Jun 28, 2017, 8:46 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: eponymous_coward
Cathay Award Guide Using Alaska Airlines Miles
Note: Cathay flights cannot be booked using alaskaair.com. Mileage requirements in chart form available on alaskaair.com.
Request your Partner Award reservation on Cathay Pacific by calling Alaska Airlines Reservations at 1-800-252-7522 (TTY: Dial 711 for Relay Services) 5:00 a.m. - Midnight (PT), daily.
Routing Rules:
- If it's not on the award chart, it's not allowed. For example EUROPE is To/From HKG only.
- Stopover are only allowed on any CX award for North America awards as destination or origin. For instance: intra-Asia awards do not get a stopover. It must be a North America->Somewhere or Somewhere->North America award to qualify for a stopover.
- The only awards that do not break at HKG are intra-Asia or North American ones. For instance, Australia-Europe/Middle East/Asia outside of HKG will be two awards (breaking at HKG). The AS award chart can be misleading about this and give you the impression you can fly an award like Australia/Europe-ICN, but the chart for these award types will show "Hong Kong".
- One stop-over allowed on one way award. You can build open jaw and other advanced routings by booking multiple one way awards. Please note change fee rule below.
- Allegedly stop-over only in Hong Kong, but some have posted success in other enroute cities such as YVR or SEA.
- As of 5 June 2018 changes/cancellations made to a booking will incur a $125 fee which is waived for MVPG/MVPG75K. Bookings made prior to 5 June will be allowed one complimentary change or cancellation for up to 60 days prior to date of travel.
- Awards can be booked 330 days in advance.
- Cathay and Alaska (or an Alaska flight operated by SkyWest/Horizon on behalf of Alaska) are the only airlines allowed on a Cathay award. No other partner airlines may be used on a single award (e.g. American, JAL, Emirates).
North American Gateway Cities:
Western
Vancouver
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Seattle (Spring 2019)
Eastern (Can not be used if traveling to west coast)
Boston
Chicago
New York (JFK & EWR)
Toronto
Washington
Award Chart Links*:
Asia
Australia
Europe
India/Middle East
North America
Anyone with 90 posts and 90 days can edit the wiki. Everyone else if you want something added to the wiki please comment in the thread.
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Apr 11, 2018, 4:17 am
#1966
CDKing
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,325
Originally Posted by CyberMew
Hi, I'm extremely new to miles and flights in general, but I have been trying to soak up information over the past few days after discovering Alaska miles. I'm mainly located in South-east Asia. I looked at the award chart, and for intra-asia travel, the cheapest for business class is via CX (22500 points for one-way Asia-to-Asia). I am looking for one-way (aka one award?) with stopover business tickets. I tried searching one-way from KUL-HKG-SIN or SIN-HKG-KUL and could not find anything on AS's search engine, then I read around and found out that CX flights are never shown on AS's search engine (correct me if I am wrong) and only when calling up their hotline. I then searched QF (Qantas) search engine for awards (multi city, one-way, using points), and only found a mixture of Malaysia Airlines and Cathay Dragon which does not qualify. I did however find flights operating between SIN/HKG. I also tried to search BA (British Airways) but they don't allow multi-city search, so I had to search per leg (KUL-HKG, HKG-SIN) and it seems like there are no flights from KUL-HKG or HKG-SIN via CX, only SIN-HKG (side question: is there a better way to search if the flights are even valid? in the sense of there are flights flying, and not whether there are seats to redeem or not. e.g. CX flies from HKG to ICN via Taipei, but JL can fly from TYO to GMP direct). So I'm confused if we can book CX awards between HKG/SIN (either direction) for either the first leg or the second leg or not.
Not related to this thread but I also realised something weird. If I searched on AS site SIN-KUL (one-way/roundtrip, both ways), I don't get any results but if I do SIN-TYO-KUL I do get results... am I right to say (at least for intra asia flights), I definitely have to go through Japan and Hong Kong via JL and CX respectively, to get to other places? (btw, is there a thread to learn to properly use these symbols to indicate direction/both ways etc?)
