Political strife and health concerns around the coronavirus COVID-19 have reduced travel demand through Hong Kong so much so that its flag carrier is temporarily closing three of its six lounges.
From 17 February 2020 until further notice, the following lounges are closed:
It’s a real shame that The Pier is closing as it’s better than the other First Class lounge, The Wing, which will remain open.
The Bridge and The Deck are not a huge loss as The Pier and The Wing Business Class Lounges are both better than the former two.
The Qantas International Lounge is still a solid option for those flying on Qantas, Cathay Pacific or another oneworld airline.
Finally, those travelling on any airline and holding an eligible American Express card can enter the American Express Centurion Lounge. Priority Pass members can enter any of the three Plaza Premium Lounges.
This is a real shame for Hong Kong and Cathay Pacific, who this week announced they are cutting the number of flights to (but still serving) the five Australian airports it serves.
A beginner’s guide to using frequent flyer points on Cathay Pacific flights
Hong Kong-based oneworld alliance member Cathay Pacific is a favourite carrier of ours here at Point Hacks, offering one of the most superior and consistent First and Business Class experiences of any premium carrier in the world.
The airline offers a high-frequency schedule between Australia and Hong Kong and onto a wide network of destinations, comfortable lie-flat Business Class seats, and generous award availability.
In this guide, I explore Cathay Pacific’s routes, aircraft and premium cabin products, teach you how to calculate how many points you need for your next trip on the airline, analyse which frequent flyer programs offer the best value, advise how and when to book an award seat, and provide links to Point Hacks reviews of Cathay Pacific flights.
Cathay Pacific routes, aircraft and cabins
Cathay Pacific has one of the most extensive offerings of any international airline servicing Australia, with flights between its Hong Kong hub and:
- Adelaide
- Brisbane
- Melbourne
- Perth
- Sydney
Further afield, here are Cathay Pacific’s destinations (as of February 2020), concentrated on Asia, North America, Europe, the Middle East and South Africa (in order of most to least destinations):
Its full-service subsidiary Cathay Dragon destinations operates exclusively within Asia:
Cathay also operates a few fifth-freedom flights (services that do not originate or terminate in Hong Kong) between:
- Taipei and Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka
- Bangkok and Singapore
First Class
This cabin is flown exclusively by the Boeing 777-300ER mostly on long-haul flights with six open suites in a 1-1-1 configuration. It is renowned for its wide seat and excellent lounge access options.
Here are the routes with the First Class product:
North America
- Boston
- Chicago (First Class not offered from 1 June 2020)
- Los Angeles
- New York
- San Francisco
- Vancouver (First Class not offered from 27 May 2020)
Europe
- Frankfurt
- London Heathrow
- Milan (route suspended until 29 April 2020)
- Paris
- Zurich
Asia
- Beijing
- Tokyo Haneda
The airline used to operate First Class on intra-Asia routes to Taipei, Manila, Bangkok, Singapore, Shanghai and Seoul, but stopped selling these tickets in June 2019.
These are the cheapest ways to experience Cathay Pacific First Class using Qantas Points, with Hong Kong – Beijing/Tokyo being two highlights.
Departing Hong Kong, you’ll have access to two excellent First Class lounges. Which one is better?
Business Class
The majority of Cathay’s medium- and long-haul routes are serviced by a combination of Boeing 777-300ER and Airbus A330 and A350 aircraft, featuring lie-flat Business Class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration.
There are two exceptions to this:
- Routes serviced by the Airbus A340 also have a lie-flat seat but in a 1-1-1 setup
- Regional routes serviced by some Airbus A330 and Boeing 777-200 and -300 aircraft have angled seats in a 2-2-2 or 2-3-2 layout—try to avoid this aircraft if you can
The most modern aircraft in the fleet, the A350, is gradually replacing the older A330s. It has been introduced between Hong Kong and Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.
Premium Economy
Premium Economy can be found mostly on medium- and long-haul routes in a 2-3-2 or 2-4-2 configuration.
