CMH-JFK-HKG-CGK

gilapoin21

Level 2 Member
Hi,

I'm planning this trip for next summer. There are plenty availability on Cathay Biz for 110k AA miles.
This is my first time booking an international award flight so I'm a bit overwhelmed. Few questions I have.

1. Should I book JFK-HKG first and then attached CMH-JFK and HKG-CGK later? Any fees for doing that?
2. Will we be able to check our luggage in CMH and picked them up in CGK?
3. On the way back, can we stop over in HKG for a week?

Thanks,
Bill
 

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
Hi,

I'm planning this trip for next summer. There are plenty availability on Cathay Biz for 110k AA miles.
This is my first time booking an international award flight so I'm a bit overwhelmed. Few questions I have.

1. Should I book JFK-HKG first and then attached CMH-JFK and HKG-CGK later? Any fees for doing that?
2. Will we be able to check our luggage in CMH and picked them up in CGK?
3. On the way back, can we stop over in HKG for a week?

Thanks,
Bill
Hey Bill,

1. No. If you do that you are changing origin and destination airports and will incur fees. You need to ticket the entire thing.
2. Yes, if you ticket all the way through then it will get there.
3. Not on AA. As far as I know they stopped 'stopovers'

But - can you explain the 110K miles part? That's a lot... is the CMH-CGK all a one way and you are just sharing a route? (sorry if it's a silly question, long week already!!)
 

Maverick17

Level 2 Member
But - can you explain the 110K miles part? That's a lot... is the CMH-CGK all a one way and you are just sharing a route? (sorry if it's a silly question, long week already!!)
110 is normal amount for AA RT US to SE Asia in J.
 

gilapoin21

Level 2 Member
My bad. Maverick is right. I was thinking JFK-HKG roundtrip for 110k. It sure has been a long week. Lol.
Ok, so how do I ticket the whole thing? I can find availability from JFK-CGK but CMH-JFK are not available yet.
I'm currently looking at May 28, 2015.

So, coming back, can I do something like this?
CGK-HKG using Avios (12.5k/pp) is there a better option?
HKG-CMH using AA miles
 

Maverick17

Level 2 Member
I'm planning this trip for next summer.....
3. On the way back, can we stop over in HKG for a week?
Your options and what fits depends partly on 1. what other options can you consider (i.e. $$, UA miles, getting a new card bonus) and 2. is a HKG stop all you want. UA is where I cut my teeth more, and they allow great RT within SE Asia with a stopover and an open jaw. So in theory, you could do HKG-CGK-DPS-HKG, or something like this, if you wanted to spend the extra miles. If you're just looking for the least amount of miles to get to/from CGK-HKG on one end of your trip, then Avios is pretty good. With China Southern, VN, and Garuda in play, it's also an ideal time to burn some Delta miles if you want.

As for the CMH parts, if JFK-HKG is open around your dates and doesn't seem to be disappearing quickly, or you are at all flexible in case your specific date disappeared, I'd just wait it out. But maybe more AA focused readers have better ideas.
 

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
Your options and what fits depends partly on 1. what other options can you consider (i.e. $$, UA miles, getting a new card bonus) and 2. is a HKG stop all you want. UA is where I cut my teeth more, and they allow great RT within SE Asia with a stopover and an open jaw. So in theory, you could do HKG-CGK-DPS-HKG, or something like this, if you wanted to spend the extra miles. If you're just looking for the least amount of miles to get to/from CGK-HKG on one end of your trip, then Avios is pretty good. With China Southern, VN, and Garuda in play, it's also an ideal time to burn some Delta miles if you want.

As for the CMH parts, if JFK-HKG is open around your dates and doesn't seem to be disappearing quickly, or you are at all flexible in case your specific date disappeared, I'd just wait it out. But maybe more AA focused readers have better ideas.
Great insights here, thanks Maverick.