I also looked at the thread wiki, and there are some points I don't quite understand:
The only awards that do not break at HKG are intra-Asia or North American ones. For instance, Australia-Europe/Middle East/Asia outside of HKG will be two awards (breaking at HKG). The AS website can be misleading about this. <- what does it mean by breaking or not breaking? Does it mean I can take CX from SIN-ICN-SGN?
Pardon me for my English and noob questions!
If you need to go SIN-KUL why don't you just buy a super cheap fare on Scoot or Air Aisa its only $30 USD. Living in SE Asia means the program is not really designed for you.
Alaska Airlines as a North American carrier centers its partnerships and award chart around North American based travelers. There are some award that are allowed that do not touch North America. Cathay has a few but most of them are To/From Hong Kong only. Breaking means, the spot where the first award ends and the second award starts. Australia to Seoul would be for example two awards, Australia to Hong Kong and another award Hong Kong to Asia. You do have to call Alaska for Cathay bookings.
Alaska does not allow stopovers on intra-regional partner awards. The one exceptions is JL which allows stopover in Tokyo on Asia to Asia award. They only consider japan to japan to be intra-regional. Why it doesn't give you SIN-NRT-KUL when you are looking multi city but not to/from? that's because its not logical to go through Japan and no partner flies direct. It probably shouldn't be allowing it on multi-city but if the system prices it online, just take it as a gift and move on. AS can always take option away if you make a stink about it. You wont have the same luck with that on CX.
Apr 11, 2018, 5:36 am
#1967
NWplatinum
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Seattle
Programs: AS MVP100K, Hilton Diamond, IHG Gold
Posts: 3,215
First off, yes using the QF tool or the BA tool to look for availability on CX is usually the way to go. Though AS agents do not always see the space offered to oneworld search tools and partners. We are only allowed to redeem on CX operated legs so far as I know. I know people have been saying we cannot redeem on Cathay Dragon, however I personally have never tried. But many veteran posters say no Cathay Dragon so I assume its true. Therefore destinations served by Cathay Dragon such as KUL, as well as phu*ket, and others we cannot redeem miles on. This is disappointing as I had to fly into BKK for my vacation to Thailand once, and then take Bangkok Airways. I know officially were not allowed to redeem on cathay dragon, but has anyone ever actually tried? This would be interesting.
Anyway, if you wanted to go SIN-KUL, youd have to stop in HKG and Im not sure if this would be able to be priced out as one award. As another poster suggested there are plenty of cheap airfares and airlines that operate SIN-KUL if that is what youre looking for.
As far as SIN-HKG goes, I redeem on this route often and the space is sparsely released. Theres usually only one flight a day that has business class saver space open, and its usually at a terrible time, or that one flight a day that stops in BKK. Usually there is lots of premium economy, and economy saver space available months out. But if youre looking for J they usually release those awards closer to the departure dates. (Which sucks cause were under the three day rule now).
CyberMew likes this.
Apr 11, 2018, 5:48 am
#1968
CDKing
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,325
Originally Posted by NWplatinum
I know officially were not allowed to redeem on cathay dragon, but has anyone ever actually tried? This would be interesting.
Many have tried and failed.
seawolf likes this.
Apr 11, 2018, 6:09 am
#1969
seawolf
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: NYC
Programs: AA 2MM, Bonvoy LTT, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 14,714
Originally Posted by CDKing
Many have tried and failed.
^
KA operates as a separate airline. MP is not a partner. It's no different than asking AS to go book a UA award seat.
Apr 11, 2018, 6:13 am
#1970
jamienbaker
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,573
Originally Posted by CDKing
Many have tried and failed.
Whats s latest with 3 day rule? Does it only prohibit stand-alone intra-Asia awards? For example, Im holding several JFKHKGSIN awards where the short segment is in Y or Y+. Since its part of a North American award, will I succeed in upgrading to J 48 hours out?
