Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - First Overbooked (Reward Ticket)

Hi,

I'm flying JFK-HKG-BKK early next year on CX. This is a reward ticket based on miles from my credit card (transfered to BA Miles to book) and I have no OneWorld Status. I'm a little afraid about first class being overbooked and being downgraded. Does this happen often with Cathay? I have a friend who often flies the JFK-HKG route in J and he says that this class & F are often overbooked and they thus need to bump people down.

I leave on the 1st CX flight out JFK that day, however I have a connection to make in HKG for the BKK flight. So if the flight is overbooked and I'm bumped I'm not sure I could fit into the later flight and catch my connection.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Lots of CX flights in F (mainly paid on RTW tickets) in the last few years, LAX-HKG, SFO-HKG, HKG-FRA.... Never ever F was overbooked. Don't worry.

Hi,

I'm flying JFK-HKG-BKK early next year on CX. This is a reward ticket based on miles from my credit card (transfered to BA Miles to book) and I have no OneWorld Status. I'm a little afraid about first class being overbooked and being downgraded. Does this happen often with Cathay? I have a friend who often flies the JFK-HKG route in J and he says that this class & F are often overbooked and they thus need to bump people down.

I leave on the 1st CX flight out JFK that day, however I have a connection to make in HKG for the BKK flight. So if the flight is overbooked and I'm bumped I'm not sure I could fit into the later flight and catch my connection.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

If you got it ticketed you should be fine. It's CX responsibility to carry you from JFK to BKK vv in F regardless ... (well if they are real full they may ask if you accept downgrade / later flight + goodies + hotel) in this economy I will surely surprised if F got overbook. (Well with CX flying 18 F seats from JFK daily + SFO / LAX .... )

Previously there has been report that got placed on NW because CX has an faulty plane but that's another story

It could be overbooked back when bankers flew on F. Back then it was unpredictable. These passengers would change flights at the last minute, and sometimes they travelled in groups. CX probably had to overbook as suddenly passengers might disappear at the last minute. I don't think that is the case in this economy. There are fewer full fare F passengers these days. In addition, DMs cannot do seat guarantee on F. The chance of overbooking should be very low nowadays.

In case of overbooking, IDB is unlikely for F and J passengers. Downgrade to next lower cabin is more likely.

Hi,

I'm flying JFK-HKG-BKK early next year on CX. This is a reward ticket based on miles from my credit card (transfered to BA Miles to book) and I have no OneWorld Status. I'm a little afraid about first class being overbooked and being downgraded. Does this happen often with Cathay? I have a friend who often flies the JFK-HKG route in J and he says that this class & F are often overbooked and they thus need to bump people down.

I leave on the 1st CX flight out JFK that day, however I have a connection to make in HKG for the BKK flight. So if the flight is overbooked and I'm bumped I'm not sure I could fit into the later flight and catch my connection.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

1) In Today's economy it barely happens if ever. Even when the economy was good it rarely happens as the last thing CX wants to do is make F passengers mad. The rule of thumb for airlines is that 1 happy F passenger = 25 Y passengers.

2) Even in the rarest of the rare case that it did happen, they will (or should) bend over backwards to accommodate you. Cash, free hotel, free food, upgrade voucher, etc.

3) Your friend is wrong. I fly JFK-HKG regularly on CX and J and F are always full because of overbooked Y, and they needed to bump a bunch of Y up to accommodate them. Thus the fullness that your friend sees are results of upgrades, not downgrades.

.. I have a friend who often flies the JFK-HKG route in J and he says that this class & F are often overbooked and they thus need to bump people down.
...

Your friend has no idea what he is talking about and you're worried over nothing really...

Maybe the airlines you have taken before have overbooked in F but this rarely if ever happens unless there is a switch to a smaller aircraft but there isn't anything smaller than the 77W which flies this route.

... and in my experience (100% of my CX travel so far has been using BAEC award miles :D) reward pax are treated the same as revenue pax. On one of my flights, a reward pax was even op up'd!

Cheers,

This actually happened to me in 2002. When on my flight from YVR to SYD I had a stop over in HKG. Upon check in at HKG for the onward portion to SYD at check-in I was asked if I would accept a downgrade to J and what aproximated to $400USD. I said well I did book an F seat - they did not offer me another CX flight in F but did offer to put me on Qantas in F that was departing a few minutes earlier so I accepted the Qantas flight and pretty much after dinner slept the whole way on a 747.