What FF Number should I list for a CX flight?
 

I'm taking my first CX flight LAX-MNL (stops in Hong Kong) in Sept. A business travel agent is handling the reservations. The FF # on the eticket receipt is for NZ.

I'm confused about how this will work. I have AE Plat and have used my AE points to purchase tickets or upgrades for Virgin Atlantic LAX-London - and would do this again as that's a great jumping off point. By using NZ as the FF#, am I able to take those new points and convert them to Virgin Atlantic?

How can I best use the points for this long flight for a future trip?

Do you have an Air NZ account? According to their website you can only earn Air NZ points on Cathay for HKG to NZ, so you will not be eligible to earn points on your trip.
http://www.airnewzealand.co.uk/co-op...cathay-pacific

By AE Plat do you mean American Express? You can't earn MR points by flying, only through purchase.

Do you collect frequent flyer miles in any programs currently? You can credit the CX flights to any oneworld program or certain CX partners.

LAX-MAN via HKG...service does not start until December HKG-MAN

Giving Class of service might help.

Just thought maybe OP means MNL

You must be right. That would be a bizarre flight to take unless you were a trip report junkie.

Ok, there's a lot going on here.

I suspect to you are flying to Manila (rather than Manchester, UK), on CX via HKG. As previously posted, you can't earn with NZ on this route (and not on VS - Virgin either). American Express earns points only through purchase (and these can be redeemed for travel).

Generally you would be best crediting these miles to a CX AsiaMiles account. Do you have one? If not, you may want to consider opening one. If not, do you have another OneWorld account? BA for example? If you live in the US (and even if you don't) you may wish to consider an AA account as you can earn an redeem miles for flights - generally - easier than with other programmes.

The biggest question is what fare class are you in? CX is notorious for giving out 0 miles on many economy fare classes (as I've found out while booking an HKG - SIN RT later this year on CX).

If in Y, there are a limited number of programs where you can get something (BA gets 25% on most Y fare buckets where AA gets 0% on all non full B / Y fare buckets)

Sorry, I made the correction - it is Manila and l class. I live in the US. I only mentioned AE Plat because that's the only way I've ever used points to purchase or upgrade a ticket before. When it comes to overseas flights, I need to go business class (flat seats). Europe and Africa are my favorite destinations.

I'm not a member of CX AsiaMiles or OneWorld.

So this is probably obvious, but I'm getting that I should open an AA account and let the travel agent know to change the ticket so that is the FF number on my ticket reservation?

Yeah depends what you want with it. J will earn across OW. On AA it'll give you a good amount but nothing spectacular. On BA it'll give you enough for a few direct domestic Y flights that are less than 651 miles (if you live on the East Coast I'd go BA since the same miles on BA will go further than the same on AA - BA uses a distance-based program compared to AA's region based).

Of course if you're chasing status the calculus changes.

So I looked at the receipt again and I was wrong - it is BUSINESS / l - that looks like a lower case L to me. So maybe a discounted fare. I noticed Cathay had a discount going, which is good for the company bringing me out.

I live on the west coast (LAX the closest airport). I would prefer using ff points for trips from lax to europe or Africa in business class.

I don't think status is the immediate goal.

As this about miles to a OneWorld airline ffp look and ask here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html
As above, AA or BA, is the best choice for you as an USA resident. You probably have an I fare: discounted business.

And Air NZ is about the worst ffp there is.

Edit
Worth looking at Alaska due to its many partner airlines, including CX
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...ePlan-partners

Class BUSINESS / l (that is exactly what the receipt says, but I believe Mwenenzi is correct - that it is discounted business I as Cathay had/has a special discounted sale going on now.

Mwenenzi, thank you very much for that link.

'I' will earn miles on CX, AA, and BA, among others.

Alaska is a partner you might want to look into.
I use them for my BA, AA, DL & CX flights as they are not my primary airlines but combined i'll get enough for reward ticket(s).

Yeah I forgot about Alaska (knew you could redeem but forgot you could earn). That actually is a good reminder for me - didn't realize that L and V earned 50% on Alaska - looks like that's where my HKG - SIN flights will be going later this year

Thank you, Yoshi, London, and flyer. Alaska does look good. Ideally, I would want to ultimately use the miles on an airline that has pods in business class going from the US to Johannesburg. And if I can transfer points to the ff program from my AE Plat points, that would be ideal.