I see so far is a spot from hong kong into ewr. I am flexible on my return dates and would ideally like to come back on 7/7 or 7/8. Since I want to try for first class I am avoiding EWR because it does not have a first class product and to switch to jfk at the last second would require a fee due to a change in destination (or at least I think this is the case). I am assuming more award space into jfk will open up shortly for the second week of july based on my viewing of seats that have been sold on expertflyer. Does it make sense to book the outbound and wait or should I bite the bullet and reserve the EWR business ticket back on a date that would terminate my trip early and has me flying into an airport I am not thrilled with but it would at least guarantee me a ride home (knowing I would have to eat the fee to change flights later).

dkerr

As you observe EWR has no F and changing to a flight to JFK will incur the $150 change fee. What you do is up to you but I am reminded of the proverb that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. It really depends how flexible you can be on your dates. If you have to be back by a certain date then you better have that bird in the hand as a fall back... Just in case the ideal flight does not open up. As AA awards are all one-way anyway I would definitely book the outbound (and hold for 5 days) while you consider your return options.

DAK

ryandelmundo

Called CX and got my Cathay PNR which allowed me to look up my flight. This is regards to my AA award flight with EWR-HKG on Cathay.

CX said I couldn't reserve a flight until 48 hours before my flight, and online it also says "This flight sector does not allow seat request in advance."

Does this seem right? It's a 16 hour flight so if there was ever a time not to get a bad seat this would be it!! Help! Call AA?

It also says:
"- Passengers holding tickets on eligible fare types – W, R, E, Y, B, H, K, L, M, V, T"

So I guess I'm not on a T flight, even tho my AA flights show as code T? My CX and MH flights show code X.

Thanks in advance.

dkerr

For economy awards you book into T class on AA flights and X class on CX and MH flights. As far as CX is concerned you are in X and their advanced seat assignment policy apparently doesn't include awards.

If you are OneWorld Ruby (AA Gold) or above then you can request advanced seat assignment. If this is you and it is not letting you then make sure that your AAdvantage number is listed in CX's booking records. If you are not AA Gold or better... then you are out of luck.

DAK

Blueskyheaven

I booked 3 coach seats international and one is for 16 month. I went to manage my booking but don't see options for seats yet.

Anyway to select seat? They are closed for weekend.