“Which Miles Should I Get For My Cathay Pacific First Class Glitch Flight?” The Airline That Gives Enough For A Free Business/First Class Flight!

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Related posts:

• HOT! Cathay Pacific: Fly First Class From Vietnam To The US For $845 Round-Trip!
• Cathay Pacific Is Honoring Their $675 Business/$845 First Class Asia To North America Tickets! Rules Of The Deal You Need To Know Before The Next Price Mistake

A reader who purchased an $845 Cathay Pacific first class flight from DAD-HKG-JFK asked where he should credit his miles.

I mentioned this briefly in the original post, but let’s elaborate a bit:

Whenever you fly you can choose to credit the miles earned from the flight to the airline you fly or to a partner airline. For example an occasional El Al flyer will typically be better off crediting their flight to Qantas than to Matmid.

The fare was valid from SGN, HAN and DAD to the US.

The HAN-HKG flights were on partner airline Vietnam Air. The DAD-HKG flights were on partner airline Cathay Dragon. The SGN-HKG flights were on Cathay Pacific.

The Great Circle Mapper lists SGN-HKG at 925 miles and HKG-JFK at 8,072 miles.

Alaska awards 350% of the flown miles in first class and 225% of the flown miles in business class.

That means SGN-HKG will earn about 2,081 miles and HKG-JFK will earn about 28,252 miles. The return flight will earn the same, so the total miles earned will be 60,666.

If you’re flying on from DAD-HKG on Cathay Dragon you’ll want to credit that flight segment at the checkin counter or gate to American or BA, which will earn 125% of the 570 flown miles, or 713 miles each way/1,426 round-trip. Make sure to credit the HKG-JFK flight at the checkin counter or gate to Alaska to earn 28,252 miles one-way or 56,504 round-trip.

If you’re flying on from HAN-HKG on Vietnam Air you’ll want to credit that flight segment at the checkin counter or gate to Flying Blue, which will earn 200% of the 526 flown miles, or 1,052 miles each way/2,054 round-trip. Make sure to credit the HKG-JFK flight at the checkin counter or gate to Alaska to earn 28,252 miles one-way or 56,504 round-trip.

Alaska also has a status match program if you hold elite status with another airline.

They will give MVP status if you have:

• Aeromexico Gold
• Air Canada Altitude 25K (Prestige) or 35K
• American Airlines AAdvantage Gold
• Delta Silver Medallion
• Frontier Elite
• Hawaiian Pualani Gold
• JetBlue TrueBlue Mosaic
• Southwest A List
• United Premier Silver

They will give MVP Gold status if you have:

• Aeromexico Platinum
• Air Canada Altitude 50K
• American Airlines AAdvantage Platinum
• Delta Gold Medallion
• Hawaiian Pualani Platinum
• Southwest A-List Preferred
• United Premier Gold

They will give MVP Gold 75K status if you have:

• Aeromexico Titanio
• Air Canada Altitude 75K and 100K
• American Airlines Platinum Pro, Executive Platinum, or Concierge Key
• Delta Platinum Medallion or Diamond Medallion
• Southwest A-List Preferred & Companion Pass (must hold both)
• United Platinum, 1K, or Global Services

Alaska MVP gives a 50% base miles bonus, MVP Gold gives a 100% base miles bonus, and MVP Gold 75K gives a 125% base miles bonus.

That means for a SGN-HKG-JFK flyer:

• An Alaska non-elite will earn 60,666 miles.
• An Alaska MVP will earn an extra 8,997 miles on the round-trip, for a total of 69,663 miles.
• An Alaska MVP Gold will earn an extra 17,994 miles on the round-trip, for a total of 78,660 miles.
• An Alaska MVP Gold 75K will earn an extra 22,493 miles on the round-trip, for a total of 83,159 miles.

What’s amazing about that is you can use the following amount of Alaska miles for a one-way award flight on Cathay Pacific between the US and Asia:

• Coach: 30K
• Premium Economy: 35K
• Business: 50K
• First: 70K

That means a non-elite will earn enough miles for a free business class flight to Asia and an MVP Gold elite will earn enough miles for a free first class flight.

