Anyone tried a Partner redemption (eg CX, F) lately?
 

Currently trying to decide "which way to jump" both in terms of which FFP, and how many of my hard-earned Amex MR points to move over to QG.

Are awards on the non-QG "partner" airlines still available? e.g. CX, QF, MH, SA etc?

I'm considering an F trip to Asia early next year, and I'm wondering if anyone has had any luck getting seats.

My preference (obviously!) would be CX, probably to BKK and/or SIN.

Sure wish we knew who the partners and what the awards levels will be for next year....

Ken.

"I think I have just made the biggest mistake of my life." - Vila
"It is unlikely. I would predict there are far greater mistakes waiting to be made by someone with your obvious talent for it." - Orac
- Blakes 7 (I think Orac now has a job in BA Customer relations)

Booking at short notice I have had success with Malaysia Airlines through Qaliflyer (in First), and of course with Swiss themselves (who I believe offer one of the best First Classes around).

I had difficulty securing QF First Class (did not come through for flights from either BKK, HKG or SIN to SYD or MEL - tried over a two week period), was OK with QF Biz Class (AKL to SYD/BNE/AKL round trip).

Could not obtain CX First from either LHR/MAN/FRA/CDG to HKG and on to SYD or MEL over a two week travel window in June 2002.

Swiss of course can confirm their own flights instantly. With MH they send the request and usually by the time the have entered in the second sector the first has come back confirmed. QF seems to be mixed - the request goes off and sometimes you have to wait an hour, sometimes it comes through if you wait one or two minutes on the line.

For all of the above rewards I tried to book around one month before travel.

If intending to fly QF, then you can use their on-line rewards booking engine which will suggest flights on certain days. You then call Qualiflyer with these dates and you should be ok.

First Class on QF (and it looks like CX as well) is very hard to obtain - even for members of their own programmes.

Regards

WG

CX certainly works through QG. I booked CDG-HKG-MNL return, end-Oct, in F for two. Back in May, I first tried out of FRA (LHR seemed even more difficult) and got wait-listed. As FRA did not start looking any better, I changed to CDG without any problem - but that was already in early June.

With CX, you can register with AsiaMiles and then use the CX booking engine. Helps quite a bit because calling Qualiflyer repeatedly would be a pain.

Agree that Swiss F (as long as it hasn't got worse since the good old SR days) is the best, but you can't do what I want to do (HKG and SIN/BKK in one award) with SR, sadly. Also, my girlfriend liked the Wing so much on our last visit that she want's to see what CX F is all about!


I'm expecting to book a little further ahead than that, perhaps I will be lucky!

Thanks for the advice!

Does anyone know what booking class the partner awards on CX book in?

As we all know, SR/LX awards book in A http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif but what about the partners?

Ken.

"Now, let's get this straight:
Every single BA F passenger is entitled to use the F section of the Wing, and yet you are sitting here in this dingy, cramped, univinting BA lounge with worn seats and cheap Champagne...
And you are the best and the brightest of UK business....? GOD HELP US!" - Erm, me, in HKG, marvelling at the high quality of the BA F lounge.

[Corrected for spelling, as usual]

[This message has been edited by KenF (edited 09-23-2002).]

The F awards of CX book in Z class.

[I'm not sure if replying to your own post counts as talking to yourself - but given the horror stories I've seen about F awards on CX in other threads, I thought I'd post my experience...]

Got 'Em!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Snagged two F Seats on LHR-HKG route, and assorted connecting flights into Asia.

Availability seems OK as long as you avoid obvious "busy times" like Thu-Sun on the long hauls. Seems strange that people are having trouble getting J-Class seats but F is wide open (especially with 2 for 1 miles from Amex at the moment!).

Bookings are indeed in "Z" class, for both upgrades and awards. Since QG do not have on-line availability for CX, the best advice seems to be to check availability with Cathay prior to ringing Swiss, to avoid the stress of trying dates one-by-one.

Availability on the intra-Asia flights appears to be no problem, the big issue here is finding flights that offer First class http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Tickets will be issued on Swiss stock, so I figure I may as well pick them up from the local ticket office, and save them the cost of a stamp, after all, every little helps!*

So, in summary, you can book awards for next year, you can still get seats with non-QG partners, and if you can plan in advance, you can get seats even on high-yield routes like LHR-HKG.

The only slight wrinkle is that various timing constraints mean that I will be celebrating my next birthday in the F section of the Wing in HKG. Oh dear, how sad, never mind http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Ken.

"I like to reminisce with people I don't know." - Steven Wright

* - Sad slogan courtesy Tesco Stores plc.

I just did an upgrade on CX with Qualfliyer in First Class.

The agents at the Qualflyer Desk in Brisbane insist that there is no upgrade from J to First. I had to do the booking directly with the SWISS office in SINGAPORE.

Booking is in Z class. I wanted my miles to go into my asiamiles account and CX coded the flight accordingly. But only after doing the flight, asiamiles advises that the booking code for upgrades is not Z but something else.... so now I have to fax them manually.

Oh well..

I just confirmed an upgrade from Y to J for flights AMS-HKG-SYD and CNS-HKG-AMS around February 2003.

It was tough to find seat availability, first tried to fly out of LHR, but there were already no more upgrades to J left. From AMS it was a bit easier, but still I was waitlisted on the HKG-SYD leg for about a week, then it finally cleared.

My strategy: Call up AsiaMiles and wheck whether your preferred flights have availability. Only after you have found an itinerary that works for you, call up Qualiflyer and formally request the upgrade.

One more thing: I am amazed by the low knowledge of partner-awards by Qualiflyer agents. Every time I called they had to read the full instructions for booking CX partner awards, putting me on hold for 5+ minutes (I guess this is still better then making a mistake !)

Furthermore, they told me that I end up with 2 bookings on the same flights: one for Y and one in J. I had to call CX and ask them to cancell the Y booking. (my travel agent did not believe this, but after calling CX themselves, it appears to be the correct procedure).

Only thing left to do is go to the Swiss ticket office( can be done on day of departure) and have them put upgrade stickers on the ticket.

Has anyone experienced problems with this ? It basically means you have to stand in line twice, what if the Swiss ticket office is closed ?

Cheers,

Jan

And I spoke too soon too....

I've got 2 seats on my preferred flights, but one is booked in the wrong name, and QG do not seem capable of correcting it.

So I've got 2 seats, but I can't fly http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif

Of course, if they'd got the name right in the first place.... (checked it twice, read it back, still mis-keyed) Grrrrr.....

Ken.

Hanlon's Razor:
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence"