VibeCentro

hi all, i am wait-listed on DAD-HKG economy for both 29 Jun 20 (KA225) and 30 June 20 (KA221), deadline is 5 Nov. Any chance it would be cleared that soon since the flights are more than 8 months out...Why couldn't the deadline be longer than 2 weeks

yaseenk2002

I am a newbie on this forum and to the airline awards thing and I do not understand a lot of terms used here.

I recently made a waitlist booking on CP itinerary with my Asia Miles. I need to go from Australia to USA (Washington DC, preferably). CX134 MEL -> HKG 04JAN2020 , CX866 HKG -> WAS 04JAN2020 is my waitlisted itinerary. The booking says "You will be notified through email and SMS once your waitlist booking is confirmed. Please note that your waitlist booking will expire if the flights are not confirmed by Hong Kong Time 22:00, 14 Dec 2019."

I have a few questions about this. Can someone please help me with answers?

1. I see that a lot of ppl are using the term "waitlist clear date". What does that term mean? My understanding was that waitlist can continue to be cleared as other passengers cancel their tickets and my flight can get confirmed anytime till the 14 dec date I mentioned above. I assumed if I don't get it confirmed by then, my flight is gone. Is this the waitlist clear date everyone is talking about? I cannot reconcile.

2. If there is a date beyond which the flight will no longer be available and that date is like 14 Dec (20 days before the flight), why do I read about people saying their waitlist got cleared x hours before the flight?

3. What is the likelihood that my flight will get confirmed, especially with holiday season? What can I do to better my chances?

4. Are multiple waitlist booking on similar itineraries helpful or disadvantageous?

5. Any other suggestion regarding how I can travel from Australia to USA using my 47000 Cathay Pacific miles? Confirmed booking is obviously preferable.

jz123

Hi!

I'm a newbie with Asia Miles.
I'm going to Tokyo i February!

Returnflight NRT-HKG was no problem,
I could book a standard award for 25k AM = Perfect!

However, the outbound flight is a bit more messy

I wanna go on

CX 5480HKG
02/22/20 8:55 AMHND
02/22/20 1:45 PM

F4 A2 J9 C9 D9 I9 W9 R9 E9 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O0

I managed to call Asia miles and put me on waitlist for First, Business and premium economy.

What happens if Premium economy clears already tomorrow?
Will my chances to fly Business or first then disappear?


And also, I saw that "Business choice" was availible for this flight for 40k AM...


What options do I have?
Any recommendations?

/jz123

percysmith

If there are still seats when the two weeks have expired, what's stopping you from creating a new waitlist when the old waitlist is about to expire?

VibeCentro

Hi percysmith, the itinerary is actually DAD>HKG>DPS, HKG>DPS is available. I worry that if i were to re-create new waitlist everytime the one preceding it expires, the HKG>DPS would eventually be unavailable.

pandoracrystal

Hello all,

Hubby and I are currently waitlist (over 8th months and counting) on business class on Jan 6 CX845 JFK-HKG and Jan 8 CX177 HKG-ADL, they have put me on priority waitlist, whatever that means but with our lowly silver status, what are our chances of getting 2 tickets cleared? The inbound flights were cleared months ago so still hoping to get the outbound confirmed soon.

Alternatively, should we go ahead and purchase 2x upgradable economy tickets and use the points (48k) to upgrade to business on the said flights? Normally these route would have PE products but for some unknown reason, PE is no longer avail on these flights and the upgrade would be straight from Econ to PE.

Please kindly advise how does the upgrade works, I was under the impression that we can just buy the Econ online, then upgrade them online too, is it correct? Or it's another waiting game? Thank you in advance on any advice and help!

synthkeys

Checking Jan 6 CX845 on EF shows this - F4 A4 J9 C5 D0 I2 W0 R0 E0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0. While 2 discounted biz class (I fare) are available, CX revenue might not be ready to release some award space. I would call MPC and ask or check out an alternate flight like CX865 on Jan 5 or CX841 on Jan 6 both of which have more biz seats available.

On LH flights with PEY (Premium Economy), an economy ticket can't be upgraded to J (biz). If you look at the Asia Miles chart there is a footnote explaining this. For 35K miles each way, you can upgrade PEY R or W fare (Premium Economy flex) tickets to J. R class tickets from JFK typically cost around $2500 these days and CX 845 on Jan 6 has no PEY availability. Also while award upgrades come from a "different" pool than a straight award redemption, you are still prone to waitlist award upgrades.

An upgrade redemption can be handled online but if you read this whole thread you will see that chances of waitlist on your upgrades is high. For flights out of JFK, I've had the best luck with flights CX865 and CX841 for getting confirmed instantly. Of course this is all dependent on your travel dates. The period after New Years can still be heavily traveled.

Note that CX865 is a longer flight, typically about 20 hours, since it makes a stop in YVR to pick up more pax. The increased time makes it less attractive to flyers coming from JFK hence a bit easier to snag an award, however availability can still be restricted as its one of the primary flights for YVR pax to get to HKG. CX865 will be discontinued later in 2020 and replaced with another direct out of JFK. Likewise CX841, 10AM departure, seems to be less traveled than the other flights out of JFK. CX845 is popular due to it's early morning arrival, especially the weekend flights with Sun or Mon AM arrival.

CX177 Jan 8 looks a little more open - J9 C9 D9 I9 W7 R6 E4 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S4 N0 Q0 O0.

If you're looking to spend a little time in HK, CX flights on Jan 5 departing from JFK/EWR seem to have higher availability.

pandoracrystal

Thank you synthkeys, for your detail explanation!!!

