How To Redeem Miles For Cathay Pacific First Class

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

They devalued their program on September 30th so it makes sense awards are only now available

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.

I'd be happy redeeming for CX premium economy using AS miles but nowhere to be found!

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.

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.

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.

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.

It is no secret that CX deliberately held back award seats until October 1 and suddenly an abundance of award seats reappeared. Sneaky!

Anywhere in Asia besides Japan is crap. To Japan though JAL is pretty easily found for J and the occasional F.

Yeah the CX A350s are much better than the old 777s.

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.

@Ben, SAS is leaving Star Alliance and joining SkyTeam 🙁

so if you and Ford go, who sits in F and who in J?

They gladiate for the right.

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.

Thank you!

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?

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!

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 found Asia Miles to be stingy and often did not award any mile out of multiple flights

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