Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Bangkok and your upcoming holidays

So I imagine there must be a few people here in HKG that had planned to go to Bangkok over Christmas / NY / CNY? What are you doing about it in the current situation?

For myself, I have flights booked/paid at NY, as well as a separate prepaid hotel booking in Bangkok. And at CNY I was planning to go to Hua Hin, also via BKK.

If the turmoil continues until then, according to the current reticketing guidelines issued by CX, they won't waive the refund fee, and they will waive the rebooking fee, but you must travel within 14 days of your original ticket. So at xmas time...I don't want to travel 14 days after xmas, and what if it's not sorted out by then anyway? My ticket is non reroutable as well, so I'm guessing CX won't allow me to go somewhere else.

I don't have travel insurance, but I wonder if I can claim off my credit card. It was purchased using the CX Amex card.

And how about my prepaid hotel booking (booked directly with the hotel)? According to the conditions, I can't cancel or get a refund. I wonder what BKK hotels are doing about the current situation when people can't get to their hotel to use their prepaid bookings?

Even if the airport is opened again by then, do you think it's worth travelling to BKK still?

I know a lot depends on what happens in the next week, and I'm starting to sound like susiesan, but interested to know what other people are doing in the same situation?

If the current situation persists, and you don't want to travel to BKK 14 days later than christmas, then it is what it is. Your ticket will just go to waste.

The terms of the CX Amex Protection guarantee are on the amex website, so feel free to go to the website and have a look, but from what I remember, tickets of any sort are not under protection.

Speak with the hotels. I think in light of the current situation, hotels are willing to at least give a partial refund. A friend of mine got a full refund back in the summer when there was unrest as well. Hotels I believe should be more lenient.

Sudden thought just came to mind- Doesn't CX Amex offer automatic travel insurance?

Yes I think BKK is still worth going. I dont think the protests will get in the way of you relaxing.


If I were in your shoes, I'd see how the current situation is in a few weeks time. If its still crap by christmas, then take the 14 day rebook.. and go and try to have fun..

I had some plans to travel to BKK this week with the family for a little holiday. Luckily I changed these plans just before the unrest in one day to travel to HKG instead :)

I did notice that CX has changed their policy overnight, and now waives refund charges. I don't know if this only applies to fares that allowed cancellation with a refund charge, or includes fares that are marked non-refundable. Currently only applies to trips up to 10 December.

And what do restrictions like this mean:

"ET/VLD FLT DTE SHOWN/NONEND-RERTE-REF/REF HKD600
ENDORSEMENTS /REBK HKD600"

It says to me "non-refundable" but then it says there is a refund fee of HKD 600?

If the turmoil continues until then
I'd be rather surprised if airport operations still isn't flowing by then.

CX were no help to me at all...I was one of the ones stuck in BKK. I called the CX help lines in BKK...after 2 hrs, got through to a lady. It was then, the 3rd day of CX mounting flight to UTP to evacuate their pax. I asked her to help book protection flight, and was told that there are 1000 pax out there already. They can't book anything. I called the Marco Polo line in HKG, was told that the local office does the protection, not Hong Kong.
Took a chance, went to UTP, to find out that there are people who have reservations on these flight. So, we put ourselves on the standby list and got on. We had business class tickets, but they told us 1 class only, gave us seats in YC. Fine, it's an evacuation flight.
By the way, in the first few days, their home page with special warning of flight cancellations to BKK...it DID NOT MENTION FOR 2 DAYS of the special flights from UTP...it was in the press release page. !!! I found out about that reading on Airliners.net !!!
By the time we got to HKG, went to the W concourse interline desk...stood in line...to be told that they are on a different system, please go to the E connection desk. Stood in line, to be told that we have to leave the airport and go to the ticketing desk outside.
Went to ticketing desk at check in level, to be told that they cannot change the routing of our award tickets issued by AA. So, they rebooked us on the same routing HKG SFO, and tell us to fend for ourselves with our onward travel on AA.
All in all...I found their airport personel very cold and unsympathetic. I saw an IFS manager stayed with an older couple at the ticketing helping them. And on my way back from the hotel to the airport...I saw her walking towards the parking lot. She even gave me an " I feel sorry for you " smile.
And read this : SQ are mounting flights from UTP aslo. They even have a Business line for the elite pax. And they gave everyone of their pax a group sticker thing. That thing is important because they escort each flight's pax through immigrations by each airline's flight. CX's Thai Airways contract personel will escort CX's pax through first, and so on.
CX did not give out those stickers and they had to push other people back and were not able to identify their pax who got pushed out of the way and helped them.
The CX Thai Airways contract people wore their street clothes with their badges hung around their neck...in the meantime, the SQ people had dark SQ knit shirts with SQ logos on. They had their agents out with clipboard and bagtags out there working the lines, helped answering questions, etc..
Like the woman at the ticketing desk, after she rebooked us, did not even offer to pre-reserve seats for us. After I asked, she sent me to the C counter to checkin for the morning after flight...