Apr 11, 2018, 6:49 am
#1971
CDKing
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,325
Originally Posted by jamienbaker
What’s s latest with 3 day rule? Does it only prohibit stand-alone intra-Asia awards? For example, I’m holding several JFKHKGSIN awards where the short segment is in Y or Y+. Since it’s part of a North American award, will I succeed in upgrading to J 48 hours out?
Looks like stand alone only as they stated on the amended close in booking rule. Departing today on Hainan BOS-PEK-XIY has space available on AS site. JL to BOS-NRT-PEK has space. PEK-XIY alone has no space for 3 days then space every day.
jamienbaker likes this.
Last edited by CDKing; Apr 11, 2018 at 7:55 am
Apr 11, 2018, 7:02 am
#1972
NWplatinum
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Seattle
Programs: AS MVP100K, Hilton Diamond, IHG Gold
Posts: 3,215
Originally Posted by CDKing
Looks like stand alone only, combined in Ok. Departing today on Hainan BOS-PEK-XIY has space available on AS site. JL to BOS-NRT-PEK has space. PEK-XIY alone has no space for 3 days then space every day.
Something tells me youll have an easier time pulling one over on the website then the Reservation agents.
Apr 11, 2018, 8:06 am
#1973
eponymous_coward
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,453
Originally Posted by CyberMew
Hi, I'm extremely new to miles and flights in general, but I have been trying to soak up information over the past few days after discovering Alaska miles. I'm mainly located in South-east Asia. I looked at the award chart, and for intra-asia travel, the cheapest for business class is via CX (22500 points for one-way Asia-to-Asia). I am looking for one-way (aka one award?) with stopover business tickets. I tried searching one-way from KUL-HKG-SIN or SIN-HKG-KUL and could not find anything on AS's search engine, then I read around and found out that CX flights are never shown on AS's search engine (correct me if I am wrong) and only when calling up their hotline. I then searched QF (Qantas) search engine for awards (multi city, one-way, using points), and only found a mixture of Malaysia Airlines and Cathay Dragon which does not qualify. I did however find flights operating between SIN/HKG. I also tried to search BA (British Airways) but they don't allow multi-city search, so I had to search per leg (KUL-HKG, HKG-SIN) and it seems like there are no flights from KUL-HKG or HKG-SIN via CX, only SIN-HKG (side question: is there a better way to search if the flights are even valid? in the sense of there are flights flying, and not whether there are seats to redeem or not. e.g. CX flies from HKG to ICN via Taipei, but JL can fly from TYO to GMP direct). So I'm confused if we can book CX awards between HKG/SIN (either direction) for either the first leg or the second leg or not.
Not related to this thread but I also realised something weird. If I searched on AS site SIN-KUL (one-way/roundtrip, both ways), I don't get any results but if I do SIN-TYO-KUL I do get results... am I right to say (at least for intra asia flights), I definitely have to go through Japan and Hong Kong via JL and CX respectively, to get to other places? (btw, is there a thread to learn to properly use these symbols to indicate direction/both ways etc?)
I also looked at the thread wiki, and there are some points I don't quite understand:
The only awards that do not break at HKG are intra-Asia or North American ones. For instance, Australia-Europe/Middle East/Asia outside of HKG will be two awards (breaking at HKG). The AS website can be misleading about this. <- what does it mean by breaking or not breaking? Does it mean I can take CX from SIN-ICN-SGN?
Pardon me for my English and noob questions!
CX no longer serves KUL.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...er-kul-ka.html
CyberMew likes this.
Apr 11, 2018, 8:39 am
#1974
CDKing
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,325
Originally Posted by NWplatinum
Something tells me you’ll have an easier time pulling one over on the website then the Reservation agents.
Website matches what the official policy is on close in booking with the Asian carriers. Its been confirmed by AS that what the website is doing is correct. If anything over the phone it would be the agent not knowing what they are doing, its common for them to make up a reason whether true or not. If a phone rep says it cant be done inside 3 days they would be making up the reason for the system not cooperating.
jamienbaker likes this.
