First Timer
 

My first time flying CP is going to be a DragonAir flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong to Phuket and then back the same way. How does economy on these flights compare to say economy on southwest, united, or american airlines? It is obviously a long flight so I'm curious if upgrading might be worth it.

If I was going to upgrade my wife and I, how many miles would it cost me to upgrade all 4 legs of our flights to business or first class? Or how much for each leg?

Your flight from SFO to HKG will be on Cathay Pacific,
while only HKG-HKT will be on Dragonair.

As for the later question, familiarize yourself with www.asiamiles.com
But no, you will not be able to upgrade to Business or First, only to Premium Economy (on the long-haul).

For the SFO-HKG vv. leg, are you on a 777-300ER (77W) or a 747? If the 77W, you'll have a reasonably comfortable economy seat. If in the 747, you'd have the more controversial shell-back seats that don't properly recline. Either way, you'll have good entertainment options and I find the meals are better than what I've had on U.S. carriers in the past.

For the upgrade question, best to check asiamiles.com for the award chart. You can only upgrade to the next class of service, so for SFO-HKG vv you can't get into business from economy -- only to economy plus. For the DragonAir HKG-HKT flight you could upgrade economy to business if business is available on that flight (I think it is). But remember you can only upgrade from the more expensive economy fares.

Looks like its the 77W so that will be good. Not sure we will need to upgrade for the short flight from Hong Kong to Phuket so I guess I will look into Economy Plus. Thanks for your responses.

Note that unlike on United, CX's Premium Economy is a distinct cabin/class. In addition to the extra legroom you'd get on UA's E+, you also get a wider seat with a deeper recline, a (somewhat) better meal, a very modest amenity kit and a slightly higher baggage allowance. Depending on your size, your disposable income, and the fare difference up from regular economy, it can sometimes be an ok deal.

jjefferies5, how did you purchase your economy ticket, and what is the fare code?

Most people in your situation (asking beginner questions, low # of posts, with no OneWorld partners listed in your programs) would probably have just bought the lowest fare from Expedia or a travel agent, in which case your ticket is probably not even upgradeable, as CrazyJ82 pointed out. To upgrade on CX, you have to start from one of the more expensive economy fares, which the majority of flyers don't buy.

Also, you were also asking about upgrading with miles. Where are the miles coming from to do your upgrade? You have Asia Miles in your account already?

Take a look:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-asia-miles/1407756-2xy-2xj-hkt-if-same-price.html

Thanks CrazyJ, I'll definitely look into it.

RevJim, I did look at the fares on Expedia to start because I had no idea which airlines I needed to be looking at for a flight like this. In the end, I bought the flights directly through the Cathay Pacific website so I would hopefully be able to upgrade. I know better than to not book through a 3rd party website. I had an option on the CP website to book economy, economy plus, business, or first and I booked the economy. As far as points go, I have a ton of United, Marriott, and Hilton points that I could transfer if it's worth it.

What's your booking class?

Economy M and Economy K

Ok good news, those are both upgradable fares. So the only question is whether it's worth it and how many miles. To find out how many miles you need you can contact the Asia Miles service center. But if my math is right, it should be 30,000 miles each (60k for you and your spouse) for a roundtrip upgrade SFO-HKG-SFO.

I wouldn't personally bother upgrading the Phuket segment because it's a fairly short flight. For the long haul, I think the upgrade is worth it if you have miles to spare.

So it looks like that would be the equivalent of 600,000 Hilton or Marriott points? Do you think its worth it? Is there really that big of a difference between economy and economy plus?

mate you're going to have to figure that out on your own. If you only have 600k Hilton or Marriott points, and this wipes you out, probably not? If you have 10mm, then yes? We don't know how you use those points, how many you have, how valuable they are to you, etc. and hence we can't really tell you what to do.

All we can tell you is that
1.) PEY is not "Economy Plus". I primarily flew UA before moving to CX in Hong Kong. Economy Plus, for lack of a better word, sucks compared to CX's PEY. The CX PEY seat is different - most importantly, bigger - than the standard Y seat. In the 747, PEY is 8 across while regular Y is 10 to give some perspective. I slept in the PEY seat once on a longhaul flight and frankly got a better sleep than I usually do in J or F. The food served are business class entrees. Many of us have commented on here how PEY is not too different from CX's "business class" of 20 years back. I never thought I'd agree with CX corporate, but....PEY definitely is a different "class" than regular economy. Everyone is now just so used to economy = seat and business = bed, but this is really a differentiated and significantly upgraded seat.

2.) Upgrade availability will be tough for you to score, as a non-elite CX member. I recommend doing more research on availability before you transfer your other program points to Asia Miles. I don't think you can hold an upgrade without having the Asia Miles ready, so you've got a slightly dicey situation if availability is limited because you're going to have to do the transfer first, and then secure the upgrades.

3.) Asia Miles are more "expensive" than other programs (in conjunction with above). There is an inherent cost incurred switching miles/points to Asia Miles, because Asia Miles get less bang for their buck. So the result of them being more "expensive" is really that you get less value. The point of this is you probably don't want to get stuck with Asia Miles if you can't score your upgrades, so be prudent and do your homework before you transfer. Most important factor is the probability if you actually scoring the upgrades based on CX availability.

Regular Y is 10 across on the 747, but only 9 across on the 77W (which sounds like what OP will be taking)
Another note for OP: Only 1 of the 2 meals served will be the business class entree. While the other one will be same as Y.


But I agree, you'll definitely have some trouble/stress in scoring an award upgrade. Especially when it sounds like you'll be travelling in December during the peak season...where it's not abnormal even for the PEY revenue seats to be sold out.

Right, yea the point I was trying to make was just show the PEY seat size is significantly bigger than the Y seat. Totally different hard product versus UA's "Economy Plus" which is basically just spaced out more. The 747 is a clearer example of extra seat width. Basically shows they can only jam 8 of them in where they put 10 (hence, seat bigger).

The PEY seat is the same on the 747 and 77W right? Or is there a shrunken version on the 77W? That would totally suck if it's a narrower PEY seat. I have no idea. I'm guessing it's identical, and there is just some wasted extra aisle tolerance in the regular Y class of the 77W.

I had no idea about the second entree being Y class.

That's a tough question to answer and it's different for everyone.

I think Y+ is a good enough value that I just pay for it most of the time these days. I used to pay for business class with the lie-flat bed, but I've discovered that Y+ has enough space for me at a much lower price. I don't care at all about the meals, service or lounge access (because I'm a CX Gold, I get the lounges anyway). The main thing I care about is seat width, as I have broad-ish shoulders and I don't like sharing an arm rest with my neighbor. Seat recline is a distant second on my list and the CX PEY seat is fairly good at that too.

In other words, if I could purchase my seat space by the cubic centimeter, the CX PEY seat is about the amount of seat that I would want to pay for.

But I'm definitely in the minority here, I think the anecdotal evidence around Flyertalk suggests that most CX elites don't prefer to pay for Y+. Given the hassle of transferring your points and then maybe not getting upgraded, I would tend to think that making the upgrade attempt in your case wouldn't be worth it.

Regular economy on CX is actually pretty good compared to other airlines. And the K/M fares should allow you to choose your seats in advance so you don't get stuck with 2 middle seats in the last row. If I was in your situation I'd keep my miles, pre-select decent economy seats, and enjoy the flight. Just my $0.02.

Thanks RevJim and thanks everyone else. I'll figure it out.

True, but if you have friends in HK who travel a lot, they are very easy to trade for because they expire.