No Luck Booking Cathay Pacific Business Class? Tips and Tricks to Find Award Space from the US

No Luck Booking Cathay Pacific Business Class? Tips and Tricks to Find Award Space from the US - Be Flexible with Departure Cities

One of the best ways to increase your chances of finding Cathay Pacific business class award space is to be flexible with your departure city. Cathay Pacific flies to several gateway cities across North America including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, and Toronto. However, award inventory is not consistent across all routes. Being willing to position to another airport to start your journey opens up significantly more options.

For example, trying to book New York to Hong Kong flights often results in waitlisting or finding only last minute availability. But looking at flights out of Toronto or Vancouver frequently shows wide open award space. Even if it costs a bit extra to position to one of these cities, it's worth it to lock in the long haul business class seats. Availability leaving San Francisco tends to be better than Los Angeles too.

One award traveler found booking NYC-Hong Kong in Cathay Pacific business to be near impossible for his dates. But he was able to easily book Vancouver-Hong Kong seats on the same flights he wanted. He got a separate ticket from New York to Vancouver, which only cost $150. This small add-on was totally worth it to experience Cathay's excellent business class product on his trip to Asia.

Being flexible on your departure city requires some time and effort to search segment-by-segment. But opening up additional gateway options massively increases your odds of finding premium cabin award space. Even consider flying to Europe first on a different airline, then connecting onto Cathay Pacific's routes to Asia from one of their European gateways like London, Frankfurt, or Amsterdam.

If flying from mainland China, always check routes from both Shanghai and Beijing. Flights from Hong Kong are also an option, but those seats are usually snapped up fast by locals. Don't forget to see if any partners like British Airways have award availability on Cathay Pacific-operated flights from other parts of Asia as well.