Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Paid for First but downgraded to C

Hi All,

Just wanted to ask for your opinion on what I can do with regard to the following situation.

I've just purchased my ticket for BKK - HKG - LAX in first class and a few hours after I paid for my tickets I've noticed that CX has change the plane for the BKK - HKG sector to a plane with no first class. The flight is CX 708 flying this Sunday June 5th and I even have my online itinerary from CX with seat 1A in first class printed.

I've called my travel agent and they said that I wouldn't get anything if I ask for a refund since it's only the BKK - HKG sector. The agent suggest that I complain to CX when I check in at the airport and perhaps they will give me a voucher or extra miles or something along that line.

Has anyone gone through this experience and if so did you get some sort of a refund or miles in exchange? Appreciate any comment or suggestion and thanks in advance.

Since it is a F tkt it should be fully refundable. You can then perhaps rebook on flights that have the F cabin. Time might be too short but hey it's worth a try.

Hi All,

Just wanted to ask for your opinion on what I can do with regard to the following situation.

I've just purchased my ticket for BKK - HKG - LAX in first class and a few hours after I paid for my tickets I've noticed that CX has change the plane for the BKK - HKG sector to a plane with no first class. The flight is CX 708 flying this Sunday June 5th and I even have my online itinerary from CX with seat 1A in first class printed.

I've called my travel agent and they said that I wouldn't get anything if I ask for a refund since it's only the BKK - HKG sector. The agent suggest that I complain to CX when I check in at the airport and perhaps they will give me a voucher or extra miles or something along that line.

Has anyone gone through this experience and if so did you get some sort of a refund or miles in exchange? Appreciate any comment or suggestion and thanks in advance.

Airlines charge you F class based on your longhaul sector. So the 'extra' is the short haul connecting flight. Even if you bought a full fare First class ticket (which I sincerely doubt), the fare will not change if you booked your BKK-HKG sector in J or Y even.

If you bought a 'special' discounted First Class ticket through your travel agent, then you have the option of changing your flights to one that has F class that day or to a different day altogether.

Sorry. No refunds, no extra miles, no compensation.

Thanks for the input guys.

Wildrice, my company paid for my ticket and it cost around 325,000 baht or just over US $8,000. Not sure how much of a discount we got but it does sound quite expensive to me.

Cheers,

Thanks for the input guys.

Wildrice, my company paid for my ticket and it cost around 325,000 baht or just over US $8,000. Not sure how much of a discount we got but it does sound quite expensive to me.

Cheers,

It looks a full fare to me. :)

Thanks for the input guys.

Wildrice, my company paid for my ticket and it cost around 325,000 baht or just over US $8,000. Not sure how much of a discount we got but it does sound quite expensive to me.

Cheers,

Hi Pook,

I'm not disputing what you say. But rather you have to check on your ticket now for the following information:

Booking class. Is it F or A?
Fare Basis: Is it FR or AR?
Endorsement Boxes: Is it blank or does it say NONREF/NONEND/VALID CX ONLY

If Booking class is F, then you have a full fare ticket. And if there is nothing in the endorsement box.. then you can ask to endorse the BKK-HKG sector to another carrier departing BKK around the same time as your flight which has F class service.

You may choose from :
TG 600, departing at 0800. Arrive: 1145am
Or
GF 150, departing at 1020am. Arrive: 210pm.

Your CX 708 depars at 950am, Arrives at 140pm is between the other two.

Sorry to be a bearer of bad news again, but even if you have a fully endorsable, refundable ticket, you won't be eligible for a refund for the missing BKK-HKG F sector. Like I said before, the F fare is based on long haul travel. And even if you fly in Y between BKK and HKG, you cannot claim for a refund because if you split the fare between BKK and HKG in Y and then HKG-LAX in F, you will inadvertedly end up with a much higher fare.

FYI - the full F class fare is THB 368,350 before tax. = US$9198.

FYI2 - your TA should be able to reissue your ticket to include a different carrier between BKK-HKG without charge. He shouldn't have told you to 'get a refund' from Cathay or solicit for miles! Otherwise, you have a 'discounted' ticket that is restricted to travel on CX only.

FYI3 - what fare the ticket says is irrelevant if there are endorsements on the ticket. Then chances are your ticket is not a fully endorsable full fare ticket.

Actually I did read somewhere that when they have to switch equipment like this and if you are booked in F and have to downgrade to J they will give you some compensation, so when you get to the airport just ask them and I am sure they will work out something (Especially you had a confirmed ticketed BKK-HKG sector already)

CX offers some form of downgrade kits. So you can deal with CX at the airport.

Carfield

This has happened to me many times travelling on an A fare on this sector.

Most times I was given an envelope at checkin at BKK with an envelope containing Bt 10000 (US$250) cash to apologize for the downgrade. I did not have to ask for compensation. It was automatic.

The key to getting compensation is that if CX changed the equipment without telling you. Other times that I did not get compensation CX explained to me that I was already notified by telephone or by my travel agent so no compensation was due because I would have had time to change my flight. These tickets are normally endorseable to another airline on the BKK-HKG route so you won't get anything.

Again, if you know about the switch before you checkin, you will get nothing.

