Booking Cathay through Qantas points

[Mal]

Have been trying to book some reward flights, and hoping to use Cathay to get to HKG rather than Qantas.

Except, I can't find any Cathay availability on the online booking system, and when broadening searches and looking eg HKG-SIN, still can't find any availability on Cathay. This is for a wide set of dates, not just couple of days.

Are there any issues with the online searches for Cathay? Or is it just lack of availability? I do recall some problems a while ago with the searching for Cathay where some false seating availability was being returned for bookings through Qantas and am wondering if the visibility was pulled.

Expert Flyer doesn't help (not showing award classes in Cathay) for me to double check.

Anyone booked successfully recently?

 

[NM]

Are there any issues with the online searches for Cathay?

Yes, this has been an ongoing issue for some time. It not only affects QF visibility, but seems to be affecting all OneWorld airline's visibility of CX awards.

 

[Mal]

Phonecall time. Fantastic!

Any other online places I could search from then?

 

[NM]

Phonecall time. Fantastic!

Any other online places I could search from then?

Not that I know of.

 

[serfty]

Yep, a call to QFF is the only current way to book awards using CX flights; there have been reports of people getting the 2½K fee waived in these cases.

 

[Mal]

I may have a solution...

Looks like the Cathay website will give me online availability of rewards when I sign in with my Asia Miles number.

Now to work out if that availability translates to Qantas availability!

 

[Limewood]

We booked 4 CPX seats with FF points Cairns to HKG the last week September 2006 for 25th April 2007 (yes its now tomorrow), got them, looked a week later for someone else at the time all sold out, it seems very few CPX seats are available. Yet if you pay they still have seats on our flight (as of last week).