Just from a philosophical perspective, when I see a ticket like this one I don't value the CMH-JFK leg - if you are comparing it on experience/value from the award the real juice is in JFK-HKG in J. My concern would be losing this massively valuable leg,and with it being such a powerful gateway in JFK demand is likely to be high. The solution would be to track how many seats are on that flight in that award bucket (Code U) you could do this by checking Expert Flyer. If you see 6 seats open then wait until it drops - but you would have to check daily... if it starts selling out, you should lock it in. I'd imagine it would sell out fast though.

Another route you could try would be asking AA to 'complete an award' this is something that Gary Leff explained on his blog: http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2014/05/24/still-possible-ask-american-aadvantage-award-space-doesnt-show-available/

So, coming back, can I do something like this?
CGK-HKG using Avios (12.5k/pp) is there a better option?
HKG-CMH using AA miles
Yeah - that would be how you could build in that stopover in HKG... good value. As Maverick stated, if you had other miles available you could also do the entire trip, including stopover with UA or others.
 

gilapoin21

Level 2 Member
I just started collecting miles seriously this year so don't have too many options especially since we would want 4 tickets in J.
We have about 350k UR, 75k United, and 770k AA.

How about this?
1. CMH-JFK-CMH using Avios if calling AA to complete award doesn't work
2. JFK-HKG-JFK using AA miles
3. HKG-CGK-SUB-HKG using UA miles

Would #3 be considered 1 award ticket? We would stopover 1 week each in both CGK and SUB.
Awesome tips so far guys! I'm learning so much. Thanks!
 

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
I just started collecting miles seriously this year so don't have too many options especially since we would want 4 tickets in J.
We have about 350k UR, 75k United, and 770k AA.

How about this?
1. CMH-JFK-CMH using Avios if calling AA to complete award doesn't work
2. JFK-HKG-JFK using AA miles
3. HKG-CGK-SUB-HKG using UA miles

Would #3 be considered 1 award ticket? We would stopover 1 week each in both CGK and SUB.
Awesome tips so far guys! I'm learning so much. Thanks!
Yes, #3 would be one award ticket, but the *A partners for that routing are less than ideal - there is a Singapore flight option with just one change between SUB-HKG but a lot of the routes have 2 changes of plane- which sucks. There is a non stop Cathay flight between SUB-HKG which you could use AA or avios on, and another non stop Cathay from CGK to HKG.

Here's a better approach....

Stop thinking of AA as roundtrips now - just think of them as one way flights, and use the Avios to patch them together.

Outbound 'one way' - (ignoring CMH) should be JFK-CGK (route JFK-HKG-CGK on AA)
Stop there a week
Get yourself from CGK to SUB - it's an hour flight, pay $52 on Air Asia or Lion Air or whatnot..
Inbound 'one way' SUB-HGK-JFK-(CMH) straight home on one ticket, should space be there
OR
Add the cost of Avios from SUB-HKG so you can stopover in HKG too for as long as you want, then fly
HGK-JFK-(CMH) straight home on one ticket, should space be there

If you are going to go the UA route then you'd really get better value out of putting together a full route:

  1. CMH-SUB (outbound)
  2. CGK-CMH (inbound, stopover in HKG if desired)
Edit - I should add you need to get from SUB-CGK, but that is a $50 revenue ticket for a 1hr flight, so I see it as less important. Some itineraries like this (open jaws) you can do land or sea crossings also.

That would all be one ticket... and would allow you to stop a week in SUB, CGK and HKG... I don't have pricing to hand, but if you fly Partners it would likely be too expensive, if you fly on UA metal it may be do-able, but I doubt there are UA metal flights all the way there...
 
