Update 19 July: it looks like award seat availability is back to normal on most routes. 

There’s been a lot of discussion among frequent fliers the past few weeks about a big reduction in Cathay Pacific business class award seat availability.

On 22 June, Cathay implemented some major changes to its frequent flyer program, Asia Miles, and ever since, business class award seats on many routes have dried up.

This has prompted a strong reaction from travellers who are used to Cathay releasing award seats regularly, both at the end of schedule and close to departure.

Cathay Pacific has historically been more generous with releasing seats than most other oneworld airlines, including Qantas.

For Qantas Points holders, flying Cathay Pacific was one of the best uses of points.

Not only was seat availability good, but the taxes and fees were among the lowest in the alliance, plus Cathay’s large network meant you could fly to popular destinations in Asia, North America and Europe with just a short transit through Hong Kong (which is also a great city to stop over in).

It’s possible that the reduction in award seats is just a glitch following the recent IT changes.

It would be a real shame if this heralds a new (worse) process for releasing award seats.

For Qantas Points holders, as it’s already hard to find business class seats bookable with Qantas Points, any reduction from Cathay would be a big blow.

Cathay hasn’t provided any information about whether this is a glitch or not. Once we know more, I’ll write an update.

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Singapore Airlines will begin direct flights to Los Angeles on 2 November, with the route replacing most of the airline’s existing flights to LA via Seoul and Tokyo.

The new non-stop flights will be operated by brand new A350-900ULR aircraft, which have an all-premium configuration of 67 business class seats (in a 1-2-1 layout) and 94 premium economy seats (in a 2-4-2 layout). There’s no first class or economy on these planes.

Los Angeles will be the second destination for the new aircraft, following the restart of direct flights to New York in October.

The Los Angeles route will quickly grow to 10 flights per week from early December.

The good news for points lovers is that Singapore Airlines has made lots of “saver” business class and premium economy award seats available on the new flights. The one-way cost is just 88,000 KrisFlyer miles in business class or 65,000 KrisFlyer miles in premium economy, plus very modest taxes and fees.

A350 business class seat

A350 premium economy

While travelling to LA via Singapore isn’t exactly the most convenient route for many Australians, it’s probably the best option for those in the West and for many in South East Asia. Singapore is also a fantastic city to enjoy a short stopover if you have the time.

Singapore Airlines is a transfer partner for quite a few flexible credit card points currencies in Australia (my favourite being American Express Membership Rewards) and also for Velocity Frequent Flyer.

It’s possible these seats can be booked using Velocity Points, but they’re not showing up on Velocity’s website, so it may require a call to Velocity’s contact centre. It’s also possible Singapore Airlines is restricting access to these seats to KrisFlyer members.

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Overcrowding in Qantas’ Singapore lounge has been a major issue in recent months, ever since the airline decided to ditch Dubai in favour of Singapore as its hub for flights to London.

The lounge simply wasn’t designed to accommodate that many people, and the problem has been made worse by Qantas adding capacity on the Sydney-Singapore route in July and August.

To combat the issue, Qantas has been turning away some Qantas Club members and even gold-level frequent flyers during peak periods, redirecting them instead to the inferior SATS Premier Lounge.

Now, AusBT reports that Qantas is implementing a policy that all Qantas Club members will be denied entry to the lounge during July and August, instead getting access to the SATS lounge plus 5,000 Qantas Points as compensation.

Passengers with complimentary Qantas lounge invites can also use the SATS lounge, but they won’t get the 5,000 points.

While this reduces the likelihood that gold-level customers will be turned away during peak periods, Qantas says it retains the discretion to do so if conditions warrant it.

If you’re a gold or platinum member, or a business or first class passenger, and you’re turned away from the Qantas lounge or you simply want more peace and quiet, you should know that you’re entitled to use one of the other oneworld lounges (the British Airways lounge would be my pick) as well as the Emirates lounge. Unfortunately Qantas Club members and lounge pass holders travelling in economy or premium economy don’t have access to any of these lounges.

