Getting QF codeshare on Cathay Pacific operated flights.

Hi All. Needing to travel to India from Sydney and I'm trying to maximise QF SC's if possible as I'm still very much part of the QF FF machine! Going via Hong kong is appealing as Qantas offers codeshares to Mumbai and Delhi on Cathay Pacific operated flights metal.

When I've been looking at booking a straight forward return trip, the legs between Hong Kong and Mumbai show the QF code. I'm also keen to stop over in HK for a few days, however when I try to add in a stopover in using the multi-city tool, the only CX flight numbers are returned for the India/HK legs. The Matrix ITA is also returning similar options with no QF codeshare, so I suspect the length of the stay in HK may be too long so it is preventing the option of a QF flight number.

The multi-city tool is rather painful, but as I've not finalised dates I'm also loathe to phone up QF call centre just yet to manually work through options with them. I was hoping the ET brains trust may be able to point me to some booking platforms that are good at returning a wide array of flight numbers. I'm also also happy to be told that I should save myself the hassle and just take the CX flight number! Thanks in advance.

You will get the same status credits between Mumbai/Delhi to Hongkong whether you fly CX or QF (codeshare). QF only restricts status credits if you fly Syd-HKG on CX instead of QF (Status credits are 50% lower on CX ticket/metal on that sector, because QF already flies that sector).

I strongly suspect this is due to traffic rights. QF code on CX flights are ok if you are only transiting in Hong Kong, but if you are stopping over in Hong Kong then QF code/flight number is not be permitted and hence not showing. This leg will then need to be booked under the CX flight number.

Good luck! I too am locked into QF and recently flew to India. I ultimately decided on the quickest route - big trade off, time vs SC. Yes, I flew Malaysian which was more than fine and the stopovers in both directions were by far the shortest vs when I looked at HKG and SIN. The bad news, on the Oz/KUL sector in business class was rewarded with a measly 30 SC!! Unbelievable. I knew it going in but it still makes me flinch. The short KUL/India sector garnered a full 80 SC which is quite ridiculous considering the first sector was the big one!

Thanks for the information everyone, very useful things to consider, especially re the HK Mumbai leg being credited the same. We're not heaps time poor and the pitiful SC earn means that unlikely to go on MH (but i'll give it a look anyway just in case the pricing is much better)