Most people's preferred carrier on this route is Cathay Pacific and, while you could snag Cathay
Pacific First Class awards for 67,500 AAdvantage Miles (one way) before the devaluation, post devaluation the cost has shot up to 110,000 (one way).
Cathay
Pacific First Class award availability using AAdvantage and other oneworld partner miles may be dying.
The fact that a roundtrip Cathay
Pacific first class award between the US and Asia is going up by 85,000 miles overnight is sort of insane to me.
So what's the rule of thumb with Cathay
Pacific first class award space?
For our Cathay
Pacific First Class award flight (which I often book for clients with my Award Booking Service), on the return my husband and I switched so that I could try first class with the munchkin.
But the real key to easily snagging Cathay
Pacific first class award space is understanding just how much award space they release as the departure date approaches.
Not exact matches
These points and miles have helped Alex to fly some of the most
awarded international
first -
class products in the world, including Singapore Airlines, Cathay
Pacific, Japan Airlines, Emirates, Etihad, British Airways & Lufthansa!
Thanks to four credit card applications, we were able to book two
first -
class round - trip
award tickets on Cathay
Pacific to Bali, via Hong Kong, for this past summer.
Finding
first class award seats on Cathay
Pacific is getting tougher and tougher as the airline keeps limiting the number of available bookings made through partner airlines.
One of the sweet spots in the Asia Miles
award chart is from New York to Vancouver in
first class on Cathay
Pacific.
While this isn't the best way to earn Alaska miles because of the cost, it can help you get those last few miles needed for to book a
first class award ticket with Cathay
Pacific, one of Alaska's best international partners.
One of my favorite
awards, Cathay
Pacific in
first class, will be among the worst affected (Asia Region 2).
Some would argue that Membership Rewards points are worth more than 1.7 cents and I would tend to agree if you would rather use your points for long - haul,
first class awards on airlines such as Cathay
Pacific or Singapore Airlines.
This is a positive change, now we need only 115,000 AA miles for a
first class award to India instead of the the 160,000 AA miles when traveling on Cathay
Pacific.
When I flew to Tokyo in January I had to position from London to Frankfurt to catch a JAL Business
Class award flight on the 787 Dreamliner and when I had wanted to try out Cathay
Pacific First Class last year I had to position from London to Zurich to catch that
award flight — London isn't exactly awash with
award availability.
You can also book Cathay
Pacific awards, however it needs two separate awards as per the rules of AAdvantage for traveling to India on trans - pacific routes, which means you need 62,500 miles for a one - way economy, 110,000 miles for a one - way business class award to India and 160,000 miles for a one way first class award to
Pacific awards, however it needs two separate
awards as per the rules of AAdvantage for traveling to India on trans -
pacific routes, which means you need 62,500 miles for a one - way economy, 110,000 miles for a one - way business class award to India and 160,000 miles for a one way first class award to
pacific routes, which means you need 62,500 miles for a one - way economy, 110,000 miles for a one - way business
class award to India and 160,000 miles for a one way
first class award to India.
One of the sweet spot in the current
award chart is the business /
first class awards between India and South
Pacific.
You can get even better value if you use miles for high - end cabins on
award - winning partner airlines, such as Cathay
Pacific which regularly comes in right behind Singapore Airlines» famous suites in lists of the top
first class cabins.
This means that there can be some great value to be had if you select the right redemption options — like Cathay
Pacific in Business or
First Class between Europe and Asia (not a hard
award to find), LAN Business
Class from the US to South American and Korean Air Business
Class between the US and Asia.
A one - way
First Class award from the US to Hong Kong on Cathay
Pacific now requires 110,000 miles which, at these prices, cost $ 2,101.
That's more than enough for two
first class awards to Asia on Cathay
Pacific.
Unlike airlines such as Cathay
Pacific and Lufthansa, Emirates does not have a regular schedule for releasing
first class award space to their partner airlines.
If your travel dates are flexible, you can buy Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles under this promotion and redeem for a
First Class award ticket with Cathay
Pacific to India.
There is some amazing value to be had out of those options — especially Cathay
Pacific in
First Class between Europe and Asia (not a hard
award to find) and Korean Air Business
Class from $ 2,216.
Cathay
Pacific is notorious for releasing
First Class award space a few days prior to departure.
A round - trip
first -
class Cathay
Pacific award from the United States to Bali costs 220,000 AAdvantage miles.
Effective April 28, British Airways has devalued their
award chart for premium cabin
awards (Premium Economy, Business and
First class awards) Only positive change in this devaluation is the introduction of off - peak
awards on British Airways
awards (not applicable for partner
awards like Cathay
Pacific).
Cathay
Pacific is a partner of both carriers, yet you can fly
first class on Cathay
Pacific using just 70,000 Alaska miles each way — about the same price as a business
class award using American miles.
