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Cathay Pacific frequently releases five Business Class and one First Class award seat on its flights between the United States and Hong Kong 11 months out. If you miss those, there are often up to two First Class and up to nine Business Class seats within a week of departure.
You can book these fantastically luxurious products with American Airlines miles and Alaska Airlines miles. Of the two, Alaska’s redemption prices are much better post-American Airlines’ devaluation.

- 70,000 miles one way between the United States and Hong Kong, China, and SE Asia in Cathay Pacific Business Class
- 110,000 miles one way between the United States and Hong Kong, China, and SE Asia in Cathay Pacific First Class
- 50,000 miles one way between the United States and Hong Kong, China, and SE Asia in Cathay Pacific Business Class
- 70,000 miles one way between the United States and Hong Kong, China, and SE Asia in Cathay Pacific First Class
Alaska’s prices are so cheap that Delta charges more miles to book Business Class to Asia than Alaska Airlines charges to book Cathay Pacific First Class.
Neither American nor Alaska Airlines charges fuel surcharges on Cathay Pacific awards, you will only pay the standard taxes that apply to every award (plus $12.50 per one way when redeeming Alaska miles to fly a partner.)
How to Get Alaska Airlines Miles
25,000 Alaska miles is the public sign-up offer for both the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® Card and the Alaska Airlines Visa® Business Card. The personal card gives you the bonus upon signing up, and the business card after one purchase. Although this is planned to change in May, when the sign-up bonus for the personal card will increase to 30,000 Alaska miles after spending $1,000 within three months of the account opening.
There are other offers out there as well at the moment:
- Follow this specific link and you will find an offer for a 25,000 mile sign-up bonus plus a $100 statement credit for spending $1,000 within three months of opening the account. This card offer also includes the $75 annual fee like the public offers, but the statement credit is more than the annual fee.
- If you are a member of Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, their frequent flyer program, check your email. You might have a targeted offer for a 50,000 mile sign-up bonus for spending $2,000 waiting for you. If not, become a member and opt in to receive partner offers. This could help your chances for the targeted offer according to the opinon of some Flyertalkers.
And as far I can tell, all signs point to these cards still being churnable–for now.
Product
Cathay Pacific Business Class is a stunner with fully flat 6’10” beds.
Cathay Pacific First Class is an even wider and more spacious bed, mixed with very personalized service, and great food. Here’s my trip report of Cathay Pacific First Class.


Award Space 11 Months Out
Alaska Airlines allows bookings 330 days out. Right now that means through March 24, 2017 according to alaskair.com’s calendar.
I searched Cathay Pacific’s American routes for award space on ba.com as it is not searchable on alaskaair.com (read this to learn how to search ba.com). I looked for availability on March 24, 2017 to see what space you can book 11 months out to Hong Kong. (Cathay Pacific space is available with Avios even further out than 330 days in advance, but almost all of that space is still available 11 months out.)
San Francisco
There are three Business Class seats on one flight, and one First Class seat on the same flight.
Los Angeles
There are five Business Class seats on one flight and one First Class seat on two separate flights. These are the maximum amount of premium cabin award seats I’ve seen on any of Cathay Pacific’s American routes 11 months out.
New York
There are up to five seats in Business Class available. However New York doesn’t have First Class seats open on any single flight on March 24, nor on nearby dates.
Chicago
It looks like five Business Class seats is Cathay Pacific’s pattern for releasing Business space 11 months out. No First Class seats are available on March 24, 2017 but there are First Class seats (up to one per flight) open on nearby dates.
Boston
Boston has five Business Class seats and one First Class seat available.
Newark
Note the different headings for the cabins–Newark does not have First Class cabins. It offers five Business Class seats like most of the Cathay Pacific American routes.
Conclusion
11 months out is the second best time to book Cathay Pacific award space between the United States and Asia. Many flights have five Business Class seats that you can book for 50,000 Alaska Airlines miles each. Many flights have one First Class seat you can book for 70,000 Alaska Airlines miles each. But if you’re flexible, you’ll see even more award space open up right before departure.
