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Australia is one of those dream destinations that many of us have on our bucket lists. The biggest obstacle many of us face is time and cost. So when the opportunity presents itself to seize the moment and take the trip…you want to maximize every last minute, and every last point you use. Enter Alaska Airlines. Alaska presents a very attractive option as its award routing rules allow for one stopover, and you can utilize this stopover in a number of different ways. I made use of it when planning our journey BACK from Australia on Cathay Pacific and baked in a free stopover in Hong Kong.
When configuring the routing, you can either connect straight through Hong Kong, or as I planned, stop for a few days, and then hop back on a plane for the same exact price. In fact, as I’ll explain in another post, I was able to massage the flights enough to fly their A350 to Hong Kong in business, and continue onward from Hong Kong to LA in First Class…all for 80k points. That means we will have flown to Australia in Qantas First Class, up to Hong Kong in Cathay Business, and back to the states in Cathay First for 150k miles. Helluva deal if you ask me.
A free stopover…
You can add in a free stopover as long as…
- You fly the same airline before and after the stopover.
- You can also add on an Alaska Airlines leg
What this means is You CAN
- Fly from Sydney to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific, and then Cathay Pacific to Los Angeles. Stopover. And then fly Alaska from LA to New York months later.
- Or you could fly Cathay to Hong Kong, stopover, and fly Cathay on back to the States
You Can’t
- fly from Sydney to Hong Kong on Cathay. Stopover. Fly Cathay to Tokyo and then Japan Airlines from Tokyo to LA. You can’t mix partners of Alaska.
Get the idea?
Adding in Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of my favorite cities in the world, and a place that offers incredible option for redeeming points. It offers amazing shopping, dining, nightlife, and hospitality. It’s vibrant and a city I really wanted to show my girlfriend.
I’d long dreamt of the perfect routing on an Australia trip, and we nailed it. Qantas First over from the States. Cathay business up to Hong Kong, and then the grande finale…Cathay First back from Hong Kong.
Stay tuned…I’m planning another post where I show you how I used the patterns of Cathay award availability to access the best seats and routing, all the while hedging our ride back in business class as a worse case scenario.
- How I found and booked 2 Qantas First Class Tickets
- How I landed Qantas + Cathay Biz/First to/from Australia – $40k in value
- How I used Alaska Miles to bake in a stopover in a Hong Kong
- Review: Qantas First Class Lounge LAX
- Review: Qantas First Class LAX-MEL
- Review: Qantas Business Class Lounge Melbourne
- Review: Qantas Business Class A330 Melbourne to Sydney
- Intercontinental Sydney
- How to spend 2 awesome nights in Melbourne
- Review: Qualia – Hamilton Island
- Review: Palm Bungalows – Hamilton Island
- Why you should add Hamilton Island to your Australia adventure
- What it’s like taking a helicopter to the Great Barrier Reef
- Review: Sofitel Gold Coast
- Review: Qantas Business Class Lounge Brisbane
- Review: Cathay Pacific Business Class A350 Brisbane to Hong Kong
- Review: Cathay Pacific Arrivals Lounge Hong Kong
- Review: Grand Hyatt Hong Kong 1 bedroom Suite
- What it’s like being a Hyatt VIP with Prive
- Review: Cathay Pacific The Pier
- Review: Cathay Pacific The Wing
- Review: Cathay Pacific The Bridge
- Review: Cathay Pacific First Class Hong Kong to Los Angeles
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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