diff --git a/astroquery/splatalogue/core.py b/astroquery/splatalogue/core.py
index 33540a6737..422edb0bfa 100644
--- a/astroquery/splatalogue/core.py
+++ b/astroquery/splatalogue/core.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 from astropy.io import ascii
 from astropy import units as u
 from ..query import BaseQuery
-from ..utils import commons, async_to_sync
+from ..utils import async_to_sync
 from ..utils.docstr_chompers import prepend_docstr_noreturns
 from . import conf
 from . import load_species_table
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ def __init__(self, **kwargs):
         default keyword arguments (see `query_lines`) can be overridden
         here.
         """
+        super(SplatalogueClass, self).__init__()
         self.data = self._default_kwargs()
         self.set_default_options(**kwargs)
 
@@ -355,7 +356,7 @@ def _validate_kwargs(self, min_frequency=None, max_frequency=None,
 
     @prepend_docstr_noreturns("\n" + _parse_kwargs.__doc__)
     def query_lines_async(self, min_frequency=None, max_frequency=None,
-                          **kwargs):
+                          cache=True, **kwargs):
         """
 
         Returns
@@ -385,10 +386,11 @@ def query_lines_async(self, min_frequency=None, max_frequency=None,
         if get_query_payload:
             return data_payload
 
-        response = commons.send_request(
-            self.QUERY_URL,
-            data_payload,
-            self.TIMEOUT)
+        response = self._request(method='POST',
+                                 url=self.QUERY_URL,
+                                 data=data_payload,
+                                 timeout=self.TIMEOUT,
+                                 cache=cache)
 
         self.response = response
 
diff --git a/astroquery/splatalogue/tests/test_splatalogue.py b/astroquery/splatalogue/tests/test_splatalogue.py
index 0ae2b3810a..acda1a9529 100644
--- a/astroquery/splatalogue/tests/test_splatalogue.py
+++ b/astroquery/splatalogue/tests/test_splatalogue.py
@@ -17,11 +17,14 @@ def data_path(filename):
 @pytest.fixture
 def patch_post(request):
     mp = request.getfuncargvalue("monkeypatch")
-    mp.setattr(requests, 'post', post_mockreturn)
+    mp.setattr(requests.Session, 'request', post_mockreturn)
     return mp
 
 
-def post_mockreturn(url, data=None, timeout=10, **kwargs):
+def post_mockreturn(self, method, url, data=None, timeout=10, files=None,
+                    params=None, headers=None, **kwargs):
+    if method != 'POST':
+        raise ValueError("A 'post request' was made with method != POST")
     filename = data_path(SPLAT_DATA)
     content = open(filename, "rb").read()
     return MockResponse(content, **kwargs)