Availability of Partner Awards for Krisflyer

[missy_fit]

I would like to transfer my AMEX points to Krisflyer to use for a partner (air China) award booking for 4 people for HK to Beijing (Rtn).

I dont want to transfer the points to Krisflyer if no award seats are available.
Otherwise I will transfer to another reward program that has the flight available (maybe Cathay?)

Is there any way of checking how many award seats are available?


Does anyone know how long it takes for AMEX to transfer points to Kflyer?

[edison]

Well you can either ring up Krisflyer and ask for seat availability, or you can join ANA Mileage Club (free) and use their Star Alliance online booking engine. They show all *A availability which includes Air China. Have fun.

[missy_fit]

I did call Krisflyer and they they cant guarantee that the award seats will still be there by time I do the transfer from CC to Krisflyer. They couldnt tell me how many are available. If I could tell that there are 20 award seats left then I would transfer it but if there's only 5 left then there is a good chance it might be gone by the time I transfer the points, request the seats and the processing of the request.

I'll have a look at ANA club, havent heard of it before. THanks

[edison]

I did call Krisflyer and they they cant guarantee that the award seats will still be there by time I do the transfer from CC to Krisflyer. They couldnt tell me how many are available. If I could tell that there are 20 award seats left then I would transfer it but if there's only 5 left then there is a good chance it might be gone by the time I transfer the points, request the seats and the processing of the request.

I'll have a look at ANA club, havent heard of it before. THanks

Well for any Frequent flyer programs there is a chance that the seat availability would change by the time you transfer the point to your frequent flyer program..... I do find transfering Amex points to Krisflyer can be done in 1 day though. Good luck.

[ANstar]

If you transfer before 5pm/6pm they should be in your account by 2pm the next day!

Unless you are travelling in PEAK I would expect that there is a good chance the award seats will be there the next day.

[auriga]

Well you can either ring up Krisflyer and ask for seat availability, or you can join ANA Mileage Club (free) and use their Star Alliance online booking engine. They show all *A availability which includes Air China. Have fun.

Are you sure about Air China availability being shown on ANA?

I have not come across Air China on that website.

[edison]

Are you sure about Air China availability being shown on ANA?

I have not come across Air China on that website.

Yeah you are right, somehow Air China availability are not shown on ANA Mileage Club booking site, even though it is part of *A. However, just about every other *A (except LX and CA) is shown. Unless missyfit want to go through via Seoul (OZ) ......

[missy_fit]

Thanks All.

Was browsing Asia Miles site and they have table which shows the chances of availability (rated as good, medium, low) for each fortnight for Cathay and Dragon flights.

Also found online access to Cathay and Dragon award seats availability through their respective websites.

Will ask Krisflyer again about their rating on "chance" of availability as I prefer to use Krisflyer as I require less points to travel from HK-PEK (Rtn) and the conversion of credit card to Asia Miles is less.

[dajop]

Is it also worth asking for SZX-PEK (or even CAN-PEK) in case HKG-PEK does go pear shaped? These may be viable alternatives ... or alternative via Shanghai on FM?