cathay 2-4-1 question
 

using amex platinum, my friend purchased a 2 for 1 biz class tkt from lax-hkg. I am the companion. At the airport, we bought our way up to first class for a fee of $3,000 US per person. My new boarding pass said booking class "F". Does this mean I'll now be able to earn AAdvantage miles on the trip?

thanks.

F on the BP is for the cabin you are in, regardless of the original booking class. I cannot answer the mileage earning question, but my guess is 'no' even though it costed you USD3000.

thanks :(
i wonder if there is a way to appeal. I would think CX would be willing to consider this giving that 3k each way is more than a Y tkt that would accrue miles... no?

To all fairness, I think you should get miles. I am not sure what the rule is. Also, as the fare difference was collected by CX, AA may not recognise that anyway. It won't hurt trying AAdvantage, and if that fails, try Asia Miles.

What's the booking fare code for your ticket on your receipt? If it's an underlying J ticket issued in J, C, D, I then you'll earn miles. But I'm not sure how this particular deal works.

OP's underlying ticket is a companion ticket, and they paid USD3000 each for an upgrade to F. OP's question was whether any AA miles can be earned after spending USD3000 to upgrade a companion ticket.

In fact, I felt strange how CX calculated the fare difference for an upgrade on a companion ticket.

thanks for your help.
the underlying ticket fare basis is a free ticket (I forget the code, but it was not J, C, A or F). I also felt uncomfortable about the way they priced it, but then again... they got the money. I didnt think these tkts were upgradeable in any way.

On AA when they rebook you into F (for irregular opps, op ups, etc) they will frequently give you the full miles for that fare class. Does cathay's system work the same way?

IF they don't credit me, do I have a chance in hell of getting them to do the right thing and credit me? (with my plans to do it on the return flight as well, they may make 6k off of me. I think I should get the miles for at least J... no?)

I'm not too sure, but I guess you might not be able to do the same on your return ex-HKG. I think ex-HKG they are probably stricter and would calculate the difference between full F vs. your J fare, and which in your case they probably won't be able to do anything ? while ex-LAX it seems to me it's a flat rate cash upgrade - no matter what you paid initially - which probably might even be applied to an award ticket.

while you can try but I guess it'd be very hard for you to convince them to give you any miles...

penny wise and pound foolish on their part. If they don't want to try to keep a person willing to drop 6k for upgrades per round trip happy and in a loyalty program. If they don't issue, i'd likely avoid flying them again out of spite.

don't get me wrong, I think you should definitely try, and there's some chance you might get it - but just don't feel that CX "owes" you this and feel that it's completely unreasonable if they decide not to give the miles...

assuming full-fare J and full-fare F are around USD 10k and 20k (I don't have the exact numbers but if I remember right these should be the right ballpark), with all due respect, with your argument you both should have received miles for your initial J tickets too because you two paid an average of USD 5k per person, which is much more than many other Y fares. now even if you manage to get USD 3k upgrade on the return too, the total you would have paid for both tickets is around USD 10k + 3k x 4 = USD 22k, which still is more like just one full-fare F + your free companion ticket...

in the AA example you quoted - during irregular ops / op-ups they would frequently rebook people into F and give you F miles accordingly - I have benefitted from this before too, but if I remember correctly, it's not the "rule" / what you're entitled to, but more like some agents just want to do the job quickly and easily and so book the F fare class.

my guess (pure guess) is that they would allow this USD 3k cash upgrade to apply to any tickets on the spot at the airport - no matter whether it is mileage-earning or upgradeable with miles. so, they probably would allow this to an award J ticket too - giving F miles for an award J ticket + USD 3k sounds a bit weird to me. and they probably see your companion ticket to be somewhat similar to an award ticket as it's "free."

and I think CX isn't the only airline that offers these on-the-spot flat-rate cash upgrades, but if I'm not mistaken for most/all of these cases, the airlines still only give the miles for the original tickets - unless the upgrade $ is calculated as difference of upgraded class fare vs. original fare paid and not a flat price, where officially you have then bought a higher-class ticket (which I assume isn't the case for the USD 3k you mentioned).

one more last point - I'm not sure about the ticket pricing situation in US - but here in HK, I actually don't find the AmEx Plat/Centurion 2-for-1 to be that good a deal - for all the airlines that they offer this, the chance is that there's some discounted J/F fares for those airlines in the market for roughly 50-55% of the full fare. i.e. what you pay for 2 discounted tickets is roughly the same or slightly higher than the 2-for-1 deal via AmEx (where you have to pay full fare). I thus usually just buy from agents the discounted fares given the mileage earning + possibility to upgrade both tickets with miles + better flexibility (i.e. no need to really travel at the same time on all segments). I'm not sure if you can find something like that in US too - if so it might be something you want to consider if miles is very important to you.

good luck !! and pls keep us posted of the result.

Yes, I understand. Not sure if this is the same, but I used the AMEX Platinum domestic deal a few times; I think it is similar but in Y domestically where I purchased a ticket on AA and my companion got a ticket, too. Turns out the ticket was in V class and we both got miles.

I do sincerely hope that OP can get the miles. If AMEX companion tickets are different from award companion tickets, there will be a good chance OP can get at least the J miles on AA. With CX receiving cash for the upgrade, I am not sure whether the F will be recognised by AA. Keep our fingers crossed.

OP, please keep us informed.:)

I am thrilled to report, that CX did in fact post my miles as F!!!


Thanks FTers for your advice.

cx just won themselves a customer for the future.

To AAdvantage or Asia Miles?

Aadvantage