Dan’s Deals has highlighted a surprising amount of Cathay Pacific first class awards currently bookable between the US and Hong Kong. Even better is the fact that quite a few of the eligible dates have availability for two people.
This is unlikely to last long, so if you’re interested in experiencing it, you’ll want to book ASAP.
The Deal
- Book first class awards with Cathay Pacific between the US and Hong Kong.
- Direct link to search for awards.
Key Terms
- 125,000 Cathay Pacific Asia Miles each way.
Quick Thoughts
First class awards on Cathay Pacific are very hard to come by, especially for the last five years. COVID restrictions limited people’s ability to travel to Hong Kong, then when it started opening up again the already barely dripping spigot of first class awards between the US and Hong Kong was pretty much shut off.
That’s why it’s such a pleasant surprise to see so many dates available for travel in summer. There’s a handful of first class awards between New York and Hong Kong in both directions in July, with a far greater selection of available dates between Los Angeles and Hong Kong in both directions in June and particularly July.
Helpfully, when selecting a date to search for, the Cathay Pacific calendar displays dates where there’s availability:
What’s even better is that many of these dates include availability for two people in first class.
Needless to say, this kind of availability isn’t likely to last long and so you’ll want to book ASAP if you’re interested. The cost is 125,000 Cathay Pacific Asia Miles each way and only appears to be bookable with Asia Miles rather than through partners. Asia Miles is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou points, Capital One miles and Bilt Rewards, so there’s a good selection there to choose from depending on your transferable points balances. What should be noted though is that Amex and Capital One might take ~24 hours for the points to show up, whereas Citi and Bilt should be instant.
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I’m shocked!! Until i read your email, RT BC was a minimum of 500K miles pp.at points.me. I’m thrilled that i read your blog and got RT FC for 250 miles PP !!
Are there any other programs or apps (Expertflyer does not for example) that show this availability? Before joining Cathay’s program I’d like to verify that there’s availability if possible.
Not that I’m aware of. Point.me says that they support Cathay Asia Miles, but it isn’t working right now.
Any other airlines we can “call in” to get these 1st class seats? Alaska? BA?
I don’t think so: I think this award space is only for Cathay’s own members
Whats cathay’s cancellation policy again ? I hate transferring to Cathay since their points expire in 3 years if not used, correct?
I don’t remember what they charge for cancelling (maybe $100?) but no the expiration rule has changed. It’s now 18 months unless there’s activity. You can extend them for another 18 months by transferring more points in or by using points.
I have a bunch oh Cathay points expiring in a few days. If I book a flight for later this year then cancel it, will I get my points back with a new expiration date?
It probably depends whether you have the old style points that had a hard expiration date or the new type where the 18 month expiry is reset every time you have account activity. If that latter, booking the flight will count as activity that resets the expiration.
I urge caution here Art. What Greg said is true about the later case in his response, but your question specifically mentions if you cancel the ticket. If you cancel the ticket, the system will not count that as activity. How do I know? Because I thought the same thing and lost 600K Asia Miles when I booked 4x tickets, and then had to cancel them. Because I cancelled the tickets, Cathay did not count the booking of the tickets as activity any more, and my 18 months was up as a result.
I was about to ask where to find that calendar showing availability — then I realized that it’s been so long since I saw any availability that I had no idea it would appear on the page where you pick a travel date. Almost everything is in July — weird.
How fast do miles usually transfer from Amex to Cathay?
That’s a great point – I’ll add those details to the post. Amex and Capital One take about a day, while Citi and Bilt should be instant.
I’ve transfered MR to Asia Miles twice in the past month, and both times it had been instant (had to logout and login again)
My Amex->CX transfers are also instant.
I transferred last night from Amex and it was instant as well