jan_peeters
Sep 24, 02, 3:08 am
Hi,
I posted 2 weeks ago regarding a trip to Australia in Feb-Mar of next year (for my honeymoon trip):
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum40/HTML/000812.html
I followed the advice to book two return upgrades on Cathay Pacific (CX). (total of 180.000 miles, but lowest cost according to me)
I called CX to make a booking in L-class (lowest upgradeable econ. booking class), afterwards I called Qualiflyer to request the upgrade. The agent entered the request data for the upgrades, the reply from CX came back instantly, denying the 13-hour flights LHR-HKG and HKG-LHR (5 months in advance in low season, the upgrades were already sold out), the legs HKG-SYD and CNS-HKG came back confirmed. I then called back CX to change my reservation to fly out of AMS instead of HKG. Then called back Qualiflyer, they could confirm the legs AMS-HKG, CNS-HKG and HKG-AMS, but I was still waitlisted for HKG-SYD (still a 9-hour flight !). Furthermore, the agent told me to have 'very low hopes' that the waiting list would ever clear, especially since we were looking for 2 upgrades on a partner airline.
I almost gave up, but one week later decided to call back one last time: I got great news, the agent confirmed the HKG-SYD as well, so the whole itinerary is set up in bus. class.
However, the agent advised me to finalize the booking as soon as possible (=pay for the tickets and communicate the ticket numbers to CX), because they have had experiences where CX just cancels confirmed upgrades when they remain unconfirmed for too long. When I asked what 'too long' stands for, the agent told me '2 to 3 weeks maximum, sir'.
Did anyone experience such a cancellation before ? I would hate to loose the confirmed upgrade, but also don't feel much for paying the tickets already 5 months in advance ?
What would be the influence of Qualiflyer stopping at the year-end ? I understand it is extremely wise to get everything dealt with by the year-end ?
Cheers,
Jan
I posted 2 weeks ago regarding a trip to Australia in Feb-Mar of next year (for my honeymoon trip):
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum40/HTML/000812.html
I followed the advice to book two return upgrades on Cathay Pacific (CX). (total of 180.000 miles, but lowest cost according to me)
I called CX to make a booking in L-class (lowest upgradeable econ. booking class), afterwards I called Qualiflyer to request the upgrade. The agent entered the request data for the upgrades, the reply from CX came back instantly, denying the 13-hour flights LHR-HKG and HKG-LHR (5 months in advance in low season, the upgrades were already sold out), the legs HKG-SYD and CNS-HKG came back confirmed. I then called back CX to change my reservation to fly out of AMS instead of HKG. Then called back Qualiflyer, they could confirm the legs AMS-HKG, CNS-HKG and HKG-AMS, but I was still waitlisted for HKG-SYD (still a 9-hour flight !). Furthermore, the agent told me to have 'very low hopes' that the waiting list would ever clear, especially since we were looking for 2 upgrades on a partner airline.
I almost gave up, but one week later decided to call back one last time: I got great news, the agent confirmed the HKG-SYD as well, so the whole itinerary is set up in bus. class.
However, the agent advised me to finalize the booking as soon as possible (=pay for the tickets and communicate the ticket numbers to CX), because they have had experiences where CX just cancels confirmed upgrades when they remain unconfirmed for too long. When I asked what 'too long' stands for, the agent told me '2 to 3 weeks maximum, sir'.
Did anyone experience such a cancellation before ? I would hate to loose the confirmed upgrade, but also don't feel much for paying the tickets already 5 months in advance ?
What would be the influence of Qualiflyer stopping at the year-end ? I understand it is extremely wise to get everything dealt with by the year-end ?
Cheers,
Jan