among us award success series today Cathay Pacific A business class ticket booked for 25,000 Cathay miles each way, which I received as compensation earlier this year.
Cathay Pacific made some negative changes to their award system earlier this year, making it much harder to use your miles in an advantageous way, but I’m confident that I’ll be able to get the most out of this ticket. It’s done.
Used by Cathay Airways Distance-based benefits chart If you want to get the most out of your mile-based flights, you should use a distance calculator to try out different destinations.
I was able to set the price Seoul – Hong Kong – Bangkok 45,000 miles in business class. The Tokyo case would cost him 45,000 points, so this was impossible since he only had 25,000 points in the compensation case in February this year.
The downside is that Cathay Pacific ended free award changes and free stopovers from January 1, 2023, making award restrictions even more restrictive.
The way to avoid it is Book your transfer for as long as possible Up to 24 hours, so we found a way to make the most of it. 23:25 hours in Hong Kongwhich is very good:
It’s also a great time to actually do something in town. The Airport Express takes about 30 minutes, and unless you’re staying close to the station, you’ll need to take a taxi or shuttle (there aren’t many options in Kowloon; I like the Hyatt Regency TST).
If you arrive at 16:30, I think it’s reasonable to expect check-in to your hotel to be around 5:45-6pm. There’s still time to watch the sunset at Victoria Harbor and board the Star Ferry.
The fees for this redemption were moderate, not cheap, but acceptable.
Of these HK$836, HK$322 is a fee collected by Cathay Pacific and is not actual government tax. I hate programs that attach these add-ons and make the awards even less appealing.
Cathay’s support is also completely disastrous. Cathay Airways now works with the app messenger service. I tried his Line, WhatsApp and Kakao Talk but none of them gave me any results. In the end, I called the hotline and was transferred to Cathay Holidays, which of course answered my question incorrectly. The call was then transferred to a call center in India, which is one of the things that really pisses me off. The changes I had to make to this ticket could not be made online and the agent could not understand them.
I ended up emailing the customer care executive from earlier this year. To his credit, he managed to forward the matter to his reservations manager, who called me back that evening at 11pm and took care of everything without charging me. He made the changes.
Personally, I would never transfer my miles to Cathay’s program. Because this is truly the stuff of nightmares. I’ll be happy if this ticket flies.
conclusion
I was able to redeem a one-way ticket from Seoul to Bangkok on Cathay Pacific for 25,000 Cathay Miles, and was able to stay in Hong Kong for almost 24 hours. This counts as a layover, not a stopover.
Overall, this is a great business class perk with a side trip to Hong Kong. I wish I could have stayed a few more days, but even one day free is better than nothing. We’ll probably come back later this year when it’s still a little warmer and it’s easier to walk around the city extensively.
The HKG-BKK section is a Boeing 77W with a first class cabin. There is no first class service on this route, and seats are often offered to Emerald members, so you’ll likely get a seat.