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Alpen_Geoff

Level 2 Member
One thing to remember is with AA if you can find the CX space you want you can put it on hold for 5 days while trying to build the rest of the itinerary then build it up when you call to ticket. You can even call up and add segments to the hold but the 5 day clock can't be reset, though you can gamble on calling as soon as the hold is up and putting the ticket back on hold again. I just did this to build SFO-ORD-HKG-KUL-LGK on a mix of AA, CX F / J and MH J.
 

gilapoin21

Level 2 Member
We definitely will go AA since my wife really wants Cathay J.
You know what happens when the wife doesn't get what she wants
:)

Your AA plan makes sense to me.
Instead of Avios, what do you think of CGK to HKG with SUB stopover using UA?
Would that be better value than using Avios?

Thanks Geoff. I had no idea you can do that.
I found out that CMH-JFK on AA is about 2 weeks behind so I might do just that.
How do you put a hold on tickets? Just call AA reservation line?
 

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
We definitely will go AA since my wife really wants Cathay J.
You know what happens when the wife doesn't get what she wants
:)

Your AA plan makes sense to me.
Instead of Avios, what do you think of CGK to HKG with SUB stopover using UA?
Would that be better value than using Avios?

Thanks Geoff. I had no idea you can do that.
I found out that CMH-JFK on AA is about 2 weeks behind so I might do just that.
How do you put a hold on tickets? Just call AA reservation line?
Personally, I would prefer Avios because the distances are short, and the routes seem better. You can get on nonstop Cathay for that portion, which will make for a nicer experience, i'm not a fan of changing planes especially for these flights that are sub 5hrs. I've not put tickets on hold, but it does seem that is the way to do it.
 

gilapoin21

Level 2 Member
I finally got something :)
CMH-CLT-JFK-HKG on hold. HKG-CGK will be available tomorrow.
Total costs per person: $35 booking fee over the phone, plus ~$30 of airport charges.
Business class all the way on AA and CX for 55K. Awesome!

Now just need to book the return trip :)
 

gilapoin21

Level 2 Member
Which CC do you guys recommend to use?
I was thinking Ink Bold because of the travel insurance but is there any benefit to use Citi Exec?
 

Maverick17

Level 2 Member
Glad you found something that you're happy with. Sounds like a great trip.

You are asking about which card for the fees, I gather? Since you're flying J you don't need the card for priority checkin, boarding, bags, etc. so I'm not sure that it would be a big deal which card you use. One with travel insurance then makes sense.

I finally got something :)
CMH-CLT-JFK-HKG on hold. HKG-CGK will be available tomorrow.
Total costs per person: $35 booking fee over the phone, plus ~$30 of airport charges.
Business class all the way on AA and CX for 55K. Awesome!

Now just need to book the return trip :)
 

gilapoin21

Level 2 Member
Glad you found something that you're happy with. Sounds like a great trip.

You are asking about which card for the fees, I gather? Since you're flying J you don't need the card for priority checkin, boarding, bags, etc. so I'm not sure that it would be a big deal which card you use. One with travel insurance then makes sense.
Yes, I actually finalized it tonight. $284 + 220k AA for 4 Js from CMH-CGK charged to Ink Bold.
We are happy campers :D Thanks for everyone's tips.
 

gilapoin21

Level 2 Member
I tried to put a CX award on hold but was told it's not available yet in the system since it's more than 331 days. I can see award availability on BA site.

Has something changed recently with AA system? Both agents I talked to claimed it has been like that for 15 years even though I told them I just booked something 3 weeks ago.

One thing to remember is with AA if you can find the CX space you want you can put it on hold for 5 days whi
le trying to build the rest of the itinerary then build it up when you call to ticket. You can even call up and add segments to the hold but the 5 day clock can't be reset, though you can gamble on calling as soon as the hold is up and putting the ticket back on hold again. I just did this to build SFO-ORD-HKG-KUL-LGK on a mix of AA, CX F / J and MH J.
 

Alpen_Geoff

Level 2 Member
Correct Bill, AA can only see/book 331 days out, whereas BA books I think up to 365...its been that way as long as I've known, AA just doesn't open their calendar as far out as others. Also I would call at 331 if you can as sometimes BA/QF show avail the AA can't see for some reason. I like JAL for confirming what BA/QF shows.
 
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