Apr 11, 2018, 8:49 am
#1975
PENGUINCARL
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: Chicago, IL
Programs: Nomad
Posts: 17
Originally Posted by Deltahater
part of your problem is that you cannot use AS miles for CX codeshares. It must be CX coded and operated. No Dragon for example. While CX has 6-8 daily non-stop flights, none are available in Y on the 3 days in June I checked. However, HKG-BKK-SIN is available on June 19 for example for 2 adults.
I recommend you check availability on Qantas and then spoonfeed the flight info to the agent. Do you know how do check on Qantas?
IveI pretty exclusively been using the BA tool to find availability. These are both CX operated flights, so that shouldn't be a concern. Does the Qantas website show availability that isn't on BA (and is one source more representative of what AS can see than the other)?
Last night, I checked again and there seems to be availability for the first leg on June 17 and the second on the 20-22, which would allow for a 3-day stopover (awesome!).
Apr 11, 2018, 12:29 pm
#1976
grandgourmand
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: yyz
Posts: 1,611
FYI...just booked 3 J seats YYZ-HKG. BA availability matched what the agent could see. I know it comes up from time to time as an issue. In my case...it didn't.
Apr 11, 2018, 2:39 pm
#1977
NWplatinum
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Seattle
Programs: AS MVP100K, Hilton Diamond, IHG Gold
Posts: 3,215
Originally Posted by PENGUINCARL
IveI pretty exclusively been using the BA tool to find availability. These are both CX operated flights, so that shouldn't be a concern. Does the Qantas website show availability that isn't on BA (and is one source more representative of what AS can see than the other)?
Last night, I checked again and there seems to be availability for the first leg on June 17 and the second on the 20-22, which would allow for a 3-day stopover (awesome!).
QF seems to be the best that Ive seen. Many times BA wouldnt show longhaul F that was available that the QF tool was showing. Another great thing is the calendar feature that the QF tool offers where all you can do is see which days of every month that has J or F availability.
Apr 12, 2018, 11:00 am
#1978
jjz
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: SEA
Programs: MVPG
Posts: 34
After reading this thread off and on, I was quite anxious about booking an award flight on CX, but the Qantas search made it a lot easier.
1. Search on Google flights for dates/routings/classes available on CF
2. Search QF for the specific legs, note down the flight numbers
3. Call Alaska
I'd seen availability in F from SFO-HKG on December 12th, and then business class to DXB. I called Alaska, and the agent was able to find the exact availability I'd seen on Qantas. The whole call took about 5 minutes.
SEA-SFO-HKG-DXB for 70k miles. EK may be an easier route, but they seem to have blocked all awards from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
And this will be a chance to try F in CX 
Apr 12, 2018, 12:29 pm
#1979
CDKing
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,325
Originally Posted by jjz
SEA-SFO-HKG-DXB for 70k miles. EK may be an easier route, but they seem to have blocked all awards from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
And this will be a chance to try F in CX
Why fly J when you can fly F for same cost
eponymous_coward and pbelmore like this.
Apr 12, 2018, 1:40 pm
#1980
schwimmair
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 134
Originally Posted by jjz
After reading this thread off and on, I was quite anxious about booking an award flight on CX, but the Qantas search made it a lot easier.
1. Search on Google flights for dates/routings/classes available on CF
2. Search QF for the specific legs, note down the flight numbers
3. Call Alaska
I'd seen availability in F from SFO-HKG on December 12th, and then business class to DXB. I called Alaska, and the agent was able to find the exact availability I'd seen on Qantas. The whole call took about 5 minutes.
SEA-SFO-HKG-DXB for 70k miles. EK may be an easier route, but they seem to have blocked all awards from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
And this will be a chance to try F in CX
Originally Posted by CDKing
Why fly J when you can fly F for same cost
I was just looking at this exact itinerary. Just so I'm clear and no ninja tricks involved that I don't know about, SFO - HKG is in F and HKG - DXB is in J (CX doesn't offer F on this route) or am I missing something.
Thanks y'all
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