Award Space Within a Week of Departure
If you miss booking space 11 months out, there is still space six months out, but it isn’t nearly as plentiful. I didn’t see any space in Business or First Class three months out.
If you have the flexibility to wait until the last minute, the best time to book Cathay Pacific award space is within a week of departure. They release more premium cabin award space close in to the travel date (up to nine Business Class Seats and two First Class seats) than they do 11 months out (five Business Class seats and one First Class seat). I took a look at award space today through a week from now in both directions on Cathay Pacific’s five American routes with First Class.
Note that days displayed below are not the only options within a week before departure, but they are the days with the most premium cabin space.
New York
Up to nine seats in Business Class (on the flights that just say “Available” without a qualifier that only X seats are left), and up to two in First Class. That’s the most I’ve seen on any search so far.
The flights from Hong Kong to JFK have less space with up to four Business Class seats and two First Class seats available May 2.
Chicago
There are seven Business Class seats open May 4 and one First Class seat May 5.
From Hong Kong to Chicago, there are no Business Class options within a week of departure, but on May 2 there are two seats available in First Class.
Los Angeles
From Los Angeles, there are six Business Class seats on a flight May 1, and two First Class seats on the other flight that day.
From Hong Kong to Los Angeles, there are six Business Class seats on a flight May 6, and one First Class seat on the other flight that day.
San Francisco
From San Francisco, there are up to two First Class seats to Hong Kong. On May 4 there are eight and nine Business Class seats on different flights.
There are eight Business Class seats May 4 from Hong Kong to San Francisco, and two First Class seats May 6.
Boston
From Boston, there are two Business Class and two First Class seats available May 5.
There are three First Class seats from Hong Kong to Boston on May 2! This is the most seats (and only time) I’ve seen that many seats available for Cathay Pacific First Class. I do not think that is normal, although I would love to be proved wrong (anybody?). There are also five Business Class seats open on May 4.
Conclusion
Award space is better within a week of departure compared to any other time that I’ve seen, and it looks like it’s the only time you can book two people in First Class. You’ll have to tough it out in Business Class if you’re a party of two that can’t wait until the last minute to book.
Bottom Line
Cathay Pacific Business and First Class are two of the most luxurious ways to get to Asia, and using Alaska Airlines miles is by far the cheapest way to book the premium cabins.
Cathay Pacific Business and First Class are widely available 11 months out. Think five Business Class seats and one First Class seat on most flights. Premium cabin space is even more available within a week of departure. Think one to nine Business Class seats and one or two First Class seats on some flights.
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Great article and very helpful. The issue I have found while trying to book 4 premium seats to HKG is because Cathay Pacific releases their seats so much earlier than you can book them with AA miles, so many of these premium seats are gone before you ever get the chance to book them over main travel times like Christmas. You can book the seats using BA Avios right away, but the cost is far higher in miles obviously except for economy class. Christmas is probably the only major time where this happens, but when that is the only time you can go it is what it is.
We wanted to book heading to Hong Kong over the Christmas holiday but by the time we could use our AA or Alaska miles the Saturday and Sunday flights for four seats in business from Chicago and NYC were already gone. Luckily we were able to grab 4 business seats on Monday which was only two days after we wanted. When Cathay cancelled their 2nd daily flight from Chicago to HKG that used to go a few times a week that also really hurt the amount of seats available because that used to be a goldmine.
Question: I have heard people say they “hold” the flights using BA Avios, and once the AA window opens up they “switch”. Is that just basically as it sounds…you try to get both airlines on the phone at once, cancel the flights with BA and hope you can grab them with AA before someone else does? I know it would take a ton of BA miles, and it sounds risky…but is that an option? Is that how it works? I assume you can’t call BA and ask them to release the flight to your AA account right?
Thanks for the great article.
