Alaska Airlines Partner Awards

[SandyS]

I'm looking to book a Cathay Pacific flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong and thought the AS award redemption would get you to your destination gateway eg Vancouver, (if Alaska Airlines flies that route), as part of the award booking.

Am I mistaken? Not really sure how it works and would appreciate any info.

I've previously booked a Cathay Pacific flight from LAX to HKG and AS included getting me to Lax from Seattle all as part of the award.

 

[exceladdict]

I'm looking to book a Cathay Pacific flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong and thought the AS award redemption would get you to your destination gateway eg Vancouver, (if Alaska Airlines flies that route), as part of the award booking.

Am I mistaken? Not really sure how it works and would appreciate any info.

I've previously booked a Cathay Pacific flight from LAX to HKG and AS included getting me to Lax from Seattle all as part of the award.

I believe that is the case. I don't think CX are listed on their site though, I think you need to call for redemptions (suggest using JAL for availability search).

 

[SandyS]

Yes, you have to call AS, which I have done. The staff are all lovely but the flight I was looking for, (which appeared on JAL, Qantas, BA & Award Nexus), the CSA insisted wasn't there. I eventually convinced her to look a bit harder and her supervisor found it. However, now they are saying they can't get me from Chicago to Vancouver as part of the deal - I need to book it separately because that's not part of their routing.

So I just wondered if I had a case or not.

 

[RooFlyer]

I'm surprised that AS previously flew you from LAX to YVR to join a CX Award flight. I would have thought that a CX award was just that - a flight on CX; if CX flew ORD-YVR-HKG then fine, but flying AS ORD-YVR (via SEA I guess) I would think is a separate journey and award.

In my opinion, sorry, I don't think you have a case, but hope I'm wrong.

 

[SandyS]

I'm surprised that AS previously flew you from LAX to YVR to join a CX Award flight. I would have thought that a CX award was just that - a flight on CX; if CX flew ORD-YVR-HKG then fine, but flying AS ORD-YVR (via SEA I guess) I would think is a separate journey and award.

In my opinion, sorry, I don't think you have a case, but hope I'm wrong.

They flew me from Seattle to join my LAX -HKG flight.

But they do mention on their website somewhere, they'll fly you to your gateway airport. They would fly me from Seattle to EWR as well, if it was required, as that was discussed when I was trying to sort out my itinerary.

If they don't do it, that's fine but the CSA's don't always get it right, so thought I'd ask.

 

[RooFlyer]

Sorry for my mix up.

But you are correct! here in the T&Cs:

For members redeeming an award on a partner airline, connecting travel will be provided by Alaska Airlines to the nearest gateway city of the airline partner at no additional charge. Connecting flights should be requested and reserved at the time the award travel is booked and ticketed. Travel is for connection purposes only and subject to availability.

Maybe they mean a single sector?

Something I didn't know .... which is why these threads are great

 

[Winston1]

Isn't Chicago to Vancouver backtracking?
Pretty sure you can get a connecting flight from a gateway city which is 'on the way'.
So something like hkg to lax to yvr would be fine, but hkg to NY to yvr would not be ok.

 

[SandyS]

Isn't Chicago to Vancouver backtracking?
Pretty sure you can get a connecting flight from a gateway city which is 'on the way'.
So something like hkg to lax to yvr would be fine, but hkg to NY to yvr would not be ok.

Actually, Chicago is a CX gateway city...but they don't have the award flight I want. Never mind, guess I was being a bit greedy.

Thanks RooFlyer for finding that, I just couldn't see it.