Business Class Award Availability
 

Is Cathay just not releasing any awards in business class? Searching from JFK-HKG and I can't seem to find a single available award over the next five months. Used CX, AA, and BA sites to search and while I can see some economy and a token premium econ seat, no business class ever shows up. Maybe I'm not searching right?

I can't speak for the JFK route as I haven't redeemed on that in ages, but broadly CX has severely cutback partner inventory availability in favor of its own program (Cathay / Asia Miles). Skip searching AA and BA for now and just use CX. Then, if you find dates you like you can go backwards and look at the partners and see if available.

At least regionally, where I've redeemed lately, CX has tons of award inventory available via its own program. (Although I've been advised by forum members here that's a dumb use of my points.)

Also think that there is a not insignificant difference in availability depending on your CX membership level.

I look at JFK-HKG with/without a further connection for family often, and, as a DM, do see a fair bit of availability.

1st week of September for example:
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d24d36f80.jpeg

I currently have no status with cx so maybe I am doomed. I searched the same date and got a big alert box saying no available flights but it does show the blue 110k button with list of flights underneath. It just says flight not available for everything.

“Except for US flight prices” https://archive.is/qjeVo


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c62aab9d3.jpeg

Yup- my wife’s Silver account sees the same as you.

Enhanced award availability is one of the reasons that I’ve stuck with CX over the years (I moved out of HKG soon after becoming a DM). It used to be manual (& imho, better) pre COVID, but is more of a WYSIWYG situation now.

My no status cx acct shows no availability at all

Seems award availability is dependent on cx status level!

This concept isn't unique to CX. There are other FFP that release "special" inventory to higher status members as well.

Regards

Do Gold and Diamond get more inventory than Silver?

I did a random search for both status and non-status. They are holding their inventory for status holders. The same goes for the MEL route in Jan. I haven't tried using a GO account to search.



https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6a3a3952a6.png
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4a1387a2ed.png

Is that the same for partner awards?

Do Diamond/Gold get more partner awards than nonstatus?

Thanks

I don't think their system is that advanced. I did some quick searches (the week starting at 7-OCT) for LHR-JFK in J. DM and non-status yielded the same results. Even the wordings such as "Only a few seats left" are the same. So much for exclusive access to more availability ;)

Disclaimer: This is definitely non-scientific and non-conclusive.

This is very unlikely. I'm not aware of any carrier FFPs that provide "secret" inventory for partner awards. All cases I'm familiar with are related to offering availability on their own metal.

As a BA OWE, I frequently get access to additional award availability on BA flights (particularly intra-Europe) that my wife (who does not have status) cannot see from her account.

Regards

I am looking for 3 award seats in Business from HKG to SFO for June, I have miles from multiple programs inc BA, AA, Cathay miles, all i see is 2 seats per flights. Are these two award seats shared between all carriers or is it possible to get two from one award program e.g and then one from another?

There’s no way to be certain about it, even if you call CX. However, it’s very likely that the 2 seats are shared between all carriers. The demand for US flights is still sky high. The fact that you can find 2 seats to SFO is a miracle already.