I just had a similar situation booking a flight from SFO to HKG. Availability from American is 330 days outs. So it can vary a little bit and is usually not “exactly” 11 months. I found and was able to book our outbound SFO->HKG flight. But, when the window opened up to book the return flight we wanted, there was only one seat left. So we ended up booking a flight one day earlier than we wanted. Oh well. It’s still a great deal.
@Michael M
One day isn’t that big of a deal as you mentioned. Unfortunately on the return leg from HKG to NYC or ORD there wasn’t anything on business for four people unless you moved way back in the week which just wasn’t an option. Moving back one or two days maybe, but moving back six or seven just isn’t an option when traveling that far since you’d end up with only a week there if you did that. Oh well, we ended up getting 4 seats back in economy. Hopefully some business seats will open up last second, though I am not sure how calling American from Asia will go trying to lock those seats in if somehow they do open. I know last year a lot of seats opened last second even over Christmas time but many were in Premium Economy and a lot of the premium seats were on that second Cathay flight direct from HKG to ORD (which is probably why it got dropped).
Overall though, can’t really complain. Flying to HKG on business for four people, and flying back in Economy using miles and minimal fees over the busiest time of the year for Christmas isn’t exactly something to complain about. 🙂 I was just wondering if anyone had success “holding” these flights with a boatload of Avios and using the AA or Alaska miles afterwards once the 330-331 days were up.
Scott, nice post, thank you.
Do you know if a routing like this would be legal using AA miles:
GUM-NRT-HKG-SFO? (Guam ONLY has oneworld/JAL service to Narita… I’d really like to fly transpac with Cathay though?
Basically I’d start in Asia 2, transit Asia 1 to get back to Asia 2 and then fly back to the USA… Any guess on how AA would view this?
I’d expect that to price as three awards.
Scott is correct at least in the point it is two separate awards. I called AA wanting to do exactly that (but different cities in each region). It didn’t price out no matter what I tried. They said you can’t transit into on region and then back to the original without it charging for an additional award.
Any extra comments on using AS miles for these seats? Is access the same? Do they open greater than 11 months out? thanks
Access is the exact same for all Cathay Pacific partners to the space.
I’ll also assume it’s the same AA miles for YYZ-HKG segment (77G, 3-class, no FC)
I know for AS or Avios , it’s the same miles for ex-USA/Canada (NA)
Also on space, it’s instant, I changed my AS reservation and Avios is immediately updated (-1 on my new route, +1 on my old route), so maybe “hold-on Avios, cancel, book on AA” does work?
Thanks
All of North America to all of Asia 2 (where HKG is) is the same price with AA miles.
How much better is First class compared to Biz Class on CX transpac? I can see that Coach -> Biz is a huge step up but not so sure about Biz -> First. I mean both has lie-flat and good menu with First having wider seats and better food selection but i’m wondering if it’s worth the extra 25k round trip. I’ve never flown on First but have flown several times transcon on Biz on SQ, QR, TG, TK and i was pretty happy and comfortable with them. So curious how much ‘more comfortable and happier’ i would get by moving up to First.
It’s just a matter of taste. I see 12,500 extra miles one way as a tiny price to pay.
Do you think the flight from Boston to Hong Kong will have jets with 1st class at some point in the future? That’s been a dream trip that I have been saving up AA miles for a while now. If not, I’ll try for NYC and transit there by some other method…
No, since the trend is away from First Class cabins worldwide. You can fly BOS-JFK-HKF on AA/CX on one award.
[…] blog post seems timely then Cathay Pacific First and Business Class Availability Patterns | MileValue Some comment is asking about the idea of "hold by Avios, cancel, then book with AA/AS", […]
I wonder what happened to CX805 (ORD-HKG). I could not find any business award availability at all. This is the new 2nd route from Chicago.
https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_US/latest-offers/flights/ord-hkg.html
Great post! I have a US award ticket with a sector in BA F (LHR-HKG). If space in CX opens up last minute, will I be able to change the ticket with US (paying a change fee, of course)? Or US will not be able to change and re-ticket last minute?
