Award Hold Wrongly Canceled
 

I placed two Cathay Pacific business class flights on hold (for Nov. 1st) from Narita Japan to Tel Aviv (with a layover in HKG) through American Airlines.

Yesterday, several hours before the hold expired, I tried to purchase the tickets and the hold had been canceled. The hold was set to expire Feb. 4, 11:59 PM (JST)). I double-checked the time in Japan; it was still before the expiration. Business class tix on those Cathay Pacific flights were no longer available for the 11-hour & 45 minute leg.

During long conversations with AA reps, I was told that the records indeed showed that Cathay Pacific had wrongly canceled the hold prior to its expiration. (In fact, the hold should have expired during the time I was on the phone with the AA rep.) I was told that since Cathay Pacific canceled the hold – only they could reinstate it. The Cathay Pacific rep I spoke with said that since it was put on hold through AA, CP can’t rectify it. (FYI, there ARE business class seats available on that flight, but none available with FF miles.)

It seems to me that Cathay Pacific should release award seats and honor the hold that they wrongly canceled.

Any suggestions?

Any reason why you didn't ticket the award immediately? Were you waiting for necessary miles to post?

There is a known issue of some AA partners not allowing award space to be held for the full five days that AA promotes. I think that you are out of luck here, unless AA has a liaison with CX who can convince CX to re-release the seats.

Thanks for the info. Lesson learned. I should have ticketed it as soon as I found it. :-(

Something similar happened to me a few months ago.
I called to ticket the booking (an IB leg and a CX F one) 23 hours after it was put on hold
Everything was ok, I gave my card and account number and it went to ticketing.
A few hours later I check the reservation and the CX leg was gone ...
Apparently CX only lets partners hold awards for 24hours, even though AA says it's 5 days
My booking went to ticket on the hour 23 and some minutes and while AA was ticketing it, it vanished
Of course it was "my fault" and no compensation or real alternative was provided (they offered a CX Y seat for the same amount of miles )

Sorry to hear that , why didn’t you ticket the award flight, cause it should be free cancellation before flight takes offf.

I just had the happen to me last week. Luckily, the award space went back into inventory and I was able to book it again and I ticketed right away this time.

Unfortunately, the booking situation at CX is "dynamic", so to say, so long-established rules are no longer guaranteed. When there is availability, just take care to book. Even skip items as seat selection, or whatever, to avoid, the availability disappears.

It's not what it should be, though it is as it is. We should not forget, this whole mess is not CX's fault. The whole China/Hong Kong mess developed in the past 8 years under reign of a great leader and all signs are, there is no end in sight, given recovery is just on the wrong road (see how Russia develops into a complete disaster).

1. This issue better discussed in AA forum because you’re burning AA miles https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...l#post34985314

2. You have very little sympathy from Cathay own members here because Cathay allows us absolutely no hold time to redeem awards on Cathay miles. I am glad Cathay is now treating partners equally with its own.

AIrlines who offer award hold, only guarantee it on their own metal, possibly on group metal (like LH). On partners airlines, anything can happen.