Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Cathay's RTW service... WOW WOW WOW!

Cathay continues to blow my mind with excellent service... I got a phone call today on a schedule change. Not a prerecorded announcement, not a computer telling our operator that "My upcoming CX flight number XXXXXX has changed" but an honest-to-g-d human being who faxed me a new itinerary and even helped me redo a few segments I'd been meaning to call in on. From now on I'm buying ALL RTW tickets through them. Simply amazing.

I've always gotten personal calls from CX re schedule changes...even when the time difference is 20 minutes. "Simply amazing": it's a catchy marketing phrase that others may find arrogant, but I believe the phrase truly describes CX service!

They really are a pleasure to deal with generally-- "super-sycophantic" is the way I would describe it-- in a good way, of course.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kanebear:
Cathay continues to blow my mind with excellent service... I got a phone call today on a schedule change. </font>
CX does give good service, but in this case AA RTW desk matches them and in fact is even better (I can directly compare as I have RTW tickets bought from both CX and AA in the US). AA faxes new itineraries in real time (as the schedule changes), and are more expert at RTW complexities. Why can't other airline ticketing be 20% as good as this?

AA may provide better service, but I definitely prefer CX's interpretation of the RTW rules if you know what I mean http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

kanebear: what do you mean?

goodo

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by goodo:
kanebear: what do you mean?

goodo</font>
He means that sometimes CX will make a mistake in the interpretation of the fare rules (in the passenger's favour), and is gracious in honoring that interpretation even after realizing the mistake. This allowed an extra inter-continent stopover in North America on his ticket (a very big favour, indeed, and probably a mistake that CX won't make again)!
In contrast some other airlines will invalidate the routing after they realize the mistake, instead of sticking with what they sold in error.

CX simply seems to interpret the RTW rules differently from other carriers. I thought my case was a one-off mistake that would be caught later but after getting my RTW re-rated and another RTW rated either the same person made the same mistake(s) or (more likely) CX does what they please.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kanebear:
CX simply seems to interpret the RTW rules differently from other carriers. I thought my case was a one-off mistake that would be caught later but after getting my RTW re-rated and another RTW rated either the same person made the same mistake(s) or (more likely) CX does what they please. </font>
You were very lucky. I tried to have CX issue a RTW with the double stopover and was politely but firmly told that the 2nd had to be a transit with 24 hour maximum and there was no exemption from this rule. This wound up costing them money because I dropped a continent from the fare basis, so they had some incentive to stretch the rules. Maybe it is a matter of which person at CX does the rating.

Was yours an ex-JNB RTW? Could that have something to do with it? Also, who did the rating and what class was it in? Each time, I talked to CX in YVR. I can understand a one time fluke but for them to do it on two separate RTWs seems odd to me if they wouldn't for someone else?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kanebear:
Was yours an ex-JNB RTW? Could that have something to do with it? Also, who did the rating and what class was it in? Each time, I talked to CX in YVR. I can understand a one time fluke but for them to do it on two separate RTWs seems odd to me if they wouldn't for someone else? </font>
It is an ex-JNB first class, reservation was CX in YVR but rating was in NY (also ticket was issued in NY, confirmed by Fedex return address). I did ask politely, and they investigated and refused ... I didn't want to make an issue of it in case it caused problems for other passengers (in any case the Oneworld rule is clear on this, only one stopover is allowed, so there really isn't much scope for interpretation). The rules differ for area 1 versus area 2/3 (basically North America vs. rest of the world), and my ticket falls under the more lenient rules; the stopover conditions are the same, regardless of point of origin.

I will say that Cathay is a super-excellent airline (when the pilots aren't on strike), particularly impressive is the priority baggage handling (less than 5 minutes delivery time for F bags, and they all arrive before C bags; compare that with SQ who mixes F and C bags together and takes 15 minutes). Actually many aspects of the airline operation is impressive, even the way that the galley is organized (when there are 2 passengers in F and 3 attendants, you can tour the most interesting parts of the plane ... but sadly no longer the cockpit).
I saw several aspects of the airline operation on Cathay that were different than other airlines, and the differences were well thought out.