Really? I thought all awards now are "issue on confirmation" with no waitlist allowed. So does it mean for companion award only, you can hold the award for a week? :confused:

Really! I once made a reservation but didn't have enough miles but I knew miles would be coming in, the agent was very nice to extend the ticketing deadline to more than a week! However, that's was an exception, not the normal. In the end, I let the reservation expire. I did, book a companion ticket on the HKG-LHR routing though, the (Asia miles) agent told me I had 1 week but I ticketed right away. It was a relatively painless process and with 3-4 flights/day to LHR, there's plenty of seats. Oh, and you don't wait forever for a live agent! (call the local HK number, they are available 24/7)

KK

May I ask about anyone's experience actually redeeming a companion award ticket? I've purchased a CX business class ticket and have wait listed my companion's award ticket.

How long before your flight did your award ticket clear? It's the first time I'm availing of an award ticket and am a bit worried that it might not clear.

If that happens, I may have to buy another ticket the day before our flight.

You'll have to wait until award inventory (in your case U class I believe) opens up for the flight. Award inventory opens up usually a few days before the flight if there's space.

What I did on a recent flight was to book two full fare J tickets, waitlist for the companion award (which cleared around 4 days before departure) then cancelled one of the tickets I'd originally booked. That way I wouldn't be stuffed if no award space was released.

since you can use companion award for tickets down to Class I, this would be an expensive way to work around! YMMV, but I might suggest at least getting 1 ticket in cheaper bucket; and the other in the cheapest bucket where cancellation is free (or if you think it's worth the bet, go for the cheapest cancellation even with canx charge)

Haha that was just in that one case- I didn't mean to imply it was necessary to book a flex ticket. That trip was booked about a week before departure so by that time the only availability was in Business Flex. I'm fairly surprised that award space was released, someone else must have cancelled or rebooked since J was pretty full.

The BIG danger here is that they wont release anymore companion seats. I have been duly advised they have reduced a lot the availability of companion awards. This is a real pain because you pay for your ticket and are left in the hands of CX to decide whether to let your companion fly or not. I have had this three times this year for my wife and each time end up paying for her to fly on a I or D class ticket.

is it true I need either a TICKETED booking in J/D/C/I to be able to request a companion award? Before buying my I-classticket, I asked MPC to waitlist my wife for companion award (phillipine based guys). Then I called my trusted HK guys they tell me even if my waitlist clears, the booking was initiated as an award redemption so even if U-bucket clears and I buy a ticket, they will still deduct a full-J-redemption miles.

whether companion awards have priority U-class over the normal award I'm not sure. however if the waitlist clears only to find out they can't "convert" this U-confirmed booking from a full redemption to a companion will annoy me to the extent I will most likely cancel the flight.

alternatively, is it possible to initiate an COMPANION award to start off even if I have no bookings or tickets?

WHAT!? i read you've waitlisted for a companion award. what happened afterwards!?
back when i last booked a companion award it's possible to waitlist for a companion award...

long story short I asked for "companion award" which Manilla staff booked as a waitlist on an ordinary redemption ticket (50k vs 80k needed). Apparently as a result even if the U-class waitlist clears and I buy my ticket, they will STILL DEDUCT FULL 80k Asiamiles (well, so they say)

it's a joke so I just cancelled all my bookings. I will call the Japanese speaking staff later tonight to start from scratch. What a waste of time.

The MNL staff made a mistake, and you should have demanded MPO to resolve it for you. Even though redemption, UG, and companions all booked to Z and U, there are internal differences (and in some cases even slightly different inventories). Therefore a U booked for full redemption cannot be changed to a companion award. However, if you specified that it is companion award that you wanted to the MNL staff, the MNL staff were supposed to book it as such.

I'm guessing the answer to my question is no, but I'll ask anyway b/c it would be so awesome if it were yes. With the purchase of one Business fare ticket, can I get more than one companion award?

No, you can find the answer in AM T&C:
http://www.asiamiles.com/am/en/site/terms#17

Thank you, cxfan. I feel dimwitted now. :roll eyes: Obviously I could've looked at the terms. Thanks for the link!

Wanted to check if someone has recent experience with booking a companion award.

I am especially interested if the award space comes from the same 'bucket' as regular redemptions or from a different 'bucket'?

Looking esp. at HKG-ZRH-HKG in July/ August if that helps. Currently not showing any 'normal' award availability but could potentially route via DUS or FRA. I only want to book CX if companion award is possible. Thanks!