Typically Cathay
Pacific, for example, releases only ONE
First Class award seat per flight until a few days before the flight.
A reverse herringbone business -
class and spacious
first -
class suites provide some of the best
award redemption opportunities for those crossing the
Pacific Ocean.
As most readers know, it's already become very difficult to book Cathay
Pacific first class in advance using AAdvantage miles, especially if you're searching for two
award seats.
For example,
awards between North America and most of Asia cost only 120,000 miles in
first class, and they allowed one to route either via the
Pacific or the Atlantic (or one in each direction), with two stopovers enroute.
There are significant increases to Business and
First Class Awards to Asia, Europe, South America's Region 2, and the South
Pacific
The problem Cathay
Pacific is experiencing is high demand for its
first class award seats from those with AAdvantage miles, with these seats often booked soon after the
award calendar opens, leaving no
award availability for its own Asia Miles frequent flyer members who may seek to book just a few months before the date of departure.
While I'd rather pay an extra 12,500 miles for
first class over business
class, the reality is that Cathay
Pacific is quite stingy with
first class award space in advance nowadays.
This doesn't help for advance planning but the approach is to plan your trip with business
class awards and be prepared to pay a change fee if you'd like to travel in
first and a given Cathay
Pacific flight opens in
first class.
They generally only release
first class award seats to partner airlines within two weeks of travel, so your approach is probably similar to Cathay
Pacific in terms of booking something else and then changing to Lufthansa.
It remains best for
first class awards though — Cathay
Pacific, Etihad, Qatar (limited routes), British Airways (fuel surcharges) as well as somewhat more difficult «get» Qantas.
For those planning a trip in the next year or so, AAdvantage miles are currently great for Cathay
Pacific First Class, Cathay
Pacific Business
Class, Qantas
First Class, Etihad
First Class, and other international
awards, at least if you don't transit a third region that would break your
award into two separate
awards.
With many of the most popular
awards going up in price (like the shocking 63 % jump on Cathay
Pacific first class to Asia or the across - the - board increases for Etihad's A380 First Apartment), it'll be easier to spend the 100,000 AAdvantage miles needed to earn the full 10 %
first class to Asia or the across - the - board increases for Etihad's A380
First Apartment), it'll be easier to spend the 100,000 AAdvantage miles needed to earn the full 10 %
First Apartment), it'll be easier to spend the 100,000 AAdvantage miles needed to earn the full 10 % back.
As you might expect, as the economy has recovered, Cathay
Pacific has tightened up somewhat on
first class award space.
Taking a page from United's
Award Chart Devaluation, AAdvantage
awards on American Airlines flights will be cheaper than the above partner
awards, because let's be honest — who really wants to fly American Airlines
First Class, if they could fly in a Etihad
First Class Apartment on the A380, Cathay
Pacific First Class or JAL
First Class instead?
I used it to find business -
class award space on Iberia ahead of the recent AAdvantage devaluation, and I know many others who use it for
awards like Cathay
Pacific first class or JAL business
class.
While American AAdvantage and US Airways Dividend miles offer the best deal for booking Cathay
Pacific awards from the U.S to Hong Kong, at just 67,500 miles each way for Cathay
Pacific First Class with AAdvantage miles and 120,000 miles roundtrip with US Air Dividend Miles, the problem is you don't get access to Cathay
awards as early as Cathay's own Asia Miles frequent flyer members.
In the meantime, it makes it a no - brainer to redeem for Cathay
Pacific First Class instead of business class if using US Airways Dividend miles, although the challenge with that is that it's become harder to find Cathay Pacific award availability for two people traveling toge
Class instead of business
class if using US Airways Dividend miles, although the challenge with that is that it's become harder to find Cathay Pacific award availability for two people traveling toge
class if using US Airways Dividend miles, although the challenge with that is that it's become harder to find Cathay
Pacific award availability for two people traveling together.
This means that even with the New British Airways Avios Devaluation, the AAdvantage
award chart devaluation will make it more expensive to book Cathay
Pacific First Class between NYC JFK and Vancouver YVR — 55K AAdvantage miles vs. 50K British Airways Avios.
-LSB-...] Possible high value uses are off peak international
awards like 20,000 miles one way to Europe and partner
First Class awards like Cathay
Pacific First Class to Southeast Asia for 67,500 miles.
Anyway, there's no doubt that Cathay
Pacific isn't quite as generous about releasing
first class award space as in the past.
«For example, 67,500 miles is enough for a one - way ticket in Cathay
Pacific first class between the US and Asia» If you are lucky enough to find the
award availability in CX
But space does open up before that as well — typically about one to two weeks out, Cathay
Pacific will open all but three
first class seats for
awards.