Questions and Answers

I was attempting to book a CX business award then add a domestic leg LAX-DCA, but was told after her and her supervisor tried to add the flight that Cathay is the only partner that does not allow Alaska to add a domestic leg on the same itinerary. Is that the case? The lowest fare available was 20k for coach because it was not 12.5 or 25k for first be the reason? Of course this wasn’t stated until 45 min into the conversation and the CX tickets being reserved already. I obviously did not book the tickets but awards are gone and I would rather seek insight here than another agent. Any help is appreciated.

hi [USER=1604]@MdBoater[/USER], I’ve never heard this rule. If saver award space was available for the domestic segment it should have been available to combine with you CX leg… [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER]?

If this is the case it’s definitely a recent change – and one for the worse. I have booked CX itineraries with AS domestic legs using AS miles on more than one occasion. In fact last time I booked a CX flight using AS miles (about 3 months ago) the agent proactively suggested I add such a leg.

There used to be a set of informal rules as to what was allowed and what wasn’t. Stopovers allowed, but only at CX gateway cities and Anchorage, no east to west backtracking (ie, HKG-ORD-SEA not permitted), etc. But it’s surprising what you can get away with. I once booked KUL-HKG-LAX(stop)-SEA-HNL without any argument or persuasion needed.

It has to be saver level space, which it sounds like was the problem. If the Alaska space was bookable on aa.com as an award, you would have been able to add it to your ticket.

Otherwise, you’re mixing award types (all partner awards are saver), which is what’s [I]actually[/I] not allowed.

Alaska was kind and called me back this afternoon (I guess because the CX tickets were confirmed already just didn’t pay for them yet) told them I would love to book them but there was an issue trying to book a domestic leg to DC. She transferred me to awards and it does have to be the lowest saver award. Flight to BWI had first saver space so I took it, it’s cool that we have 12 hours in LA now since I have never been and my fiancé will be able to experience it too. Alaska rep said since the flights are more than 12 hours apart I have to recheck my luggage with Alaska and their max in first is 50lbs. My fiancé is moving to America and we are taking all we can with us. So with Cathay our luggage is cool however I see a lot of overweight charges on Alaska. I don’t know if I will just pay them or skip seeing LA and the red eye that goes with the BWI flight and try to get on the DCA flight when space opens to get home that night.