Should I downgrade?
 

I am flying to Sydney on an award ticket ( J class). I want to stay at least three days in HKG ( instead of 1 night) so I called AAdvantage to make the changes. Unfortunetly, they do not have J for the dates that I am looking for, but the agent offered me coach. I am a handicapped person, and I am worried that downgrading to coach will make my trip a nightmare. Since my original seat was on J, If I downgrade, will CX give me a J seat in the case they have any empty seats? or Should I go to the airport the day before to see if they give me a seat? What options do I have if any....

Just in case, here is a copy of my itinerary

4 MAY CX 883 LAX HKG
6 MAY CX 111 HKG SYD
18 MAY CX 110 SYD HKG
19 MAY CX 880 HKG LAX

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thank you guys

There is a huge difference in the space available in J and Y, and while the CX service in Y is excellent, the seat pitch is only average. If you are tall/large or have any difficulty with small seat ptches then I really would not recommend that much flying in Y in such a short time. (We are talking well over 20 hours in each direction.)

The problem is that if you downgrade to a Y award (and only spend the Y award miles) then CX will see it as just that. CX has no mechanism for upgrading AAdvantage awards "on the fly". (If you were doing this with AsiaMiles then you would have more possibilities.)

As I understand it, AA members cannot waitlist for awards on Cathay (again if using AsiaMiles with CX status you could) so I don't see any way you could get "standby" status.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...
Have you considered going in First? CX First is the best there is.

Don't take a premature offer from CX, they are playing nasty game.

I would be much more optimistic about your ability to change to other dates on J service. I did a quick check on May 7 - May 11, and for both flights HKG-SYD in these dates, the flight's showing all F9A9J9C9.... Y9B9H9... which makes me believe these are all wide open.

Traditionally, early May is a quiet time. CX would almost always say "no award availability" if you call more than 2 or 3 days prior to flight date, but once it's within the 48hour period, you should be able to change at your will. Considering the total J capacity of A333+ A346 is nearly 90 J seats, I HIGHLY DOUBT these will be all occupied by revenue pax for 6 consecutive days.

Don't take the Y-offer. Just wait around, and call back in early May. Just book the hotel for extra 3 nights, you can cancel them anytime with no penalty.

PS. If you are physically challenged, it makes even more of a nightmare to fly on Y...

I called AAdvantage and the CSA told me "off the record" to wait a little bit. Since I don't have anything to loose, I will follow Fake's advice. Thank you very much to all of you...

A question... are you getting this trip on a single award (125K miles) from LAX - SYD?

I ask just because on my reading the rules would require it to be two awards (110K+70K=180K) because Qantas offers LAX-SYD direct.

If you are getting it for 125K then I would repeat my suggestion of spending the extra 20K to take it up to an F award. That would be 20K very well spent. In fact, I would still go for it even for an extra 45K in the two award case would (or perhaps just on the LAX-HKG for 25K)

First of all, thank you for all your replies. Anyways, this is a single award that I issued with the old award chart structure. I don't remember but I guess is a 100k miles award. I really doubt that they have any available seats for F, but I have nothing to loose. Thanks guys....

I agree fully with what christep has said. I would definitely recommend flying in F with CX - it is a lot more than C on CX, and more than F on BA.

After many years of believing that F wasn't worth the extra money/miles (having been on BA F, which isn't that much better than CX C ....), I've just realized (well, three weeks ago) that CX F really is an experience in itself.

I'm sure they'll treat you like a king in CX F - the question I want to ask is, what won't they do for you?

Beware, however - once you've tried CX F, you might not want to go back to anything else .....

Since this is an AAdvantage award and because the OP is using a "good 'ol days" award (CX100A), he won't be able to get an F seat because AA cannot/won't issue it as CX140A. Those awards are discontinued. The miles would have to be redeposited (at $100) and a new award issued for all F at, IMHO, an inflation of FF Miles (re: AA's FAQ). Only the rules of the actual old award he has is in effect for use, so he can change the date to get the J seat, downgrade or stay on the original itinerary. Unfortunate, as the F service from HKG-SYD RT is noted as remarkable.

I also agree that the OP should not take the Y seat. Use the award as it is, keep checking to see if something comes up and book the hotel for 3 days (using a hotel reservation you can cancel without penalty). Chances are you may get your seat. If you are still trying to get the seat in HKG, don't mention to CX about the AA office in HKG, many bad reviews. Let CX try to help you before all other options fail.

Worst scenario is you get your original J seat with a 1 day HKG stay and try again next time. Unless you really, and imminently have to stay 3 days, then you can consider the Y seat in hopes to get upgraded based on your award level at (or near) check-in. The OP is Emerald, which makes it even better.

Thank you guys. I will keep you posted on whatever happens on this trip. Thank you for all your input. :cool: ^

If your ticket is already issued in 'U' class (award J), I believe that you can be booked in Y class, go to the airport and ask to be put on the waitlist for business. Since your ticket already shows 'U', CX will offer you a business seat if available.

This is based on my past experience on a F class award ticket and I believe will be the same for a J class award ticket.

However, if it was me, I won't risk taking economy over business for that route. business over first maybe, but not economy over business.

CX at HKG unfortunately is getting very sticky about tickets that show a different date from the one that you're attempting to get on. Waiting by the airport *might* work but there is no guarantee.

SYD flights are chock-a-bloc full the first few weeks of May. Don't know why.

I'm not flying as often as I used to, but I haven't experienced this problem, even most recently with a very cheap ticket. Certainly as a Diamond I had no trouble at all with the fact that the ticket and the reservation weren't aligned. Could you elaborate on the circumstances where you had problems? Was it with awards or revenue tickets?

Yes, Guy Betsy, please elaborate. Many of us traveling on OWE tickets are holding reservations for different dates than we are ticketed. This has never been a problem in the past and I hope it will continue to be the case.

yes gb -- I don't understand that either ... I buy 3 tickets at the beginning of every quarter and then assign the dates with MPC as I see fit. Never had a problem.

I'm talking about award tickets!
 

romcarlos is referring to his tickets on AAdvantage. mhtaipei and christep are referring to The Marco Polo Club. And someone else is referring to his OWE *OPEN* dated tickets. I'm referring entirely on award tickets issued by other partners other than Asiamiles.

You can change dates to your hearts' content with the MPC. With AAdvantage Paper tickets, you may change dates and as long as the paper ticket does not have a "Not Valid Before" and "Not Valid After" on the ticket, CX *might* accept the ticket without revalidation/reticketing. But I have known in one instance, CX at HKG refused to accept a passenger because the date booked is different that from the ticket. The passenger decided to standby for a flight on an earlier day in Business in the hopes that that day he could get on. CX insisted that he must get the ticket reissued with the correct dates before he could be let on.

CX's acceptance of tickets differs from each station. So you have been advised on this situation, that's all.

Now with e-ticketing on hand with AAdvantage awards, reservations simply cannot be changed through AA. The entire ticket has to be reissued before the ticket is valid again. With this, it makes me so much more difficult to just 'stand- by' at the airport for an earlier flight that you hope to get on.