Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - What happened to CX Leverage fares?

I recently priced out some fares on CX leverage and was suprised to see fares rougly $1500 higher than what I had been paying for in the past. I was curious and tried to book the exact same flights on the the general CX web site and got the exact same fare--and you get a 5000 booking bonus miles to boot. My local travel agent found fares in his system for the exact same dates and flights for roughly $600 less. Does anyone know what is going on?

I recently found that all the CXleverage fares through Canada are messed up -- the same as cathaypacific.com, rather than discounted. Fares through JFK, SFO, or LAX seem to be OK, roughly as expected, though. Does this explain the results you're seeing?

I am finding even prices out of LAX are at times out of whack. Certain prices seem to be in line, others are much more even when it looks like there are plenty of seats.

Chinese New Year: things are very full.

Leverage came up with higher prices even for May/June travel. . . . . . .

There has been one noticeable change in the the fare rules. Originally CXLeverage business fares were booked in J Class.
They are now booked in D as a BR (business restricted) fare. What we are probably seeing is an inventory problem where originally any avaialble J seat was fair game now Leverage has to compete for D seats. If none are available it probably defaults to whatever fare is available.

I can accept that but I see plenty of D class seats in inventory for flights in June but it still prices out at the higher fare. What I will end up doing is now booking all of my trips through June in D class and not ticket them until several weeks before departure. If CX leverage can find me a better price I will go with it but by the looks of things I am starting to doubt it. The downside is D class is going to be harder to find as more people lock in these seats far in advance.

Today I'm getting $3900+ fares on CXleverage for LAX-TPE, for late February travel, where the fares were ~$2650 just a few days ago. But by tweaking dates I'm able to get back down to the lower fare. So maybe this effect reflects dwindling availability? Galileo reflects ample availability in D on the flights at issue for me, though.

[This message has been edited by bedelman (edited 01-17-2003).]

Still more on this -- I now notice that I get higher fares (~$3900) when a fare is designated "Exclusive Leverage Fare." Lower fares (~$2650) result from a pairing of outbound and return such that neither is designated Exclusive Leverage Fare.

What is going on here? Totally weird!...

Worst of all, especially when combined with others' comments that the "right" CXlev price for my routing is about $2250 (a price I was able to get using travel dates further off -- in May), this leaves me fearing that I'd be paying more than I have to if I accepted the ~$2650 fare that seems not to reflect a leverage discount.

Does anyone have a phone contact for CXleverage? I gather -- though I don't know that the site says so specifically -- that part of the buundle at CXleverage is a lack of telephone support, and a book-it-online-yourself requirement. But when their site is screwy, it would be nice to have someone to call. Would the ordinary CX Reservations people be able to help with this? I may try later tonight.

You should call 1-866-306-1259 which is the internet support team for cxleverage.com. I spoke with them yesterday and they're very helpful and knowledgeable.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by bp888:
You should call 1-866-306-1259 which is the internet support team for cxleverage.com. I spoke with them yesterday and they're very helpful and knowledgeable.</font>

Thank you. I will do that. Somehow, no doubt my own ineptitude, I failed to find this number on their site.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by jrussell:
There has been one noticeable change in the the fare rules. Originally CXLeverage business fares were booked in J Class.
They are now booked in D as a BR (business restricted) fare. What we are probably seeing is an inventory problem where originally any avaialble J seat was fair game now Leverage has to compete for D seats. If none are available it probably defaults to whatever fare is available.

</font>

Looking at fare rules offered at the "Itinerary Review" stage, I see JSMBIZ fares when I choose "exclusive Leverage fares." When I choose the non-Leverage fares (which are, oddly, cheaper out of LAX and SFO), I get D fares instead, though typically (always?) designated something like DSMBIZ.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by bedelman:
Looking at fare rules offered at the "Itinerary Review" stage, I see JSMBIZ fares when I choose "exclusive Leverage fares." When I choose the non-Leverage fares (which are, oddly, cheaper out of LAX and SFO), I get D fares instead, though typically (always?) designated something like DSMBIZ.</font>
It is getting confusing isn't it? Mid week travel LAX-TPE in March is pricing out at 2814 on CX and 2266 on CXLeverage (but not designated an "exclusive Leverage fare"). As best I can tell both are the same booking class. This is a 20% discount which is typically the max Leverage has been offering in the past. In pricing itineraries with extensions beyond TPE I'm finding CXLeverage is cheaper than CX (sometimes not by much)but seldom uses a designated "exclusive Leverage" fare. Maybe it is a case of pricing unique to the LAX/SFO market.

In any case on the intineraries ex LAX/SFO I have sampled, CXLeverage is always offering me a better price than CX even if it is not designated an "exclusive Leverage fare".