CX were no help to me at all...I was one of the ones stuck in BKK. I called the CX help lines in BKK...after 2 hrs, got through to a lady. It was then, the 3rd day of CX mounting flight to UTP to evacuate their pax. I asked her to help book protection flight, and was told that there are 1000 pax out there already. They can't book anything. I called the Marco Polo line in HKG, was told that the local office does the protection, not Hong Kong.
Took a chance, went to UTP, to find out that there are people who have reservations on these flight. So, we put ourselves on the standby list and got on. We had business class tickets, but they told us 1 class only, gave us seats in YC. Fine, it's an evacuation flight.
By the way, in the first few days, their home page with special warning of flight cancellations to BKK...it DID NOT MENTION FOR 2 DAYS of the special flights from UTP...it was in the press release page. !!! I found out about that reading on Airliners.net !!!
By the time we got to HKG, went to the W concourse interline desk...stood in line...to be told that they are on a different system, please go to the E connection desk. Stood in line, to be told that we have to leave the airport and go to the ticketing desk outside.
Went to ticketing desk at check in level, to be told that they cannot change the routing of our award tickets issued by AA. So, they rebooked us on the same routing HKG SFO, and tell us to fend for ourselves with our onward travel on AA.
All in all...I found their airport personel very cold and unsympathetic. I saw an IFS manager stayed with an older couple at the ticketing helping them. And on my way back from the hotel to the airport...I saw her walking towards the parking lot. She even gave me an " I feel sorry for you " smile.
And read this : SQ are mounting flights from UTP aslo. They even have a Business line for the elite pax. And they gave everyone of their pax a group sticker thing. That thing is important because they escort each flight's pax through immigrations by each airline's flight. CX's Thai Airways contract personel will escort CX's pax through first, and so on.
CX did not give out those stickers and they had to push other people back and were not able to identify their pax who got pushed out of the way and helped them.
The CX Thai Airways contract people wore their street clothes with their badges hung around their neck...in the meantime, the SQ people had dark SQ knit shirts with SQ logos on. They had their agents out with clipboard and bagtags out there working the lines, helped answering questions, etc..
Like the woman at the ticketing desk, after she rebooked us, did not even offer to pre-reserve seats for us. After I asked, she sent me to the C counter to checkin for the morning after flight...

I sincerely believe that it's during time like this that a true world class airline shines out. Even in such a chaotic and unpleasant situation, SQ still maintains a high level of service.

K

frankly I have had much more bad experiences than good ones with the CX ground staff in HKG (no matter it's CX/KA F check-in, CX F Wing/Pier reception, etc) - granted it's hard to give exceptionally good services in these simple instances, so I probably would remember only the bad experiences and I overall also feel they are very cold and never did I ever feel "service straight from the heart" anymore.

Can anyone offer any explanation for the following message on CX advisory page re. travel to Bangkok : "Services to and from Bangkok remain cancelled until 05 December with the exception of CX703 and CX709 on 05 December."

Does this mean that all flights to BKK on 5th Dec are cancelled except for CX703 & CX709 ? If this were there case, then what is so special about those 2 flights ? (I'm booked on CX703 on 5th Dec)

My English is far from perfect, however I don't think that the above sentence makes sense. " [Flights] are cancelled UNTIL 5th Dec...., except CX703 & CX709 ON 5th Dec...," - it seems to me that the time clauses are confused.

any explanations would be much appreciated,

cheers,

YingFai.

It implies to me that on 5th December CX703 and CX709 are flying. I don't know how/where they will land. Probably at UTP also.

SQ here in Australia have been very proactive with friends of mine needing to delay a Christmas Shopping trip ^

I'm sure most of us would agree that SQ trumps CX as an airline. The post above regarding the handling of pax at Utapao all but affirms that.

Then again, think about how many airlines CX is better than.

well...if they're satisfied with being better than CI, TG, US airlines, mainland airlines, etc...maybe that's why their gap with SQ is getting wider and wider...