Unfortunately, it now shows in your record that you or your travel agent has contacted CX about this giving you time to change your flight so you are out of luck.

When flying from or to MNL (Manila) through HKG this happens to me an average of 7 times out of every 10 trips. At the MNL airport I am offered 3500 Rph which is 60USD for a ticket worth atleast 250USD if I wanted to upgrade. In HKG they once had an envelope with 1000 H$ which was a like 120 USD. I alway refuse to sign the release and send my ticket back to the travel agents for a 6 month wait to get back my money. Once my wife and I were going through HKG from YYZ to MNL and CX added an F service and we had full J tickets. The cost of upgrading both of us was just over 1000 USD in total. Anyways we had the entire upperdeck to ourselves and spend the money Kiplings on three good bottles of single malted........... ^

Thanks everybody! I shall play the ignorant fool when I'm checking in, something that comes quite natural for me, and see what CX will do. Changing flight is not that convenient as the connecting flight to LAX is at 16.15 and truthfully a 2+ hours flight in business is not that bad.

Glad to know that I'll have a chance of getting something back!

Cheers,

Pook,

AFAIK :

Fare FRT on CX BKK-LAX via HKG is US$9070plus TAX
FARE ART (FC discount) CX BKK-LAX via HKG is US$ 5109 plus tax

Here it comes

Fare JRT BKK-HKG CX (Full BC) is US$625 plus tax
Fare FRT (ART priced) HKG-LAX on CX is US$8305
Total of US$8930)

Soooo If you have a FRT you are being screwed by US$140 worth trying to ask for a refund

Don't ask if you have a ART then you are way better off !

This has happened to me many times travelling on an A fare on this sector.

Most times I was given an envelope at checkin at BKK with an envelope containing Bt 10000 (US$250) cash to apologize for the downgrade. I did not have to ask for compensation. It was automatic.

The key to getting compensation is that if CX changed the equipment without telling you. Other times that I did not get compensation CX explained to me that I was already notified by telephone or by my travel agent so no compensation was due because I would have had time to change my flight. These tickets are normally endorseable to another airline on the BKK-HKG route so you won't get anything.

Again, if you know about the switch before you checkin, you will get nothing.

Unfortunately, it now shows in your record that you or your travel agent has contacted CX about this giving you time to change your flight so you are out of luck.

I think if you complain after the fact, they will give you something: maybe $100 in duty free coupons...have they elinimated F on all BKK-HKG sectors?

Endorse over to TG F, you can use the TG lounge in BKK, and enjoy a massage before departure, and dom on the short flight.

CX still has F services from BKK - HKG as far as I know. For my case I think it's just plain bad luck. For my return from LAX - HKG - BKK it is still confirmed in F on a 747.

Changing flight or endorsing to another airline. The TG flight(TG 600) depart at 0800 too early for me while my CX flight depart at 0950. I don't need to be in HKG that early because my HKG - LAX depart at 1610. Anyways, thanks for the suggestion.

I don't need to be in HKG that early because my HKG - LAX depart at 1610. Anyways, thanks for the suggestion.

Nothing wrong with arriving early and taking a day room at the Pier. :o

Nothing wrong with arriving early and taking a day room at the Pier. :o

My bed is so..... much more comfortable!

Flying MNL HKG on 9oh"something" tomorrow (June 6th) at 7am. Now I would give anything to be able to get a few more hours sleep. Even though I dont have to leave Makati until 530. Now if by chance the flight is 3 classes instead of only J/Y how much will is cost me to upgrade to F. Keep in mind this sector is the only J sector on my ticket to Florida as the rest is the "threeFs". Full Fare First. And my wife wants to know why we cant afford the new 5 series BMW SUV...? :rolleyes:

... Full Fare First. And my wife wants to know why we cant afford the new 5 series BMW SUV...? :rolleyes:

Having a car is a liablility... Earning miles is an asset. :D

Well guys I'm right now in my hotel room in Beverly Hills and I thought I'll let you know what happened to the downgrade.

1/. When I arrived at the F class checking counter at BKK airport I pretended that I did not know about the aircraft change. The CX manager there was very apologetic and explained that if the plane change was within 24 hours before the departure then they would reimburse you at the airport around 5,000 baht(2,500 for the fare difference and another 2,500 for good will) but in my case it had been over 4 days. Now 2 other F passengers had showed up, an Australian man and an American and we were all very upset about the situation. Another point they tried very hard to do was to put us on another flight with F but non of us wanted to change carrier. Once we were all in the lounge at BKK all the passengers sort of got to together and I found out that we all knew ahead of time!

2/. As a compromise CX will reimburse us through our travel agent or credit card(2,500 baht) or we can choose extra miles, about 2,500 miles for our Marco Polo club.

3/. They also blocked the seat next to ours so that all the F passengers had 2 C class seats to ourselves(the new local business type seat) for the BKK - HKG sector.

4/. The supervisor at the Wing lounge, our LAX flight departed from gate 2 in HKG, met us personally and apologized again.

So IMO it never hurt to complain!

Cheers,

. Now if by chance the flight is 3 classes instead of only J/Y how much will is cost me to upgrade to F. :

Cost you around 70 bucks or so. I did it from Y to J to F for $120 8 months ago on the same route.