Booking Cathay with QF points

[Ikara]

Oh wise ones.

I want to book Cathay flights using my QF points. I want to fly ADL - HK - CDG - HK - ADL. Business from Adelaide and First for HK - CDG - HK. I'm trying to avoid Melbourne and Sydney airports and leave and arrive directly from/to Adelaide.

How do I use the QF booking engine to "force" it to see the CX flights that I want? Do I infact use the QF engine? Is there another way of doing it? One-world web-site? Is it easiest to do it on the phone and pay the surcharge?

This will be my last flight O/S and I've got a fair swag of points to burn (1m+). I want to do the Western Front battlefields and Anzac Day in Villers-Bretonneux, hence my desire to fly into CDG.

Your assistance in pointing me in the right direction will be greatly appreciated.

JB

 

[samh004]

You can sign up for a free Asia Miles account to see availability I think, but unless things have changed you’ll need to call the QF service centre to book, and pay the fee?

 

[docjames]

Some CX flights show in the QFF booking engine, but sometimes it's easier to just pay the (?)5000pts and get the operator to do it for you. SOme have had variable success on arguing not to have the 5000pts deducted due to "unable to book online" but it's probably worth the 5k pts to have it done.

Edit:Online tool seems to do it now:

https://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/do/dyns/auth/awardbooking/startmulticity

For some reason, i can only see HKG-CDG on a Monday for the whole of April.

 

[el_rooto]

I have recently signed up for the KVS tool as it means I can see all OW availability. I find it much faster and easier to use than the website.

 

[browski]

FWIW, HKG-AMS-HKG typically has better availabilty that HKG-CDG-HKG; not sure why.
Also, even though you wish to avoid MEL/SYD, you may find that for the ADL-HKG-ADL legs you might achieve a better point spend outcome on QF. The QF flight from MEL-HKG connects really well with the CX HKG-CDG and HKG-AMS fllights.

Personally, I use the Asia Miles membership to see availability (either directly on CX or using the KVS tool).........then contact QF to book.

Oh yeah.....one more thing: Doesn't the CX flight from ADL, go via MEL on the way to HKG anyway?

 

[Ikara]

Thanks for all the info folks - much appreciated.

For some reason, I have been able to see CX flights on the QF engine today (must be holding my mouse differently!!) and was able to do a dummy booking all the way albeit via BNE for the first leg to HK. No big deal.

Yes Browski - you are right, the ADL - HK flight does go through MEL. For some reason I thought it was direct. Anyhow I was unable to get a J seat on it. Also no J availability on QF anywhere (and why am I not surprised?).

Still the dummy booking I did was ADL - BNE - HKG- CDG - HKG - ADL and two J seats all the way. 676K points, but I'm happy and that's all that matters. Still costs $1.8k in fees etc.

Happy days.

Thanks

JB

 

[el_rooto]

Also, I've noticed CX has selective availability, If you try and book a trip right through it might show more availability than otherwise...

 

[grussellt]

If you are happy to fly via SYD/MEL, and it will certainly open up more choices, then have a look at options via NRT (JL), HEL (AY) and even AMM (RJ). If you can get seats it's also one stop to CDG (from SYD) via DFW on QF/AA. Have a free (for first few searches) look at availability via Awardnexus. You should avoid BA for high fuel surcharges but it seems that QF is charging taxes/fees/tea money on all award flights now.
Have a good trip!

 

[docjames]

If you make the last leg CDG-ADL you may find other options than via HKG (ie. via SIN) (and thus get on the A380 ex-LHR for example).

Not sure if the retrun via HKG is necessary or not, just an option for you.

 

[Ikara]

Thanks everyone.

All booked. Done and dusted. ADL - SYD - HKG - CDG - HKG - ADL. 2 x J all the way.

Interesting twist though. Chose aisle for me and window for SWMBO as we were unable to choose a specific seat and the engine has chosen to NOT seat us together. Now I'm sure that some might say that is a good thing but SWMBO is kinda keen for us to sit together. I assume we'llbe able to sort it out once we get within the 180 day window that Cathay talks about on it's web-site?

JB