To understand why we focus on premium cabin redemptions rather than Economy Class ones, check out our guide to maximising value from points.
How to calculate points pricing and taxes
Say you want to book an award flight from Hong Kong to London Heathrow.
- Step 1: To calculate the distance between the two airports, go to Great Circle Mapper and enter the airport codes HKG-LHR in the search box (Google ‘Hong Kong airport code’ if you don’t know the code). We measure distance for frequent flyer programs in miles, not kilometres:
- Step 2: Depending on which points currency/ies you have access to, go to the distance-based Asia Miles or Qantas Frequent Flyer award chart or British Airways Executive Club calculator to determine the points cost of your redemption relative to the distance, cabin and one-way/return trip. AAdvantage and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan have region-based award charts, so you don’t need the exact distance for those ones.
When clicking through to the Asia Miles award chart, I can see my 5,994-mile trip to London Heathrow would cost 65,000 one-way/130,000 return in Business Class.
- Step 3: To calculate the taxes payable on your award flight, you have a few different options:
If you are an Asia Miles member, go to the Asia Miles online booking tool, enter the flight details and if there are open seats, you will see the taxes displayed on the results page (in this case, HK$345 = ~AU$60):
If you are using another frequent flyer program like Qantas or AAdvantage, the taxes will show on the results page there (again, as long as there is award availability).
If there is no award availability, you might consider using the more advanced ITA Matrix method.
A comparison of points pricing
Here is a side-by-side comparison of one-way redemption values for five easily-accessible frequent flyer programs for Australia-based travellers aiming to book awards on Cathay Pacific:
| Route and cabin | Asia Miles | Qantas FF | Alaska Mileage Plan | AAdvantage | BA Exec Club |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Any Australian city to Hong Kong | 45,000 | 65,000 | 30,000 | 40,000 | 75,000 (60,000 from Perth) |
| Hong Kong to Bangkok Business | 25,000 | 26,000 | 22,500 | 20,000 | 16,500 |
| Hong Kong to Johannesburg Premium Economy | 40,000 | 75,000 | 35,000 | 55,000 | 72,250 |
| Melbourne to Tokyo Business | 65,000 | 92,000 | 30,000 | 40,000 | 92,750 |
| Sydney to Vancouver Business | 85,000 | 139,000 | 60,000 | 80,000 | 154,500 |
| Brisbane to London Business | 85,000 | 139,000 | N/A | 85,000 | 154,500 |
| Hong Kong to New York First | 125,000 | 152,000 | 70,000 | 80,000 | 206,000 |
For award tickets issued from 1 May 2020 onwards, it is expected that there will be no fuel surcharges applied. The two exceptions to this rule are flights to/from Japan and The Philippines. More on that here.
Sweet spots
- Alaska Mileage Plan: offers overall the best value redemptions on Cathay Pacific but you’ll probably have to buy miles to get a hold of them; redemptions from Australia to Africa, Europe, India and the Middle East via Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific must be booked as two separate awards; all other redemptions can be booked as one award with a free stopover; you cannot use Mileage Plans miles for redemptions on Cathay Dragon—only Cathay Pacific
- AAdvantage: this program offers the second best value overall, especially when travelling from the extreme of one region to another, e.g. Perth to New York, Melbourne to London; only layovers up to 24 hours permitted for free, otherwise, two separate awards needed
- British Airways Executive Club: offers good value for intra-Asia trips; as BA calculates cost based on each leg, you may as well book two one-way segments and have a stopover in Hong Kong (if that is not your final destination)
- Asia Miles: allows two stopovers on roundtrip awards
- Qantas Frequent Flyer: not much good news here—amongst the highest redemption rates; only layovers up to 24 hours permitted for free, otherwise, two separate awards needed
How to search for award availability
American Airlines AAdvantage is the best website to use for searching for availability on Cathay Pacific.
Do you need to call to book or can you do it online?