Unfortunately our schedule is fixed for CX845 to try to connect to a quick run to BKK same day turn around so we can make to CX177 later. We still have time to wait it out a bit but it does look like we might have to get a pair of tickets for outbound based on the load you so kindly posted.. the only thing I am a little confused is that I read the Asia Miles site, it said that if the flight doesn't have PEY, then it's ok to upgrade from Econ to Business, did I miss something as Jan 6 CX845 & Jan 8 CX177 both don't have PEY avail that day.

Thank you again for your time and assistance!

percysmith

Nice try pandoracrystal. Just because PE is zeroed out (sold out) doesn't mean you can go straight from Economy to Business.

The Economy to Business exception only applies to flights that do not have PE at all: namely, the intra-Asia, India and Middle Eastern flights.

Zeroed out PE just means you won't be allowed to upgrade, and be stuck with a pricey Economy ticket.

pandoracrystal

I see, thank you for clarification, we have never done upgrade before only straight redemption so was unclear about most of the rules. Guess we will just have to wait it out. Thank you again for the input.

bakaneko1108

Hi there,
It's my first time redeeming a flight reward with AM and not too sure how this waitlist thing works. I'm on the waitlist for my return flight home on Feb 17/2020 from HND->HKG (CX543) HKG->YYZ (CX826) Standard Award. Was wondering the chances of this being cleared? Thanks!

sepiaone

Hi all,

Please help. What are my chances? Just trying to redeem for the saver economy level but will spend more points if needed. Is it worth it to go Business on this intra-Asia flight?

KA634
PEN - HKG

yaseenk2002

I think many people on this thread are waiting to understand how these waitlists work and what the chances of them clearing are. .. I would greatly appreciate if someone knowledgeable can spend some time to take a look at the open questions (Starting with mine :P). Thanks!!

synthkeys

I'm sorry this is not a customer service line. If you're really looking for answers to your specific questions you should try calling Asia Miles support line, or if you are a Marco Polo member, try calling them.

The bulk of the questions on this thread are what's in the title -- "Will my award waitlist clear?". There's no crystal ball that any of us have to give an exact answer. We would all love it if there was no waitlist and award redemptions were instantly confirmed, but alas, that's not reality.

If you really need to travel on a specific date/itinerary then you should not rely on clearing the waitlist. Sorry, but that's just the way it is. If you're willing to take the risk of probably not getting confirmed then go for it. If you're willing to poke around, try out different itineraries and different levels (i.e Standard / Choice / Tailored), then maybe you can get lucky and score.

Trying to get a multi-leg redemption from Asia back to North America during holiday season is going to take a lot of work and poking around. You're waiting on a flight to IAD, problem is HKG-IAD flies 1x per day, and not even that as there is a recent thread noting a reduction to 2x weekly. You're much better off trying to pick a city with multiple flights per day, like JFK, LAX, ORD, YYZ, I understand this might not fit your plans, but if you want to play the award game it requires flexibility.

Some waitlist basics that I know of -

• If a redemption is not immediately available you will be asked if you want to be put on the waitlist.
• CX revenue department analyzes flight loads and decides when award space availability. This can change over time
• MPC Diamond members are typically put on a "high priority" waitlist. I have no idea of the priority levels of the waitlist factoring in Standard vs Choice/Tailored.
• There is a daily batch job that will release waitlisted redemptions, I believe it runs at 4PM HK time.
• A waitlisted redemption will expire 4 days before departure - T-96 (Takeoff time - 96 hours). After that it's gone.
• After waitlist expiration you can continue to check for awards as closer to departure awards might become available. There is no priority, it's first come, first served.
• If you're waitlisted reservation is confirmed and you need to pay tax, ticketing will try to contact you at some point after (typically around 24 hours or later) to collect the tax fee and issue your ticket. If no tax is owed (upgrade redemption from the US), ticketing will happen without need to confirm your payment.

Tackling your individual questions.

1. I have no idea you were given 14 DEC 2019 date for a 04 JAN 2020 departure. I would contact Asia miles about that.
2. You are misunderstanding. Others have been able to redeem awards hours before flight, there is no waitlist as it disappears T-96. Most cases are pax who were able to get an upgrade award confirmed a few days before or at the airport. When done at the airport, this is called "Instant Upgrade"
3. There is nothing you can do to better your chances, unless you are a Marco Polo Diamond. Like I said above, re-think you're itinerary and try different combinations of dates, cities, etc.
4. Many here waitlist on multiple itineraries as it's hard to predict what might open up.
5. No other ideas, except use the Asia miles site until you find a date that can get you instant confirmation. Also you could try to redeem a Qantas award with your Asia Miles but I'm not sure that 47K is enough to get you to the US.

Sorry, I know this is not what you want to hear and I know that I'm ranting a bit. CX has been pretty stingy on award redemption for a while now. Seems CX revenue management is holding out until the end.

yaseenk2002

Thanks for your response. I appreciate it. I totally understand this is not a customer service portal, which is why I said: "I would greatly appreciate if someone takes time to respond.... " I am not new to the internet or forums, so I know how it works. I was just looking for suggestions/guidance. I know you don't have a crystal ball. Also, I had already been on three calls with Asia Miles before I posted here.. obviously, their answers are diplomatic and they did not satisfy my questions. I also tried literally hundreds of combinations and dates.. flights with Qantas, flights to JFK, LAX, ORD, SFO etc... I wanted to make sure that I am not missing anything obvious that others know. That information about how waitlists work is very helpful, thank you.

Again, I appreciate you spending time to answer my specific questions. It helps me look at alternate plans. Have a good day!