bluepanda

Hi

First time redeeming miles from Asia Miles, and hitting some bumps. I have been watching award space on HKG-YVR like a hawk for quite some time. AM had been consistently releasing 5J awards on this route until they announced the devaluation last month. I need 4 seats. There are now only 2J awards available. I was prepared to "pay up" with Priority Awards (i.e. 2 standard and 2 priority). However, after I booked 2 standard awards, even the priority awards on the same flight are now showing "not available". So I am now unsure what I could do, except to fly the other half of the family on a different flight or day.

Questions:
1. Is it always the case that when the standard award gets booked, the priority award vanishes too? This seems wierd.
2. How do I make an award change online (so to save fees), in case I could book the second set of standard awards on another flight and priority awards are available? Maybe I'm dense, but I couldnt locate a "change award" button or drop down menu.

Thanks!

G-CIVC

1. They are not independent and more than often (more like 99% of the time) are from the exact same pool. Not weird. You could get 2 on your preferred flight and 2 on another, given that there are 2-3 YVR flights every day. At least everyone is getting there in this case. For the 2 that settle with the less preferred flight, just set up a waitlist to switch to the better flight so they can confirm you when (and if) seats open later down the road.

2. 4th option after 'redeem flights' from the homepage, 'flight award re-booking'. But it can't be guaranteed to work given CX IT

bluepanda

Thanks for the quick reply. I still think it's weird. Why would anyone book at Priority rate but not the Standard rate? Blame it on myself, but I have been tricked into thinking two more seats would be available at a higher price, when they are actually not.

Travelling on separate flights will not be ideal, so maybe the wife and second kid will have to slum it out in PY.

kaka

i understand. that's what i've been saying about how cx does this. its plain stupid. i think some of us would pay priority rates if that is what it is. but cx made it in a way its exactly the same pool of seats as standard award so usually there is no reason to do that (or you can just wait it out if you only see priority awards)

anyways, the other thing you can do is to standby at the airport, with the assumption that the "later" of the group would have nothing better to do than to hang around near the airport.

percysmith

G-CIVC

There are some flights where only priority awards are available but not standard, even at the edge of the booking window; so people must pay more to get them if they really wanted. (In such cases, DMs can often get them for the standard rate...as an exception)