- Asia Miles: online
- Qantas Frequent Flyer: online
- British Airways Executive Club: online
- AAdvantage: online
- Alaska Mileage Plan: phone (booking fee applies)
When does award calendar availability open up?
Cathay will release award seats to its own Asia Miles members 360 days before departure for its Choice and Tailored awards, and 353 days before departure for its Saver awards.
British Airways and Qantas get next dibs at 354 and 353 days, respectively.
And then AAdvantage and Mileage Plan members can access Cathay award seats 331 days before the flight.
Historically, Cathay will also then release some unsold First Class seats 24-48 hours before departure.
Summing up
If you’ve got access to Asia Miles, Qantas Points, Avios, AAdvantage or Mileage Plan miles, then a Business or First Class redemption on Cathay Pacific will most likely get you good value out of your points, as well as a professional and comfortable experience both on the ground and in the air.
Do try to line up your flights so they provide you with a modern aircraft and product, and take advantage of free stopovers with Asia Miles and Mileage Plan redemptions.
Links to related guides and reviews
Guides
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Guides
- An introduction to the Cathay Pacific Asia Miles program and which credit cards earn Asia Miles
- Guide to making Asia Miles redemptions – what you need to know about stopovers, award holds & pricing quirks
- Using Points Basics: Cathay Pacific Asia Miles & Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer for great redemption options
- How to redeem Asia Miles for Cathay Pacific Lounge Access – useable only in certain circumstances though
- A beginner’s guide to using Qantas Points for flights with Qantas’ partners
- Learn where to search for award space most efficiently
Flight reviews
- Cathay Pacific 777 First Class overview
- Cathay Pacific Business Class (A350/777/A330) overview
- Cathay Pacific 777 and A330 Business Class review – Tokyo to Perth
- Cathay Pacific 777 Business Class review – Flying with kids on CX253 Hong Kong to London
- Cathay Pacific A330 (new) Business Class review – CX139 Hong Kong to Sydney
- Cathay Dragon A330 Business Class overview
- Cathay Pacific A330 (old) Business Class review – CX110 Sydney to Hong Kong
- Cathay Pacific A330 (old) Business Class review – CX162 Sydney to Hong Kong
- Cathay Pacific A330 Premium Economy review – Sydney to Hong Kong return on CX162 & CX111
Lounge reviews
- Cathay Pacific’s ‘The Wing’ First Class Lounge review – Hong Kong Airport
- Cathay Pacific’s ‘The Cabin’ Business Class Lounge review – Hong Kong Airport
Supplementary images courtesy Cathay Pacific.
Just checked on another leg JFK-MEL and quite a few CX flight have reappeared just short of 12 months ahead although they do seem to come and go.
Have I got this right?
BA can also be a useful website to check CX award availability (you need to check ay by day) since it doesn’t show all the EK options like the QF site. You cannot see CX on the AA and AS websites.
IME the Cathay Pacific site shows more availability than QF at times. Also, when there seems to be availability on CX website, both AA and AS don’t always get those seats.
Given better access to reward seats and the reasonable redemption rates using CX AsiaMiles, I tend to have a back up of a stash of points sitting in AMEX / VISA CitiRewards points ready to transfer to CX in case I need to redeem directly through CX should AA and AS not get access to reward inventory.
Strangely, CX is a potentially good way of spending QF points if you already have them to use up – the reason being the lack of fuel surcharges on CX booked reward flights.
To note – the HKG-FRA sector slips into a lower reward bracket than most European destinations from HKG, so can be relatively good redemption using QF points into a premium cabin (if you have the QF points to use up).
Also to note that HK Airlines flies to HKG from OOL and CNS and may offer fares of better value than using points – they have a.ie flat business class product. Thus opportunity to use paid fare to HKG and points thereafter to USA / Europe etc.
Cathay. Alaska site doesn’t allow a search from PER to HKG as stated above it says to call them.
But before calling them is the best way to find availability be doing searches on any sites, eg Qantas??
So I have a clear picture of whats available instead of trying to negate over the phone?