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Cathay Pacific's All Asia Pass 2005 back again - C$1499

  • Last Updated:
  • Jul 14th, 2005 6:24 pm
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Deal Addict
Mar 20, 2004
1120 posts
3 upvotes
Toronto
gillianchung wrote:cx used to be good, but i go on it many times a year....and it's done so many cut backs that it's not good now. and for the huge price increases on their ticket.....it's no wonder ppl are going back to air canada for their non-stop flight to hk without a stop at alaska. the best airlines....2 actually that i've been on and will recommend are singapore and all nippon. unfortunately, they do not consider toronto a good enough city to build a hub in, which is very understandable.
I've have only been on business class All Nippon Airways (ANA) once, it's ok, but I wouldn't recommend it for the price. Their Business Lounge in Narita sucks, even the Maple Leaf Lounge is better.
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Jul 3, 2002
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GTA
As Cathay is a Hong Kong based airline, all flights do have to go through HKG. It is important to note that CX does have some local (5th freedom ?) flights that you may take advantage of (this list does not imply these flights are available to you as part of the All Asia Pass, read restrictions/upgrades rules about them):

Tapei - Tokyo (NRT)
Taipei - Nagoya
Taipei - Osaka (KIX)
Taipei - Seoul
Bangkok - Mumbai (Bombay)
Bangkok - Columbo
Bangkok - Singapore
Singapore - Jakarta
Kuala Lumpur - Penang (Edit: Oops, no 5th freedom)

By far the most useful flights to avoid HKG transit is the Japan - Taipei - Seoul triangle and the Singapore - Bangkok flight (1x daily). As you're restricted to visit any city only once (except HKG), you can save a few bucks by travelling within Japan via Taipei. Sure, it's 4.5 hours each way, but you do want to save that $100 Shinkansen fare between Tokyo and Kyoto, don't you ?!?!

Edit: For those of you whom:

1. Are vising Japan and want to do China
2. Has either 20,000 Air Canada Aeroplan, American AAdvantage, Continental Onepass, Delta Skymiles, or Northwest (can't recember their program name) points, you can get a intra-asia reward ticket from Tokyo into various points in China via United/ANA (Star Alliance), Japan Airlines (Oneworld), or Northwest Airlines (Skyteam). Similiar award flights can be had from Seoul.
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Jul 3, 2002
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IceMan77 wrote:I've have only been on business class All Nippon Airways (ANA) once, it's ok, but I wouldn't recommend it for the price. Their Business Lounge in Narita sucks, even the Maple Leaf Lounge is better.
ANA Narita Lounge ? Isn't that the one with the automated draft beer dispenser ? FFers @ Flyertalk raves about it...

Edit: Some hints for those of you whom are REALLY going to do this:

1. As you buzz around Asia with this pass, you'll find that you will at sometime be forced to stop-over in Hong Kong. Unless you have family there or like to pay for the expensive airport express to nowhere, try to make it just once.
2. The inbound flight from North America are the first flights to arrive into HKG airport (6:30 AM - opening time of the airport). You can connect to just about any Asian destination at that time. So you shouldn't stop-over then.
3. Outbound flights to North America tends to leave in late afternoon, you can easily connect from several cities. Taipei and Eastern cities is definetly possible, and I believe the some Western cities such as Bangkok, Singapore, and Denpensar are also possible
4. Avoid "first flights" in the morning. Just because you think a 8 AM flight is a good idea doesn't mean the airport is easy to get to: traffic and distance are a major pain.
5. If you're a shopper, you should do your shopping at the "last" stop. This affects which cities to do last.
Deal Addict
Aug 7, 2003
3006 posts
208 upvotes
so once you've arrived to HK...

if you haev a flight from HK to KL, do u pay both airport taxes (HK's and KL's)for the flight, or just hte place you departure from.

Im going travelling for 4 months in sept across asia, and am considering this. Although, i do have enough aeroplan points to get me their, i was just gonna bus/buy cheap flights while down there. Whats the better option? This seems like it would be good, i could see it being a complete waste too. Especially ifi have to waste my time flying back to HK between each destination.
Newbie
Mar 23, 2005
3 posts
I just travelled to Japan and HK myself and found that organizing your own trip is much cheaper. I also looked into using the All Asia Pass since flights from HK to Japan are expensive.

Flew from Toronto->Tokyo->Hong Kong->Toronto with stop overs in Chicago on the way there and back.....all for $1190 (incl. all taxes) on United Airlines. It was a limited time sale but I'm sure prices like this come and go.

Flights from HK to China or Thailand are really cheap and you aren't required to come back to HK each time you fly out.

Just a thought.

