Cathay Pacific Mileage

PDLM · 18-01-2007, 03:58 PM

Well if you're worried about miles/status, I hope you spent the US$7000 on a round the world ticket rather than a simple HKG-LAX-HKG round-trip. You could get about 60,000 status miles out of a business class RTW without much difficulty

Submariner · 18-01-2007, 04:16 PM

Hehe ... I don't think the company's travel dept would appreciate such a circuitous route - even if it cost the same amount. We actually did have an around-the-world biz flight a few months ago, but unfortunately, the miles were racked up on Sky Team.

nina_70 · 18-01-2007, 06:37 PM

I'm getting into this one a little late, but status definitely does help for Asia miles. We've tried to book tickets multiple times over past 2 years...when I book on my account (Silver) we usually go on waitlist, but as soon as we switch to hubby's account (Diamond) the seats are available. This is usually for high season (Christmas and such..). Recently booked for CNY and it was same deal.

Have to agree with the other posters that Cathay does have quite allot of restrictions (compared to other airline mileage programs). Biggest one for me is the redemtion group limit to 5 people only. None of the other programs that I've used have a limit on that one, and it does force you to be selective on who you pick. Harder to fly family over that way.

howard_roark · 19-01-2007, 01:37 AM

Till now I never cared to check how to use my Cathay miles. I have raked up over 300K miles annually and have maintained the diamond status. But reading this thread prompted me to check the value proposition of the miles & do some first hand research.

I am planning to be in Hong Kong during March & thinking about taking a vacation with friends to exhaust all of the miles. So just now I logged on to the CX website & tried picking different destinations with various date combinations. And WOW - nothing is available!! That point to only one thing - CX has far far less number of seats assigned to their loyalty program per flight and it is greatly disproportional to their membership base.

I not only earn less miles while traveling through CX compared against say CO (where I am Platinum - the top tier as well) but also the miles are close to worthless. Also I don't see any major privileges for being in the top tier at CX; where as in CO when I do any personal travels by economy I invariably get upgraded.

I hate flying through the US based airlines - but the fact is their loyalty program is more valuable and much easier to use.

freeier · 19-01-2007, 07:15 AM

and is that part of the reason why most of the US based airlines are near to bankrupt or went thru a round of bankruptcy reform, whereas the asian airlines are at least making money. 8-P

KnowItAll · 19-01-2007, 07:48 AM

Freeier : also, the asian airlines do not have to deal with Unions like the US airlines have to.

freeier · 19-01-2007, 09:08 AM

which, in fairness, might not be wrong, but in relativity, might not be so simple.

1. as compared to the rest of the industries in asia, airlines tend to have quite a strong union. i.e. cathay pac and SIA have unions that have carried out collective bargaining and actions in the past.

2. as compared to the rest of industries in america, which are still making money, the unions in american airlines are not particularly strong (e.g. versus the port workers, the UPS, etc.)

3. so all in, since asian airlines are as profitable as the non-unionised asian companies, then american airlines should be at least as profitable as most of the american companies.

4. which means, the key to their failure is cost overrunning. and that implies eventually that cost of flights are not economically balanced and they have more free seats to offer to non-paying customers.

PDLM · 19-01-2007, 10:00 AM

Originally Posted by howard_roark:

So just now I logged on to the CX website & tried picking different destinations with various date combinations. And WOW - nothing is available!!

As a Diamond member just call them. Chances are (unless you want J or F on CX830/1) that they will be able to confirm a seat for you either immediately or within a few minutes. I never use the website for booking awards.

And I'm running above 50% on upgrades over the last 6 months, plus, as I said above, the major benefit to me is being able to buy lowest published fare on any flight at 24 hours notice.

KnowItAll · 19-01-2007, 10:04 AM

>> I never use the website for booking awards.

PDLM, I think that is what I'm doing wrong. I've generally looked at the website for availability.

Will call them and see if they can confirm for the dates I'm looking for.

howard_roark · 19-01-2007, 01:21 PM

Shri - Just called them up; got some better choices but not in combination of dates that I was looking for!! The person on line was very friendly and proactive in trying to find the solution.

Freeier - would love to debate structural disadvantages of US based airlines over a beer.