- Introduction: A Tale Of Two First Classes
- How To Redeem Miles For Cathay Pacific First Class
- Review: American Airlines 757 Business Class
- Review: American Flagship Lounge Dallas DFW
- Review: American Flagship First Dining Dallas DFW (Surprisingly Terrible)
- Review: American Airlines 777 First Class
- Review: Cathay Dragon A330 Business Class
- Review: Cathay Dragon A330 First Class
- Review: Cathay Pacific 777 First Class
There’s some ever-so-slightly good news when it comes to Cathay Pacific first class award availability. Cathay Pacific first class is one of my favorite first class products, and I’m itching to fly with the airline again.
In this post:
Cathay Pacific first class awards aren’t what they once were
Back in the day, redeeming miles for Cathay Pacific first class was one of the most popular aspirational award redemptions out there. Cathay Pacific regularly made some first class award seats available in advance, and then made a lot more award seats available as the departure date approached. You could even book it with Alaska Mileage Plan and American AAdvantage miles.
Unfortunately a lot has changed about that since the start of the pandemic. With Hong Kong’s strict entry requirements for nearly three years, the airline was offering a tiny percentage of its pre-pandemic capacity. Fortunately Hong Kong is once again fully open, and Cathay Pacific is nicely recovering.
Unfortunately that still doesn’t mean that Cathay Pacific first class awards are anywhere as readily available as they were pre-pandemic:
- Cathay Pacific only offers first class on fairly few routes, a lot fewer than pre-pandemic; the carrier’s network to the United States is still only a fraction of it was pre-pandemic
- The demand for Cathay Pacific’s premium cabins has skyrocketed, between the reduced capacity and high demand, given how capacity constrained mainland Chinese airlines are
- Even when there are several first class seats still left for sale as the departure date approaches, Cathay Pacific hasn’t been making these seats available last minute
Cathay Pacific finally has some first class award seats
Currently, Cathay Pacific’s only route to the United States with first class for sale is Hong Kong to Los Angeles. Until recently, I didn’t see any first class award availability on the route, whether trying to book far in advance or close to departure.
Cathay Pacific’s loyalty program recently increased award costs, and when the program did that, it promised to make more award seats available. That does indeed seem to be the case, at least when booking through Cathay Pacific’s own program.
For the first time since the start of the pandemic, I’m seeing a decent number of first class award seats available across the Pacific, which is exciting. To search availability, you’ll need to go to Cathay Pacific’s website and log into your loyalty account, which you can sign-up for at this link (if you’re not yet a member).
Once you have an account and are logged in, just go to the “Redeem flights” tab, and then enter the route you’re looking at. For example, I’m searching the Los Angeles to Hong Kong route.
Fortunately there’s a way to see calendar availability, so that you can view available seats for two months at a time. Rather than clicking “Redeem flights” right away, just select all of your preferences, and then click the “Departing on” field. You’ll then see a calendar that shows you little icons that reflect availability.
If you see a seat that’s gold in color (or brown, or whatever that is), that means there’s a first class award seat. When you then search that date, you’ll see what option is available.
From there you can go ahead and book your ticket.
Looking at February 2024, I see 17 days with first class award availability from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, which is awesome. There are also some dates with availability in early March. Note that there’s only one first class award seat available per flight (despite the award flight indicating “only a few seats left”).
Unfortunately outside of that window, I’m seeing very little award space in first class, so as of now the availability seems to specifically be for early 2024. This is still a niche opportunity, though it’s a step in the right direction, given that until recently I saw zero first class award seats.
As you can see, a first class award seat between Los Angeles and Hong Kong will cost you 125,000 miles one-way. For what it’s worth, below is Cathay Pacific’s current award chart.
Hopefully this trend continues, and we see more availability across more dates in the future.
Keep in mind that Cathay Pacific miles are easy to come by, as the airline partners with a few major transferable points currencies — you can transfer rewards at a 1:1 ratio from Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, and Citi ThankYou.
What about booking Cathay Pacific first class through partner programs?
Historically the most popular way to redeem for Cathay Pacific first class has been using American AAdvantage and Alaska Mileage Plan miles.
Unfortunately it appears that the award space that Cathay Pacific is making available in first class is only available through its own frequent flyer program, and not through partner frequent flyer programs. I hope that will change in the future, though for the time being, don’t expect that you’ll find much first class award space with anything other than Cathay Pacific’s own program (please let me know if I’m missing something).
Fortunately thanks to transferable points currencies, racking up Cathay Pacific’s rewards currency isn’t tough at all.
Bottom line
Cathay Pacific is finally making transpacific first class award seats available again, as I’m seeing some award availability between Los Angeles and Hong Kong for early 2024. While this is a far cry from the availability we saw pre-pandemic, it’s better than the availability I saw several weeks ago, so I’d consider it to be a step in the right direction.
