Reduction of CX award flights to the US

[Dr Ralph]

I must be misreading this. I did just one search on HKG - JFK in Mar 2019 and there was PE and First availability on CX830 on multiple days, is the issue only with Biz?

No. All classes above economy have been impacted. Although there have been significant improvements in premium economy and first.

 

[Aussiejosh]

For me anything in/out of Hong Kong (non transit) has lost availability from the 19th of June 2019 onward.

 

[rock86]

For me anything in/out of Hong Kong (non transit) has lost availability from the 19th of June 2019 onward.

Yep, that seems to be the main impact, if it's not married segments you've got just about buckley's chance of getting flights into and out of HKG.

 

[kreuky]

apparently it's back
Cathay Pacific Business Class Awards Bookable Again Without Any Tricks - View from the Wing

 

[rock86]

apparently it's back
Cathay Pacific Business Class Awards Bookable Again Without Any Tricks - View from the Wing

Probably not as generous as they were, but looks to be fairly good again. I just searched 2 x J between HKG-LAX (on QF search) in early/mid June 2019 and there are now a fair few dates in between that have CX availability with a number in mid June available on their multiple 2/3 daily flights.

@Dr Ralph might be worth re-checking your dates that you recently booked with MU

Lucky also thinks its back, but not as generous as it once was (I agree). Cathay Pacific Business Class Awards Are Back To Normal - One Mile at a Time

 

[lovetravellingoz]

apparently it's back
Cathay Pacific Business Class Awards Bookable Again Without Any Tricks - View from the Wing

If you read the comments posted on that article in that link it would suggest that there are still restrictions.

 

[Dr Ralph]

apparently it's back
Cathay Pacific Business Class Awards Bookable Again Without Any Tricks - View from the Wing

Nope.

 

[d.diddy_13]

Nope.

Agree

 

[rock86]

Nope.

Agree

Certainly seems to be, at least close to, on some routes though (ie. showing multiple J seats) - LAX, SFO, JFK have much better availability when departing HKG (2 x J in June 2019) then they did in searches performed only yesterday. For instance below (which isn't date isolated) - yesterday, nothing, not even for 1 x J seat.

 

[SoftDraw]

I can see 4 biz seats on almost every flight on Cathays new route to Seattle.

 

[Dr Ralph]

I can see 4 biz seats on almost every flight on Cathays new route to Seattle.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Fu#$%rs!

That's the exact route I wanted. But when I looked in the past few weeks CX didn't fly to Seattle and so I had to book with MU to Vancouver.

 

[cjd600]

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

That's the exact route I wanted. But when I looked in the past few weeks CX didn't fly their and so I had to book with MU to Vancouver.

Surely worth the points hit to change?

 

[SoftDraw]

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

That's the exact route I wanted. But when I looked in the past few weeks CX didn't fly their and so I had to book with MU to Vancouver.

Did you book with Qantas points? Could possibly be worthwhile paying the 5000 point change fee. Flights only start from March 2019.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Did you book with Qantas points? Could possibly be worthwhile paying the 5000 point change fee. Flights only start from March 2019.

It will now be more than 5000 as I've booked the return leg yesterday and there's more than one booking through different accounts. Two people and two bookings so I assume 20,000 points?

It's not the worst thing in the world. But I would have preferred CX and to fly to Seattle rather than Vancouver. I'll have to settle with MU to Vancouver.

 

[cjd600]

Save $125 pp in +++ going CX to SEA as well

 

[Danger]

I'm still not seeing near the availability that's been there in the past for Australia-North America.

I did find a Seattle seat but the taxes were $379 which seems very, very high for CX and a HKG transit.

 

[Scr77]

I'm still not seeing near the availability that's been there in the past for Australia-North America.

I did find a Seattle seat but the taxes were $379 which seems very, very high for CX and a HKG transit.

To cloud the issue, CX availability always seems to be less over the northern hemisphere summer. I don’t think we’ll be able to accurately compare until September.

 

[madrooster]

I did find a Seattle seat but the taxes were $379 which seems very, very high for CX and a HKG transit.

It's correct. CX fuel fines are actually not "low" anymore. Currently CX fuel fines are 83.60 USD per long haul segment which means you're paying 227 AUD worth of fuel fines.

The remaining taxes are about $90 in AU departure taxes, $35 in HK taxes and $30 in US arrival taxes.

In fact on the AU-HKG routes, CX's fuel fine is actually about $15 more expensive than QF's.

 

[rock86]

It's correct. CX fuel fines are actually not "low" anymore. Currently CX fuel fines are 83.60 USD per long haul segment which means you're paying 227 AUD worth of fuel fines.

The remaining taxes are about $90 in AU departure taxes, $35 in HK taxes and $30 in US arrival taxes.

In fact on the AU-HKG routes, CX's fuel fine is actually about $15 more expensive than QF's.

Yep, but it will get even worse if their government decides to remove the regulation on fuel surcharges, which is on the table at the moment.

 

[kamchatsky]

It will now be more than 5000 as I've booked the return leg yesterday and there's more than one booking through different accounts. Two people and two bookings so I assume 20,000 points?

It's not the worst thing in the world. But I would have preferred CX and to fly to Seattle rather than Vancouver. I'll have to settle with MU to Vancouver.

Since you can generate so many points I think you should change it to fly CX via HKG. China airspace is prone to significant delays, especially dictated by the military.