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How I used Qantas to search Cathay award Availability
I just published an article detailing the ins and outs of rebooking a pre-deval AA award ticket and getting the original pricing honored. I ended up rebooking a Japan Airlines/AA blended award into a Cathay/AA blended award. In order to do this I needed to search availability to find Cathay seats that I could book with points. This is how I used Qantas to search Cathay award availability.
Step One: Log In
Step Two: Enter your desired flight information
The Qantas search engine limits certain itineraries and in order to get the engine to process you must select “Classic Award.” My search was from Hong Kong to New York could only be searched after “Classic Award” was designated.
Once you select “Classic Reward” you will then see an extensive list of airports of which to choose.
It will process the award based off coach. You can then select other classes of service
It will then display a month long calendar of availability
This is a much more comprehensive way to search Cathay Pacific availability if you’re flexible on your dates than on BA.com
BA limits your results by the day; whereas, Qantas gives you a broader, month long, swatch of inventory. It also allows you to specify certain classes of service.
Long Haul space is the backbone of an itinerary and what I search for first to structure the itinerary.
Since I was looking to change my original Itinerary, Han-Nrt-Ord-Ind, I knew the most difficult leg to find would be from Asia to the States. I did the above search for looking for Cathay space from HKG to several different cities until I found one that worked for my travel needs. Along the way I also used the Japan Airlines site looking for inventory ( click that link for a tutorial on multi-city search using JAL website) I could move my old flight into as well, and it just happened I found a date on the Qantas site that worked for a new trip I was forming.
Once I knew I had a long haul leg I could use, it was much easier to structure the legs needed to route from HAN to HKG and JFK to IND. Usually these smaller flights operate multiple times per day and space is made more readily available. Had I run into a dead end with those shorter legs, I would have looked into more creative ways of getting from Hanoi to Hong Kong and JFK to Indy with additional stops. Luckily I was able to book direct!
Once you find the space…call the airline you wish to redeem points with and book your flight!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 60k points after $4k spend in 3 months
- Worth $750 in Chase Travel℠ and way more if you maximize transfer partners
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2024
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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