Cathay Pacific Business and First Class Award Ticket Availability Increases Significantly in April and May
Award travel on Cathay Pacific used to be easy: There were plenty of seats to the US, plenty of spare seats, and they were widely available using American Airlines AAdvantage miles (not so much with Alaska Airlines miles, which usually get you one less seat).
Since the pandemic, that hasn't been the case: Airlines have been slow to resume flying and have been reluctant to release award seats, and when they do, they are mostly for members of their own Asia Miles program, not the frequent flyer programs of their partner airlines.
The last restriction remains in place, but there are currently exceptional vacancies In both business and first class It will be available on the New York JFK-Hong Kong route in April and May (when first class passengers have usually just returned from Hong Kong) and can be used to make connections in Asia. Search for flightsPartner programs may show limited space. Points from American Express, Citibank, Capital One, and Bilt will transfer, but not all will be instantaneous.
Cathay Pacific First Class
Cathay Pacific First Class
Scroll through our Instagram posts for available dates.
These prizes are expensive:
- A one-way business class fare costs 110,000 Asia Miles points.
- First class costs 160,000 points one way.
- You can usually fly to cities outside of Hong Kong for the same fare (staying in the same distance band).
Cathay Pacific Business Class
At New York JFK, business class passengers have access to the Greenwich Lounge and first class passengers have access to the SoHo Lounge. In Hong Kong, there's The Wing and The Pier, of course.
The Pier in Hong Kong
Soho Lounge, New York JFK
I have fond memories of when Cathay Pacific started selling a ton of first class award tickets during the Great Recession. At the time, American Airlines AAdvantage could get you anywhere in Southwest Asia (“Asia 2”) in first class for just 67,500 miles one way, with a connecting flight to North America included. At the time, they said I was “living” on Cathay Pacific.