I booked my flight through TourEast. http://www.toureast.ca
Newbie
May 22, 2004
15 posts
fl4wless wrote:so once you've arrived to HK...

if you haev a flight from HK to KL, do u pay both airport taxes (HK's and KL's)for the flight, or just hte place you departure from.
There are only departure taxes. I don't think there is such a thing as an arrival tax.
Deal Addict
Dec 21, 2002
2471 posts
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oldsnail wrote:Departure dates from North America:
* February 15 through May 13, 2005 or
* August 17 through December 1, 2005
Can these dates be changed by paying extra ?
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Deal Addict
Aug 30, 2003
4399 posts
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flaming homer wrote:As Cathay is a Hong Kong based airline, all flights do have to go through HKG. It is important to note that CX does have some local (5th freedom ?) flights that you may take advantage of (this list does not imply these flights are available to you as part of the All Asia Pass, read restrictions/upgrades rules about them):

Tapei - Tokyo (NRT)
Taipei - Nagoya
Taipei - Osaka (KIX)
Taipei - Seoul
Bangkok - Mumbai (Bombay)
Bangkok - Columbo
Bangkok - Singapore
Singapore - Jakarta
Kuala Lumpur - Penang (Edit: Oops, no 5th freedom)

By far the most useful flights to avoid HKG transit is the Japan - Taipei - Seoul triangle and the Singapore - Bangkok flight (1x daily). As you're restricted to visit any city only once (except HKG), you can save a few bucks by travelling within Japan via Taipei. Sure, it's 4.5 hours each way, but you do want to save that $100 Shinkansen fare between Tokyo and Kyoto, don't you ?!?!

Edit: For those of you whom:

1. Are vising Japan and want to do China
2. Has either 20,000 Air Canada Aeroplan, American AAdvantage, Continental Onepass, Delta Skymiles, or Northwest (can't recember their program name) points, you can get a intra-asia reward ticket from Tokyo into various points in China via United/ANA (Star Alliance), Japan Airlines (Oneworld), or Northwest Airlines (Skyteam). Similiar award flights can be had from Seoul.
Hey Flaming homer, thanks for the tips.
Just some quick questions: what do you mean by 'CX' and '5th freedom'?

Oh, and that list you have, is it for flights between cities that don't require a HK stopover? where did you get the list?
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Aug 30, 2003
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jerryhussain wrote:Can these dates be changed by paying extra ?
yep. you can go during the time inbetween, but it'll cost another $500/person.
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Jul 3, 2002
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Mint wrote:Hey Flaming homer, thanks for the tips.
Just some quick questions: what do you mean by 'CX' and '5th freedom'?

Oh, and that list you have, is it for flights between cities that don't require a HK stopover? where did you get the list?
CX = Cathay Pacific
5th freedom = rights to carry paying passengers between 2 foreign destinations. This is like American Airlines carrying paying passengers between Toronto and Vancouver non-stop.
I know about these flights because I've used the Taipei-Japan segments before (not for the AAP, but Oneworld Explorer Round-The-World) and recently excersized some points for the Singapore-Bangkok segment. Rest of them you can derive from their route map and downloaded (PC Application) schedule.
Deal Addict
Dec 21, 2002
2471 posts
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Mint wrote:yep. you can go during the time inbetween, but it'll cost another $500/person.
extra $500 per person totally kills the deal. :o

Thanks !
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Deal Addict
Jun 1, 2005
1120 posts
347 upvotes
GVR
i actually just came back from this deal. I left in Sep 04 and came back right before May 05. What I did was extend this trip to 90 days and then I basically just skipped my return flight home and stayed in Asia. Flight from Shanghai to Vancouver 1 way was 450cdn incl taxes or less. I tried to be adventurous and went to about 12 cities out of the 18 that was available.

What I would do differently:

*Make sure all your flights connect when travelling to the next city, do NOT waste your time sleeping at the HK Airport (I had to do this 2 or 3 times). I guess that's my fault for doing this all last minute and finding out flights were full while I were booking them.

*The destinations that are standard on this deal are major cities. What I would recommened or do next time is to go the smaller town/cities to enjoy the culture/scenery more. I wish I went around Thailand/China more :( Oh yeah, I'd probably visit Vietnam on my next trip to Asia. I've heard nothing but praise about visiting there

Also, if you would like to travel to other South East cities in Asia, check out:
www.airasia.com
They flight out of Malaysia (or other SE Asian cities) for dirt cheap. And when I mean dirt cheap, I mean that my cousins got a deal for $3cdn + taxes. So if you do this deal, what I did was fly out of Kuala Lumpur, or go to Singapore and take the bus to Johor Baru. I took a domestic flight from AirAsia within Malaysia and altho I didn't get any crazy deals (I bought my ticket 3 days b4 my flight, thank god for etickets!), it was still way cheaper than if I were to fly with something like Malaysia Airlines. So if you have time, definitely check them out. Oh yeah one thing though, they DO charge for refreshments, and there's no seat assignment, so you just line up and pick whatever seat you want when you get on the plane) Yeah, i know, ghetto. But it works.

