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How I flew Cathay Dragon using Alaska Miles

a tv in a cabin of an airplane

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Technically the two airlines aren’t partners

Everyone wants to fly Cathay Pacific First Class. It’s incredible. But, what if you want to fly onward or originate elsewhere, and transit through Hong Kong? To book that sort of ticket with Alaska Airlines, for just 70k miles, you’d need the entire ticket on Cathay Pacific metal. Yes, Alaska and Cathay Pacific are partners, and yes, Cathay Pacific owns 100% of Cathay Dragon, but NO, you can’t redeem Alaska miles on Cathay Dragon. So how did I do it?

two men sitting at a table

As you can see in the picture above, Cathay Dragon First Class is very similar, in hard product, to the business call you’ll find on Cathay Pacific longhaul business class. Lie flat, nice IFE, reverse herringbone, and just 8 seats in 1-2-1 configuration.

I was traveling back from Shanghai through Hong Kong to Chicago on a #weekendwarrior trip. We’d booked Cathay First on the longhaul from HKG to ORD with a stop in Hong Kong for a night.

My buddy, Dave, had redeemed Asia miles for his redemption, and I had booked mine with Alaska miles. When I found the flights and routing for our trip back, we were restricted by my Alaska miles, and had to stick to Cathay metal all the way through. The 777 that flies from PVG to HKG we were booked on has no first class and features the following business class. Not bad for a 3 hour flight, but not the best we could do.

I had an idea that would require a day of, at the airport switch, and had been tracking the load of earlier flights via expertflyer. Seats were open in First Class on a Cathay Dragon flight that departed 2 hours before our flight, and would give us more time in Hong Kong along with a much better ride for the 3 hour flight.

If you paid for first class, you are entitled to first class if the space is available from end to end.

This is something that a lot of people don’t realize. If you booked a multi-leg itinerary, and at the time of booking the cabin you paid for isn’t available, but is at check-in, you should always request to be moved to the better cabin.

a stuffed animal in an airport

I knew that Alaska Miles couldn’t technically be redeemed for Cathay Dragon, but also surmised that at check-in that probably didn’t matter. I tested that theory first.

When Dave and I were in the middle of check-in, I requested that we both be moved to the earlier Cathay Dragon flight. I’d seen the business class cabin was roughly half full, and only 2 of the 8 first class seats were taken. Without a hiccup buttons were clicking, and she moved us. This confirmed my suspicion that it could be done without much effort, and that there wasn’t anything hardcoded onto my ticket that would prevent it.

Once we had been moved, I then requested that both of us be moved to First Class.

I figured that asking for both at one time would be overwhelming, and wanted to get each step achieved independently. Since we weren’t continuing on directly, the gate agent didn’t quite understand why that should happen. Once I explained to her the situation, and she pulled up the rest of our itinerary, she made a call. Within a minute or two we had our new seats. Incredible.

A quick peek at our Cathay Dragon First Class ride from Shanghai to Hong Kong.

One cool thing that I saw the staff do, which is just exemplary of the excellence provided by Cathay Pacific, had to do with lint from a blanket. One passenger was wearing a dress and the blanket had left quite a bit of lint on it. Once brought to the attention of the crew, a lint roller and sticky replacements were brought, and a female attendant assisted the passenger in removing the lint. How amazing is that?!

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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11 Comments

  • […] my portion of the trip with Alaska miles we were restricted to flights operated on Cathay metal. Luckily, when we checked in at the airport, we were lucky enough to swap flights, arrive earlier int…. Here’s what it was […]

  • Vet&Banker February 20, 2018

    This is good to know. I’ve been wanting to do NA – Asia in CX, but most places we’d continue on would be Cathay Dragon. Good to know there’s a work around when there’s both options available.

    • Miles February 20, 2018

      VB – Just be aware that it may not work, and can only be done at the point of check-in…really comes down to the rep helping you out.

  • Monika February 14, 2018

    Paris (CDG) / Los Angeles (LAX) – Air France – La Première Los Angeles (LAX) / Chicago (ORD) – American Airlines – Economy surclassable en First Chicago (ORD) / Hong Kong (HKG) – Cathay Pacific – First Hong Kong (HKG) / Milan (MXP) – Cathay Pacific – First Milan (MXP) / Paris (CDG) – Air France – Economy Avec Flying Blue.

  • […] Tip 3:这里HT一下MonkeyMiles的文章。大意就是,如果你的主要航程(比如远程国际段)为两舱,其他航段,即使在订票过程中为低等级舱位(比如区域段因为不放票的原因,出票为混舱),你是有权力在值机时要求免费升舱的。而这个升舱是不受订票航司的伙伴限制的。MonekyMiles的例子是AS出的国泰头等,但是上海到香港段国泰只有躺不平的商务,没有头等;港龙有Zodiac Cirrus头等,但是AS无法出港龙的票。这种情况是可以在值机的时候要求改签到港龙的航班并且升舱到头等的。 […]

  • Justin February 11, 2018

    Cathay is known for their good customer service. Do you think a North American airline would do the same thing?

    • Miles February 11, 2018

      Justin – yeah, who knows…I’ve had absolutely wonderful reps, and others that live up to the stereotype. Worth asking nevertheless.

  • Ken February 11, 2018

    I wish we could credit Cathay Dragon flights to Alaska too.

  • Tony February 11, 2018

    So cheap!

  • Frank February 10, 2018

    Wouldnt she have instructed you to call Alaska to sort out the business to first “upgrade”? I mean, your ticket said business continuing on a first class ticket so how would the agent know you were indeed entitled first class?

    • Miles February 10, 2018

      Frank – No, at the point of check-in you’re at the whim of the check-in desk agent. That agent has a lot of discretion, one being, the ability to upgrade, etc. Unlike revenue tickets, award tickets are uniformly priced according to the highest priced leg – in this case, First, but also entitle the passenger to a seat in the highest priced cabin where the fare bucket is avail. This is where discretion comes in. There may not have been an award seat avail in first, but just a seat, and the check0in agent had to make a decision. I’d guess this is why she called her suprerior, because can see that I’m booked on an award ticket, and that I’m continuing on in First, therefore she knows I’m entitled to a first class seat – I’d guess, because of the empty cabin, she (her superior authorized) put us there as a courtesy.

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