Cathay away! Click the wrong website and be prepared to pay double
First Class Update to Asia: Once the lockdown began, a lot of airlines removed their First Class service from many routes. On December 12, Cathay Pacific announced that their First Class cabin was coming back to London, Paris, and Tokyo to/from Hong Kong.
When we saw this press release, we got excited because that meant it was only a matter of time before First Class would come back to the U.S. Well, as we anticipated in FCF’s Annual 2023 Crystal Ball report, the wait is over. Cathay Pacific’s Los Angeles-Hong Kong First Class service has returned and with award seat availability for up to two travelers. We also expect First Class to return to New York soon and we’ll be closely monitoring that.
As we previously reported, the award availability calendar “month view” is sometimes inaccurate on the cathaypacific.com website, so don’t rely on it. Instead, search by specific day, which you can then navigate by week.
Although we didn’t find any free First Class award seats using Cathay partners, here’s the First Class availability we did find using Cathay Pacific miles, which you can get by transferring 110,000 points each way from Amex, Capital One, and Citi.
Cathay’s First Class Sweet Redeems to Asia
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So if you’re looking to score a First Class experience to Asia this year, Cathay Pacific is your best bet at the moment. We’ll be keeping a close eye on First Class availability as more routes open up, so stay tuned.
Cathay Pacific First Class…
What’s Business Class to Asia Look Like Nowadays?
Typical Fares: For Business Class to Asia, first, the bad news: There’s not a lot of airline joy to be found. Delta’s fares are crazy-high and their mileage redemptions for premium cabin flyers are next to worthless. American and United’s published fares–apart from traveling to Asia via Canada to save up to 54%–generally start at $6,000 to $8,000+. And, trying to find discount mileage award availability on those two airlines is like trying to find a straw-colored needle in a continent-sized haystack.
Typical Miles Prices: On American, Delta, and United: Los Angeles-Jakarta on Delta is around 910,000 miles round-trip. American is around 220,000 miles with less than a handful of dates available. United is around 198,000 to 400,000 miles.
Cathay Pacific Business Class…
Which Brings Us to the Good News:
Getting to Asia with Miles & Points
on Top-Ranked Cathay Pacific
First, let’s take a look at the opportunities for mileage award travel. Although we didn’t find any Business Class award seats using Cathay partners, here’s the free award seat availability we found on Cathay Pacific for just 140,000 miles round-trip from the West Coast and 170,000 miles from the East Coast. Get Cathay’s miles easily via points-transfer partners Amex, Capital One, and Citi.
Sweet Redeems on Cathay Pacific Business Class
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Getting to Asia in Business Class with Cash
Typical fares on American, Delta, and United: Los Angeles-Jakarta on Delta is around $6,543 round-trip, American is around $7,965, and United is around $5,260.
Cathay Pacific is often about half the cost of American, Delta, and United…
Cathay: A Tale of Two Fares
Cathay’s Business Class fares look great – almost 50% lower than American’s, its own Oneworld partner, as you can see above. But how do you find them? Here’s a quick example of the easiest and fastest way to find the lowest fares. If you go to aa.com and search for Cathay Pacific’s Los Angeles-Bali fares in Business Class you’ll get served up a $7,979 fare. However, if you go to Google Flights, you’ll see that you can get the same flight booked through Cathay Pacific for just $4,002 (screenshot below). This is one reason you should never go to an airline website first. That’s a $3,977 saving simply by not limiting yourself to checking just one website. I only say this because I’ve heard that many people search and book flights exclusively through their primary airline’s website.
Example Asia Business Class Fare Comparison
Save the most from Los Angeles, with many Cathay Pacific fares under $4,000 round-trip…
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Other Relatively Good (compared to AA, DL, & UA) Fares Under $5,000…
And here’s the intel for sub-$5,000 fares on Cathay Pacific. Some are barely over $4,000 and all are well below fares we’re finding on other major airlines.
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