Thanks.
You can change at the last minute.
[…] Cathay Pacific First Class and Business Class award space is wide open to American Airlines members if you know how far out to search for each. American Airlines charges a ridiculously low price for the award space considering some of the […]
wondering if i’m doing something wrong in searching CX availability US-HKG. I tried looking on BA for all the US gateway cities to HKG for mid June – mid July for 3 ppl and had no luck at all. I searched for both coach and business. My origin is IAH and end destination is KUL. No problem with HKG-KUL and US domestic. any help/insight would be much appreciated
Maybe there’s no space. Try searching for one person because the results actually tell you how many seats are left in that cabin. Also a lot of space opens up last minute, so keep looking.
[…] miles depending on the route because many of their partners, notable United, Lufthansa, and Cathay Pacific open up tons of award space right before departure if seats are […]
I took the advice too literally and was going to wait until exactly 48 hours before my departure to look for an upgrade from my already booked business to first but I happened to check just now (86 hours before) and 2 first class seats opened up from ORD-HKG on June 30. On hold now to upgrade…
Woohoo! Enjoy that trip!
Does Alaska have any restrictions for upgrading an award flight with Cathay from Business to First?
[…] in Business Class with 50,000 Alaska miles (on Cathay Pacific flights) […]
[…] best of all, award space is widely available from the United States to Hong Kong and from there to the rest of […]
[…] Cathay Pacific has historically opened up all but one unsold First Class seat on its flights between the United States and Hong Kong in the last few days before departure. It was very common to see 3-4 First Class seats on a single flight that were bookable with 67,500 American Airlines miles. […]
[…] Cathay Pacific is famous for releasing Business Class award seats 11 months before departure and the…. […]
[…] Cathay Pacific First Class […]
Do they also go to NZ and Aust.? Also, would the mileage needed be the same from Atlanta, and/or, a little feeder city like Savannah?
BOA is giving me fits over the Alaska Air Business card. I have sent them my business papers and they keep calling my wife too, but still no CC.
Alaska allows flights on Alaska Airlines to Cathay Pacific gateways for zero extra miles. If there is no Alaska award space or Alaska doesn’t fly to your city, you need a separate ticket to get to a city where Cathay flies. Cathay flies to Australia. Alaska charges 60k o/w biz and 80k o/w first.
@Jordan~ In moving from a Biz seat to F, you are in fact not ‘upgrading’. You are re-ticketing. Technically your Biz confirmation is cancelled, and a new confirmation in F is issued. If a close-in change, a $125 re-issue fee will be charged with a few dollars extra tax.
I did exactly that today with AS for a flight 7 days out. (Regretably Alaska customer service has dropped the ball somewhat lately, and it has taken 3 calls all in excess of 30 minutes each, to sort it out!)
I’m so glad I got a chance to fly first class with CX before the AA devaluation. 110K from 67.5K miles makes me sick everytime I read about it.
if there are unsold seats in J, would there be any reason for CX not to release them to partners for awards within 5 days of departure?
I’m looking at December J awards which are currently not available but are showing more than 13 as available on expedia.com and hoping to get some if there are still unsold seats.
Thanks
CX regulary fly with empty J and F seats. They are not released to their OW partners, and are unwanted by their own FF members. Call it bloodymindedness or incompetence, who knows?
[…] within two or maybe three days of departure max (these days). You’ve seen us write about the patterns of Cathay Pacific First and Business Class availability before. It typically requires either a great deal of foresight or a lot of […]
NEED TO GET TWO BUSINESS TKTS FROM ASIA TO EUROPE WITH ALASKA MILES ON A CATHAY FLIGHT THE FIRST DAYS OF SEPTEMBER. LOOKING AT BA AVAILABILITY THERES NOTHING, NOT EVEN IN BA (HKG-LON). COULD IT BE A WEB PROBLEM OR IS IT THAT DIFFICULT TO GET SEATS THOSE DATES?