I hope some OMAAT readers can take advantage of this award availability!
What do you make of the state of Cathay Pacific first class award availability?
I followed all the instructions. Clicked on the calendar to see a "gray" seat on the day that worked. Clicked on that day and proceeded to select. But even though the calendar stated available 1st class seat, the next page stated "not available". It's very frustrating that the website contradicts itself; what's available when the next page states not. Anyway, will keep looking. Amex gave a lot of joining points plus some I've gained through...
I followed all the instructions. Clicked on the calendar to see a "gray" seat on the day that worked. Clicked on that day and proceeded to select. But even though the calendar stated available 1st class seat, the next page stated "not available". It's very frustrating that the website contradicts itself; what's available when the next page states not. Anyway, will keep looking. Amex gave a lot of joining points plus some I've gained through spending. Was going to treat myself to a b-day 1st class trip somewhere. Maybe not with Cathay I guess
I found Asia Miles to be stingy and often did not award any mile out of multiple flights
What about even just J space? I was hoping to be able to fly YVR HKG JNB all J with the Alaska stopover in Hong Kong. It’s a great value redemption. F would’ve been nice but they got rid of F from YVR a while ago
I miss Cathay and HK but it’s to sketchy traveling through HK since the CCP destroyed HK in 2019. It’s sad they ruin everything!
I can see there is a gold icon but when I click into the date. It shows no award seats available. Is there anyway walk around to find the seat?
so if you and Ford go, who sits in F and who in J?
They gladiate for the right.
@Ben, SAS is leaving Star Alliance and joining SkyTeam :(
I'm seeing 2 F seats on some dates that aren't indicated as such in the calendar view. Haven't tried booking them, but they seem to be available when you click through on a specific date.
It is no secret that CX deliberately held back award seats until October 1 and suddenly an abundance of award seats reappeared. Sneaky!
This is slightly off topic.
I just flew to and from Singapore from LAX on paid Cathay flight in Business, on sale last March. I am Alaska MVP Gold 100k flyer, earned 22k EQM and over 60k spendable miles. Great flight experience, particularly on A350-1000 segment. 777 segment from LAX had First Class Cabin was plane was much older in appearance than other 777 -300ERs on two segments.
I'm hoping Cathay will lower prices as...
This is slightly off topic.
I just flew to and from Singapore from LAX on paid Cathay flight in Business, on sale last March. I am Alaska MVP Gold 100k flyer, earned 22k EQM and over 60k spendable miles. Great flight experience, particularly on A350-1000 segment. 777 segment from LAX had First Class Cabin was plane was much older in appearance than other 777 -300ERs on two segments.
I'm hoping Cathay will lower prices as more flights get going.
Cathay Business was one of my favorite flight experiences prior to Pandemic.
Yeah the CX A350s are much better than the old 777s.
Interesting that Cathay award flights in premium cabins were practically non-existant from the time Cathay made their announcement in July until the end of September. Now with the increased pricing, award flights are suddently re-appearing. While no notice devaluations are horrible, providing notice while simulatenously removing all inventory is effectively is effectively the same thing.
Anyone have advice for redemptions on for biz class travel to and from NYC to HKG in April?
I've found availability on Eva Infinity Mileagland in April and May for business class redemptions JFK-TPE-HKG-TPE-JFK. The Eva program is a challenge to use but availability is pretty good. Citi ThankYou points can be transferred in.
Thank you!
I'd be happy redeeming for CX premium economy using AS miles but nowhere to be found!
If you do eventually find something and have a choice of aircraft, pick the a350. CX's PE product on the 777 is among the worst in OneWorld. The a350 product is noticeably better.
Qatar is leasing old Cathay 777-300ER planes. I recall Ben flew MLE-DOH on one. Are these CX planes used for QR flights 816,818 DOH-HKG which has both business and first class?
I recall QR 777-3000ER with Qsuites (business only). Was only aware of QR first in regional Mideast flights and A380 long haul.
They devalued their program on September 30th so it makes sense awards are only now available
I am glad you finally addressed that Cathay Pacific premium seats award availability on partner airlines (especially Alaska Mileage Plan) is hard to come by these days. A lot of bloggers out there is still trying to promote how valuable the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is because of CX redemption....
Yea, AS points availability anywhere to Asia is crap. Thankfully I've spent down from .5mm to under 100k left
Agreed, just used my points on Latam to Santiago instead.
AS points to anywhere is crap lately. Only availability going to Europe is BA and the huge surcharge bill.
Anywhere in Asia besides Japan is crap. To Japan though JAL is pretty easily found for J and the occasional F.