Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Y Pax who move onto Y+ seats without permission.

Hello all,

Yesterday while flying Manila to HKG on CX902 on a 77W, I was upgraded to a Y+ seat.

As far as I can tell, CX does not sell Y+ on this sector.

I noticed that sometime after boarding my seat, and all boarding long completed (but perhaps doors still opened, awaiting departure), a family of 5 moved from Y into the Y+ seats.

It seemed clear to me they most likely did not have a Y+ boarding pass, and simply saw empty more comfortable seats and enterprisingly upgraded themselves.

While I have no issue from this personally, I half expected the crew to ask them to move back to their original seats. Anybody whom might wander into an empty J seat would be sent packing! However this was not the case. They were never asked anything.

The curtains between Y & Y+ were never closed during the flight.

What I want to find out is:

What if the table is turned in future, and I want to move to an empty Y+ seat. What is CX policy on this? I don't want to be embarrassed to do this, then get asked to move back. Yet they obviously don't mind allowing Pax to move into these seats on this short haul route, so does anyone have any idea what CX policy might be on this?

My best guess might be that on flights where Y+ is not sold as a separate product, they look the other way. I would guess that on long haul flights where Y+ is sold, they would enforce the class difference.

I am not sure though, anybody who has any experience, your feedback would be appreciated.

I am not sure if this thread has been discussed before, but on a quick search, I could not find a repeat of this subject.

Thanks.

well i suppose you only have Y-class even with W-seats, so CX won't close the curtains :)

same applies to KA^
KA sells F-class seats for J-service and J-class seats for Y-service on 33R to particular destinations such as TAO/XIY, etc.
the curtains won't be closed and you can sit there freely :)

as soon as the service is the same, i guess changing seats is totally acceptable

well i suppose you only have Y-class even with W-seats, so CX won't close the curtains :)

I am not sure about Y & Y+, but sometimes they close the curtains between J and F when F is sold as J.

I bet those were the from the greedy bunch of mainland'ers who are looking to make gains from something they didn't pay for :D

They didn't close the curtains?

It's a short haul flight and the service and the food is the same..so I don't think sitting in Y and Y+ chair will make any difference in such a short flight.

I bet those were the from the greedy bunch of mainland'ers who are looking to make gains from something they didn't pay for :D

That is not a nice comment, a quite racist.

The pax were Filipino, and our flight was departing from Philippines. I didn't pay for the upgrade either, but because of my status I was given the seat of course.

....sometimes they close the curtains between J and F when F is sold as J.

Indeed they do. I think it's a nice touch. Even on short flights like TPE, I often find just a few of us in the F section (despite a nearly-full J), and receiving outstanding service, even though technically it's only "J". Admittedly I think a bit of this has to do that there is a separate crew up in the "F" section and the curtain is buttoned. The only difference between that experience and true F is really just the menu, because the service levels are often outstanding.

I'm not sure if there is a correlation, but it seems automatic if I'm ticketed in J class through HKG onwards to somewhere else in Asia as a three class plane (sold as two class) I am put in the F section automatically. For example, LAX-MNL or TPE via HKG, on the HKG-TPE or HKG-MNL connecting flight it's seeming automatic that there is a CX staff waiting at the gate when I deplane with a new BP for the F section. There must be some type of strategy to it, because J class will often be full yet there are only one or two people in the F section. Does anyone else notice this?

For J seats sold as Y, however (this is coming from experience on KA's A330s, where the last three rows of J are sometimes sold as Y), I don't think I've ever seen them button the curtain. It might have to deal with the practicalities of running a full-service J section forward of the J galley (the first three rows of J remain full J), so it's useful for the Y FAs to keep the curtain open so they can serve it. Whereas, say 77D sold as 2 class on CX, the forward (F) galley is used to help serve rows 1-2 of "J". So the FAs don't have to do as much traffic.

That is not a nice comment, a quite racist.

The pax were Filipino, and our flight was departing from Philippines. I didn't pay for the upgrade either, but because of my status I was given the seat of course.

I wasn't generalizing, just said that it was probably from the greedy crowd of chineses who don't seem to live with civilization which we see once in a while in Hong Kong. But these sort of people make up a small percentage of the entire chinese population.

By the way, you bought Y and got seated in Y+; so did they give you boarding pass printed in a premium economy column? Or did you get a regular BP (only F, J and Y columns) and just found out that your seat was that of a Y+ once you boarded?

I wasn't generalizing, just said that it was probably from the greedy crowd of chineses who don't seem to live with civilization which we see once in a while in Hong Kong. But these sort of people make up a small percentage of the entire chinese population.

By the way, you bought Y and got seated in Y+; so did they give you boarding pass printed in a premium economy column? Or did you get a regular BP (only F, J and Y columns) and just found out that your seat was that of a Y+ once you boarded?

As people mentioned here before the BP is exactly the same on the right hand side. Just on the left hand side on the title it will say Y+