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With the mega-merger of the Marriott, Starwood and Ritz-Carlton hotel groups taking shape, the next big milestone will be the launch of a new unified loyalty program for the conglomerate in August.

The current Starwood and Ritz-Carlton loyalty programs will disappear, effectively to be absorbed by Marriott.

The unified program will be given a new name in early 2019, but the program changes will start to take effect from an as-yet unspecified date this August.

Starwood has been a points transfer partner for the American Express Membership Rewards program. A number of popular Amex cards earn Membership Rewards points, including the Explorer and Platinum cards I’ve reviewed on the blog.

Amex has confirmed that Membership Rewards points will be transferable to the new unified Marriott program from August. However, the bad news is that the transfer rate will be less generous than the current one.

From August (date TBC), 3 Membership Rewards points will be convertible to 2 Marriott points. Right now, the rate is 2 MR points to 1 Starwood point (which equals 3 Marriott points). So, we’re going from a 2:3 rate to a 3:2 rate – that’s a big difference.

If you were planning to use Membership Rewards points for Starwood / Marriott stays, you may want to transfer points to Starwood now at the more attractive rate. From Starwood, you can manually transfer the points to Marriott yourself, otherwise they will transfer automatically when the new program launches in August.

A few days ago, I wrote about an opportunity to get steep discounts on luxury hotel stays thanks to a quirk of how the new program is being implemented. You may also want to consider purchasing Starwood points right now, because a 35% discount is available (this offer ends on 20 July and you must have been a Starwood member for at least 14 days).

Finally, if you hold the Amex Platinum Card, the current benefit of automatic gold status with Starwood will transition to the new Gold Elite tier with Marriott. That’s a downgrade, because you’ll lose complimentary breakfasts and guaranteed 4pm checkout (instead, you get a 2pm checkout “based on availability”.)

We’ll have more news about the changes – including the exact date they take effect – later this month.

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The Commonwealth Bank has added nine new airline transfer partners to its credit card rewards program, Commbank Awards.

Previously, customers could only transfer points to Qantas Frequent Flyer or Velocity Frequent Flyer, but the list of transfer partners has now expanded to encompass:

• Qantas Frequent Flyer (must opt into automatic transfer of points each month at a ratio of 2.5:1)
• Velocity Frequent Flyer (2 or 2.5:1 points transfer ratio depending on your card)
• Air Asia Big points – 2.5:1 points transfer ratio
• Air France / KLM Flying Blue – 3:1 transfer
• Eva Air Infinity MileageLands – 3:1 transfer
• China Eastern Eastern Miles – 3:1 transfer
• Etihad Guest – 3.5:1 transfer
• Malaysia Airlines Enrich – 3.5:1 transfer
• United Airlines MileagePlus – 4:1 transfer
• Japan Airlines MileageBank – 4:1 transfer
• Lufthansa Miles & More – 4:1 transfer.

In addition, IHG Rewards, the loyalty program of InterContinental Hotels Group, is available as a hotel transfer partner (2.5:1 transfer ratio).

This gives customers much more flexibility with how they use their points for flights. Of course, more ways to use points also means more complexity, as not only do you have to consider the different points transfer ratios above, but also how much each airline charges for an award seat.

For example, with Japan Airlines, you can fly business class from Sydney to Tokyo for as little as 35,000 miles one way, but using Qantas Points costs at least 72,000 Qantas Points. And the taxes and fees vary too.

CBA’s points earn rates are quite poor, so I usually advise people to switch to other card providers to get more from their everyday spend. But if you have a big stash of CBA points or you’re stuck with the bank, the ability to use points with more airlines is good news.

Don’t forget, CBA is axing its Amex cards later this year. If you want the best points earn rates moving forward, consider switching to a card issued by Amex directly, like:

• Qantas Amex Ultimate Card – Amex’s top Qantas Points earning card
• Amex Velocity Platinum Card – Amex’s top Velocity Points earning card
• Amex Explorer Credit Card – my favourite of Amex’s flexible points earning cards, with eight airline transfer partners.

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