Cathay Special on again

[PenName 1]

December Sale, FYI:

 

Cathay Pacific is running another one of their monthly specials for purchase of ticket through 31 December 2005. For $722 from LAX or SFO, or $782 from NYC (inclusive of fuel surcharges but not of taxes), departures are available from 01 February through return required by 15 May 2006. As always, there are no frequent flyer miles available other than the Asia Miles program, but it is a decent price for sneaking in a previously unscheduled trip over for Songkran or whatever. I know the value of the discounted ticket versus the lost frequent flyer miles has been analyzed in depth before, so I leave that to each of your own preferences. As noted above, I just thought I'd get a post up about the December sale, FYI.

 

Pen

[Hub 203]

Thanks Pen!

 

Doesn't work for my schedule, but any deals on CX are beneficial postings, IMO.

 

Regardless of FF miles, the huge difference betwen cx economy and domestic carriers makes cx a good choice.

 

Hub

[PenName 1]

Yeah Hub - that's kind of the thing. CX is such a generally superior quality, you really start to (re)think the value of holding out to pay more on another carrier where you may be less comfortable, just to scoop up the miles. As with anything, it's different strokes for different folks.

 

Another option, I suppose, is to open an Asia Miles account and collect the miles there; similar to what several members do with Eva since their miles don't land too well with any other carriers. A look at Asia Miles does reveal that there are several carriers that can post miles to an Asia Miles account, but the overall benefits don't seem to be on par with One World or Star Alliance, or even Sky Team.

 

As for scheduling, I have that problem every so often, as well. CX does seem to have a Bangkok promotion two or three times a year, though. If not for spring, maybe for fall.

 

Pen

[Hub 203]

Pen:

 

CX used to have a periodic special where it was only 40K AA FF miles for a RT ticket. Emil and I have been waiting for that to resurface for a few years; alas, it seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird.

 

I totally agree with you - your deal above or the $599/$699 deal they sometimes have seems a much better deal for the infrequent traveller - even with the third trip free, I would rather pay $2,100 for three CX trips than $1800 for three NW/UA trips with the freebie.

 

I kind of fell in love with Cathay the first time I flew them 4-5 years ago, on top of the fact that the service night and day compared with NWAs, the personal tvs, food, better schedule (leave at night, arrive day) - my friend travelling with me had a bad back so I asked in NYC if they could upgrade him to biz, and they ended up upgrading both of us on the HK-BKK leg for free .

 

Last November I flew their new biz class - thats another story - talk about taking the dread out of the long trip - I even did 12 hours of work on the laptop going/coming and saved a few vacation days.

 

Hub

[PenName 1]

Hub:

 

I completely agree. I do a lot of traveling domestically and occasionally internationally for my work and I collect all of those miles to a program where I can grab a Business or First Class ticket on CX. I haven't had a chance to do the JFK / HKK non-stop in First yet, but that's where the next mileage purchase is going, hopefully for a November trip in 2006.

 

As for alternatives, I'm with you -- what's the sense of paying for three uncomfortable trips on some carrier (probably a US domestic one) just so you can earn a free trip on the same uncomfortable carrier? Let me pay $800 to fly 20,000 miles roundtrip with an airline where I'll be as comfortable as possible, and if I can't bear the idea of not earning miles for my effort, then I set up the Asia Miles account.

 

Everyone has their preferences, but there's a lot to like about CX, including the new HKK airport (which I prefer to Taipei and Tokyo). I've thought about switching to TG for the JFK - BKK nonstop (and using accumulated Star Alliance miles toward TG or SQ flights), but they're going to reduce it to just four days a week because it's not pulling sufficient passenger loads, and changing planes has never been the huge pain in the ass for me that it seems to be for some travelers. CX flights are just comfortable for me, and for the things that I prefer in an airline, they are, on their worse day, a far sight better than a lot of airlines I've tried, on their best day.

 

Every first of the month, I look forward to the CX email telling me of the new monthly special, crossing my fingers that it's for BKK once again.

 

Here's to hoping your next CX to BKK is as soon as possible.

 

Pen

[Emil 0]

Pen:

 

CX used to have a periodic special where it was only 40K AA FF miles for a RT ticket. Emil and I have been waiting for that to resurface for a few years; alas, it seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird.

 

I totally agree with you - your deal above or the $599/$699 deal they sometimes have seems a much better deal for the infrequent traveller - even with the third trip free, I would rather pay $2,100 for three CX trips than $1800 for three NW/UA trips with the freebie.

 

I kind of fell in love with Cathay the first time I flew them 4-5 years ago, on top of the fact that the service night and day compared with NWAs, the personal tvs, food, better schedule (leave at night, arrive day) - my friend travelling with me had a bad back so I asked in NYC if they could upgrade him to biz, and they ended up upgrading both of us on the HK-BKK leg for free .

 

Last November I flew their new biz class - thats another story - talk about taking the dread out of the long trip - I even did 12 hours of work on the laptop going/coming and saved a few vacation days.

 

Hub

Hub,

 

That was 45K miles and if they run it again I'll take 2. Cathay sent me a survey last month and on Other Comments I told them that they needed to run that special again.

[phantomtiger 0]

Agree with all post here.

All the Asia airlines that fly out of the states are much better in service and comfort and food compare to all the US based airlines. I have flown with Japan airlines and Cathay pac. to HK and Bkk. Most asia airlines cost a little more and dont have the flexible airmiles, but its still worth it --IMO

PT

[nico 0]

In November I flew Cathay Pacific from Los Angeles to HK and then to BKK. The plane was 50% empty in both directions, which made for a very pleasant flight. Not only that, but on the return I only had 45 minutes to catch the flight to LA after arriving from BKK, but the HK airport is very efficient and a Cathay Pacific rep had a sign with my name on it when I landed to direct me to the gate for the flight back to LA.

[cowboy 0]

I was just checking fares for february on united. Currently it quoted me $742 for a roundtrip plus an extra 5% of the ticket for being a united ff if I entered my number. Cheap fares can be found many places. EVA showed delux class available for 902 for the same dates of travel.