Best time to book Business with cash
Mar 4, 2024, 4:19 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2024
Posts: 3
Best time to book Business with cash
Hi All,
Is there a particular time frame (8 months, 6 months, etc) that will have the best fare prices on Business class from HKG to JFK? Im traveling to Asia over the holidays and will be returning to the US on Jan 4th, 2025. I've been trying to book an award ticket since the first day of availability with BA Avios, but the 4th and 5th have had zero availability since they became bookable on BA. Most likely they were booked with Asia miles prior to BA availability but I look daily hoping something will pop up. I definitely can't afford the $7,000 current one way price tag for business, but is there a chance this price may drop in a few months? Hoping for a more manageable price that I would be ok paying should an award ticket never pop up. Ideally an award seat will pop up at some point and I can just pay the cancellation fee, cancel the cash booking, and get a refund.
Any advice is helpful, Thanks.
Is there a particular time frame (8 months, 6 months, etc) that will have the best fare prices on Business class from HKG to JFK? Im traveling to Asia over the holidays and will be returning to the US on Jan 4th, 2025. I've been trying to book an award ticket since the first day of availability with BA Avios, but the 4th and 5th have had zero availability since they became bookable on BA. Most likely they were booked with Asia miles prior to BA availability but I look daily hoping something will pop up. I definitely can't afford the $7,000 current one way price tag for business, but is there a chance this price may drop in a few months? Hoping for a more manageable price that I would be ok paying should an award ticket never pop up. Ideally an award seat will pop up at some point and I can just pay the cancellation fee, cancel the cash booking, and get a refund.
Any advice is helpful, Thanks.
Mar 4, 2024, 4:42 pm
#2
Join Date: Apr 2020
Location: DTW, IST, ESB
Programs: AF/KLM Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 425
BA Avios has horrible availability when redeeming for CX flights. I asked a similar question in the Flying Blue forum - it seems that award availability in J/F are almost impossible out of the Greater China region these days. Maybe the prices will come down when the frequencies increase.
Mar 5, 2024, 5:06 am
#3
Join Date: Feb 2024
Location: Toronto, Canada
Programs: CX GO, CA GO
Posts: 124
BA Avios has horrible availability when redeeming for CX flights. I asked a similar question in the Flying Blue forum - it seems that award availability in J/F are almost impossible out of the Greater China region these days. Maybe the prices will come down when the frequencies increase.
Mar 5, 2024, 5:42 am
#4
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 565
Have you considered starting elsewhere/ TPE-HKG-JFK on that day is around US$4,200, for example (and making it a return only adds US$1,000 or so to that). Starting in Guangzhou is even cheaper (US$3,600) and it's a fairly short train ride or road journey from Hong Kong.
Mar 5, 2024, 6:00 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2024
Posts: 3
Have you considered starting elsewhere/ TPE-HKG-JFK on that day is around US$4,200, for example (and making it a return only adds US$1,000 or so to that). Starting in Guangzhou is even cheaper (US$3,600) and it's a fairly short train ride or road journey from Hong Kong.
Mar 5, 2024, 6:16 pm
#6
Join Date: Jul 2023
Location: New Zealand
Programs: CX Gold
Posts: 115
Nah I don't think prices are high due to frequencies, its just demand is really up at the moment (especially from mainland). CX is operating 3 daily flights with 77W, 359 and 35K to JFK and this matches pre-covid periods in terms of frequency (precovid was all 77W though I think not sure). CX wouldn't be able to find any new slots any time soon I believe, so I don't see an increase in JFK frequency any time soon. Maybe it might increase frequency / capacity to BOS ORD or bring back EWR to help increase supply.
They are well under covid capacity