Cathay Pacific award redemption - stopover in HK - how to?

[M@rcoPolo]

Hi there

I have a bunch of AMEX membership rewards and I'm planning to use them to fly to Europe (CDG) from SYD in May... looking at redemption charts it's much cheaper (points-wise) to burn them with Cathay rather than Qantas...

However checking the Cathay award redemption site it doesn't seem to allow for stopover (I'm planning to spend a couple of days in HK on the way to Europe)... but the T&Cs clearly state this is possible.
Do you need to call CX to book an award trip with a stopover or am I missing something here...?

Also it's odd if you book the award in J with CX it's 175k miles but if you book with partner airlines it's 160k miles in J but it looks like you need to go via LHR...

Appreciate your tips as it's the first time I'm redeeming miles with CX

 

[craven morehead]

Can you just book two separate legs ie: SYD-HKG (stop over) and then HKG-CDG?

 

[M@rcoPolo]

Yes I could but in C it would be 80K + 120K = 200K miles instead of 175K miles...
... on the other end in Premium Economy it's slightly cheaper at 54K + 72K = 126K miles instead of 132K miles.

It looks like once the award flights are booked you can change dates online (subject to availability) for free... this is so much better than Qantas!