Another side note is that I visited both Tokyo and Osaka for about 3 weeks total and spent 90% of my spending budget there. Yes, thats right, spent 90% in 3 weeks on a 90 day trip. The kicker? I spent virtually $0 on accomadation since I was staying over with friends teaching English over there. Food and transportation WILL kill you. Yoshinoya is your best friend there. Look for it =)

Oh one more thing, for those of you thinking about doing this trip on the later part of the year like I did. Contrarary to popular belief that Asia is warm all year round, it is f#@!$kin' freezing in Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai in the winter time. So bring some warm clothes if you plan on going there from November and onwards. HK was a nice 22c (perfect actually) and I hear that Japan doesn't get too cold (altho I see japanese girls wear turtle neck sweaters while I'm out there w/ a tshirt on).
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Dec 24, 2004
10708 posts
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if you like going to asia , cathay pacific charges about $1500 for a pass that allows you to fly to 12 countries in asia. it includes the roundtrip airfare from either toronto or vancouver to hongkong,and when you get to hk, you can fly to 12 countries without an extra charge, except airport taxes etc.
Air Canada Aeroplan Super Elite Reservations: 1-800-401-7201 or 514-369-7598
get unlimited calls or other discounts by calling directly to:
Fido Retentions: call 611 then push 7, then push 3 - or Rogers Retentions 1-514-734-7873 or 1-866-228-7109
Telus Mobility: 1-877-279-3100 or 416-279-3100 or 1 416 296 7669 client.loyalty@telus.com
Bell Mobility: 1-866-313-1086
nice chairs http://www.eternitymodern.ca
great value - lol http://www.walmart.ca
Deal Guru
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Jun 28, 2003
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Ottawa
Is there any catch or restrictions ?

say if i fly from Tdot to HK and stay there for 2 weeks then go on to some other countries is that OK or is there a time limit how long i could stay in HK ?

Also is this offer only good for the summer ?

Will be doing some further research now
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Mar 25, 2003
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Markham
canabiz wrote:Is there any catch or restrictions ?

say if i fly from Tdot to HK and stay there for 2 weeks then go on to some other countries is that OK or is there a time limit how long i could stay in HK ?

Also is this offer only good for the summer ?

Will be doing some further research now
yeah more info is needed
if you find more pls post here
thanks
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User avatar
Dec 24, 2004
10708 posts
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Keigotw wrote:yeah more info is needed
if you find more pls post here
thanks

you may choose from any or all of these cities

Bali, Bangkok, Cebu, Fukuoka, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Karachi, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Nagoya, Osaka, Penang, Sapporo, Seoul, Singapore, Surabaya, Taipei, Tokyo.

the basic pass is $1499. it includes a round trip flight departing from either Vancouver or Toronto or New York or Los Angeles TO Hong Kong. from HK , you may fly to any or all of the 17 countries listed.

- travel during the peak season, there is a $525 surcharge.
- extend the period from 21 to 45 days, $300 surcharge
- extend the period from 21 to 60 days, $450 surcharge
- extend the period from 21 to 90 days, $500 surcharge
- upgrade to business class one-way for the North America to HK flight $1799
- you can add some 'expensive' cities such as Beijing, Sidney, Hanoi, for $600 each.
- airport taxes are extra



basic
http://www.cathaypacific.ca/offers/aap/offer.asp

add ons
http://www.cathaypacific.ca/offers/aap/pricing.asp
Air Canada Aeroplan Super Elite Reservations: 1-800-401-7201 or 514-369-7598
get unlimited calls or other discounts by calling directly to:
Fido Retentions: call 611 then push 7, then push 3 - or Rogers Retentions 1-514-734-7873 or 1-866-228-7109
Telus Mobility: 1-877-279-3100 or 416-279-3100 or 1 416 296 7669 client.loyalty@telus.com
Bell Mobility: 1-866-313-1086
nice chairs http://www.eternitymodern.ca
great value - lol http://www.walmart.ca
Deal Addict
Jul 9, 2005
1082 posts
44 upvotes
Vancouver
you have to sign up as a cyber traveller as well (it's free) to get the discount other wise it's like $500 more.

the only thing i don't like about the all asia pass is the number of restrictions. you have to pre plan all your destinations and you can't change any of them once you take off.

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