Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Ticket Policy due to SARS

Is anyone familiar with the rules on CX regarding SARS? A friend of mine bought her ticket thru an agency and has been ticketed. Due to the government warning traveling to those areas affected, she decided to cancel her ticket, but the agency where she bought the ticket from, said she will have to pay $270. I thought the airlines are waiving the fees because of this illness?

Could someone clarify this for me? Her ticket cost $1500 and she was supposed to leave the middle of May.

I am not aware of any loosening of restrictions due to SARS. CX does have some loosening to the Middle East due to the war, but even there it is only the flexibility to rebook at a later date. They are not giving refunds on non-refundable tickets as far as I know.

Maybe she should just ignore the media hype and come here and get on with life as we are doing.

By the way, the fashion for face masks seems to have passed - the proportion on the streets today seems to be well below 50%, from a high of about 75% last week.

Agree

Don't worry about the disease, just come on over to HKG. The media frenzy has made HK look like a infected zone with a Ebola virus outbreak. The reality? No.

It's a waste to cancel her ticket, and besides, with such a low demand for tourisms, things are getting cheap there.

Getting back to your question. Maybe they would allow her to re-book for a later date. Who knows. Ask the agent.

CX allows free rebooking to travel as late as 31-Dec-03, they are not waiving cancellation fees. I believe other airlines have similar policies.

Sorry - yes I see now that on the Cathay USA website (but not on the global one) it says:

"CATHAY PACIFIC UPDATES TRAVEL FLEXIBILITY FOR CUSTOMERS
Apr 03, 2003

Cathay Pacific has revised its reservations and ticketing policy in light of the current international situation.

Effective immediately, passengers holding tickets in the United States for flights on Cathay Pacific purchased by April 30, 2003, may make a one-time change and postpone their travel plans without penalty. Rescheduled travel must commence before December 31, 2003. In the event of any seasonality or routing change, an additional fee may apply and cancelled tickets must pay the original cancellation fee.

All changes are subject to space availability and rescheduled travel must adhere to other applicable travel requirements stipulated by the original ticket rules."


[This message has been edited by christep (edited 04-06-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by christep:

Maybe she should just ignore the media hype and come here and get on with life as we are doing.

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VERY good advice

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by B Watson:
VERY good advice
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/me bows http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

n/t

[This message has been edited by freeasabird (edited 04-07-2003).]