Want to fly from JFK to Vancouver? Here’s how many Alaska miles you would need to do that one-way on Cathay Pacific:

• Coach: 17.5K
• Premium Economy: 20K
• Business: 25K
• First: 35K

That means a non-elite will earn enough miles for a free round-trip business class flight to Vancouver and an MVP Gold elite will earn enough miles for a free round-trip first class flight.

Want to fly from Hong Kong to Israel? Here’s how many Alaska miles you would need to do that one-way on Cathay Pacific:

• Coach: 22.5K
• Premium Economy: 25K
• Business: 30K

Want to fly from the US to Israel or Africa? Here’s how many Alaska miles you would need to do that one-way on Cathay Pacific with a free stopover in Hong Kong:

• Coach: 50K
• Premium Economy: 55K
• Business: 62.5K
• First: 70K

That means any elite will earn enough miles for a free business class flight between the US and Israel and and an MVP Gold elite will earn enough miles for a free first class flight.

I’ve flown Cathay First Class to Asia and Vancouver several times using miles. It typically has great service, though it doesn’t match the same top-tier level of service of airlines like ANA, JAL, and Singapore.

However Cathay Pacific First Class does have the most comfortable seat and bed in the sky:

Kosher meals from Asia and in Cathay first class lounges in Hong Kong are catered by London’s Hermolis, which makes by far the best kosher meals in the air. In addition to requesting kosher meals for your flights, you can request kosher meals to be served during your connection or origin at the Cathay Hong Kong First Class Wing Lounge at +852-2747-7972 or the Cathay Hong Kong First Class Pier Lounge at +852-2747-3939.

Congrats to everyone who got in on the deal!

Happy 2019 all, and to those who bought our good – VERY good surprise ‘special’ on New Year’s Day, yes – we made a mistake but we look forward to welcoming you on board with your ticket issued. Hope this will make your 2019 ‘special’ too!
.#promisemadepromisekept #lessonlearnt

— Cathay Pacific (@cathaypacific) January 2, 2019

Rules of the deal:

• Don’t call.
  • Don’t talk to the airline or companies offering a deal while the deal is live. You can always ask questions once the deal is gone.
• Don’t hesitate.
  • These deals never last long, you’ve got to act very fast. Luckily sites like Priceline and Orbitz provide the ability to cancel a ticket for free until the day after you book. That allows you to make a quick ticket and then analyze whether you want to use it after the craziness settles.
  • With some really crazy deals like 4 mile island, the only tickets that were honored were people who booked tickets to travel that week. Luckily there were DDFers who were able to drop everything and fly in first class around the world for just 4 miles.
• Don’t forget to book your baby!
  • A common theme that I’ve seen with price mistakes is that people forget to book tickets for their infant children. You need to pay 10% of the normal fare for the privilege of holding your child on international tickets. My opinion is that you should always buy a seat and have a carseat for your infant just like you would in a car. But even if that is normally cost prohibitive, when you are getting a tickets to Israel for just $350, surely you should book a seat for the infant rather than pay for the right to hold the infant.
  • Sometimes websites won’t allow infants or kids to book a ticket. The date of birth on a ticket isn’t actually matched up with anything, so I’ve been known to add 100 years to the age of my kids when I need to and I’ve never run into any issues.
• PGFHGS
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  • I don’t get as excited as some people over fare glitches. I’ve been playing the mileage game for over 15 years, earning tens of millions of miles and points over that time period. Those miles allow me to travel the world on my own terms and in the cabin I want. You can read some of those trip reports here. I’m still sitting on a ton of miles and it’s not because I’m a hoarder. In 2018 I burned through over 3MM miles, in 2017 I used 1.375 million miles and in 2016 I used nearly 2.5 million miles. I’ve flown around the world countless times in private first class suites with miles earned from the credit card and mileage game.  And I still have a top-notch FICO score.

You can also learn more about my favorite hobby by clicking on the credit card and points menus on the top of this site or by browsing the DansDeals Forums to search and read about strategies.