CX were no help to me at all...I was one of the ones stuck in BKK. I called the CX help lines in BKK...after 2 hrs, got through to a lady. It was then, the 3rd day of CX mounting flight to UTP to evacuate their pax. I asked her to help book protection flight, and was told that there are 1000 pax out there already. They can't book anything. I called the Marco Polo line in HKG, was told that the local office does the protection, not Hong Kong.
Took a chance, went to UTP, to find out that there are people who have reservations on these flight. So, we put ourselves on the standby list and got on. We had business class tickets, but they told us 1 class only, gave us seats in YC. Fine, it's an evacuation flight.
By the way, in the first few days, their home page with special warning of flight cancellations to BKK...it DID NOT MENTION FOR 2 DAYS of the special flights from UTP...it was in the press release page. !!! I found out about that reading on Airliners.net !!!
By the time we got to HKG, went to the W concourse interline desk...stood in line...to be told that they are on a different system, please go to the E connection desk. Stood in line, to be told that we have to leave the airport and go to the ticketing desk outside.
Went to ticketing desk at check in level, to be told that they cannot change the routing of our award tickets issued by AA. So, they rebooked us on the same routing HKG SFO, and tell us to fend for ourselves with our onward travel on AA.
All in all...I found their airport personel very cold and unsympathetic. I saw an IFS manager stayed with an older couple at the ticketing helping them. And on my way back from the hotel to the airport...I saw her walking towards the parking lot. She even gave me an " I feel sorry for you " smile.
And read this : SQ are mounting flights from UTP aslo. They even have a Business line for the elite pax. And they gave everyone of their pax a group sticker thing. That thing is important because they escort each flight's pax through immigrations by each airline's flight. CX's Thai Airways contract personel will escort CX's pax through first, and so on.
CX did not give out those stickers and they had to push other people back and were not able to identify their pax who got pushed out of the way and helped them.
The CX Thai Airways contract people wore their street clothes with their badges hung around their neck...in the meantime, the SQ people had dark SQ knit shirts with SQ logos on. They had their agents out with clipboard and bagtags out there working the lines, helped answering questions, etc..
Like the woman at the ticketing desk, after she rebooked us, did not even offer to pre-reserve seats for us. After I asked, she sent me to the C counter to checkin for the morning after flight...

I suppose you are not holding a CX ticket and you are not a Marco Polo member. The priority is CX own passengers leaving for HKG first. Calling MPC may only help if you are a MPC member (but in this situation, everything is probably at airport control).

well...if they're satisfied with being better than CI, TG, US airlines, mainland airlines, etc...maybe that's why their gap with SQ is getting wider and wider...

People fly different airline for their own reasons. Many of my friends are still flying UA SFO-HKG although it is the most expensive and the worst in service.

No airlines are #1 in all categories - in-flight services, food, ground staff (at the base airports or outposts), lounges, other training. CX is behinf SQ on in-flight services, food and ground staff, and behind QF and BA in lounges. However, there are people who just sleep through the flight and do not like to eat at 10km above ground. There are people who do not often go to SYD or LHR to frequent the OW lounges.

On the other hand, I can see that things are not well controlled, but CX and KA are among the first (if not the first) to fly in rescue flights.

The airports should return to normal this Thursday, 4 December, but many tourists may not be considering BKK this Christmas/New Year.

Hopefully I will be going to BKK Dec 11th after having to postpone last weeks trip.

I'm sure most of us would agree that SQ trumps CX as an airline. The post above regarding the handling of pax at Utapao all but affirms that.

Then again, think about how many airlines CX is better than.

Apart from the Guarentee Seat option for Elite Members (which i beleive SQ dont offer but please correct me if i'm wrong). CX stands 2nd to SQ in terms of other things....

Right now my main use of the CXDM card is the ability to use miles when needed, and guarentee seat.......the rest of the benifits are all standard with most airlines.....

I suppose you are not holding a CX ticket and you are not a Marco Polo member. The priority is CX own passengers leaving for HKG first. Calling MPC may only help if you are a MPC member (but in this situation, everything is probably at airport control).

I used my friend's MP number to call HKG just trying to talk to someone...I called, and called in BKK, and no one answer the call. CX had only 3 phone lines listed. After being given the infos that CX local office in BKK controls everything then I sat at the phone and used the redial button until I got some lady to tell me that they do not take any booking at all. And then, how did the contract staff from TG showed up at UTP with pages of confirmed pax names ? And it was Saturday, I asked the lady in BKK : when will your office closes today, she said : 6PM. As usual. Can't they ask some of their staffs to work overtime and try to help answer the phones longer ? This is a crisis. Not business as usual...