Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - BAD revenue management: poor CX staff

I am sure this must not be a common thing that happens at CX, but I thought I'd share my story with you all as it is strange.

I had booked an upgrade from HKG to LHR (eco to biz) around a month and a half ago, and being diamond, they confirmed the seat rather quickly despite the flight being fairly full at the time :D

However a week or so after i made the upgrade booking, i found out about the biz class deals from Korea so decided to purchase a ticket from there instead (which of course costs more than the K class fare plus the mileage - but these deals are not always around to better take them while you can!). Fare being I class, was not available on my flight, but i spoke to Marco Polo on the phone and was told it shouldn't be a problem but they would let me know. Time passed and they did not confirm the seat for me and because I had already bought the ticket, I was getting frustrated - why weren't they giving my HIGHER REVENUE seat to me instead of an upgrade??

After MUCH discussion (but not much argument - each time I spoke to marco polo, they had nothing to say because they themselves couldn't understand howcome it was so hard to get CX to accept a higher fare than what I was already booked on) - I finally got my seat confirmed the DAY before my flight.

I litereally had to BEG CX just to pay them more money which is very strange if you ask me. Every week (if not more frequently) there are articles in the HK newspapers about how they have asked staff to take unpaid leave, etc. I think they need to ask their revenue management team to wake up from sleep instead.

Well bottom line was job done but it wasn't easy.

What I think happened was the MP agent over-committed and promised you that the I-class will clear, but there is no rule about guaranteed I-class reservation for diamonds (I believe it is only for J/C class).

In terms of the revenue thing, I don't believe agents are going to see what you pay for, and revenue does not really determine whether your wait-list clears, it is mostly status and fare class, so that is why the MP agents did not understand. In theory, the confirmation of your I-class ticket would not clear faster just because you had a mileage upgrade ticket on the same flight.

It is reasonable that sometimes U is easier to get than I. The I fare from Korea is about HKD14000. It is not much higher than a K-fare ticket, but the mileage taken out for an upgrade is a reduction in liability and can be quite attractive in business sense.

However, that may not be the reason for the delay. There is no seat guarantee for the I booking class. While a DM has high priority, I suppose revenue management still likes to see if there are any last minute J, C and perhaps even D passengers.

It's a common issue known as point of sale logic. Another rather well known city for cut price biz class fares is TPE. Why are they so low? Because this is what the locals can afford. If CX TPE had priced I class tix at 32k HKD like from HKG, then they would have completely lost out on the competition when other carriers are selling tix at ~20k HKD. The only way they could lower prices without losing significant revenue is by restricting availability. Think about it - if CX had offered the same availability from TPE and from HKG, everyone with some time to spare would have done turnarounds to TPE to start those tickets, eh?

That said, if the flight still isn't sold out until closer to departure, there is good chance that revenue management will open up availability for you. Earlier this year, I only issued my 95,000 TWD (~22k HKD) D class fare a few days before departure, and had to fight with the online booking engine to work out stopover/transits because of issues known as "married segments".

You can find a more detailed explanation about point of sale and married segment issues by daniellam here (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/10572521-post5.html).

I'm not talking about a guaranteed seat - what I'm saying is I already had an upgrade booked on the same flight and changed my mind after hearing the promotion to buy a business class (I class) fare instead.

The ticket costed just over HK$17000, almost double what a K class ticket would have cost (approx. $9000 inclusive). In pure revenue terms CX was gaining from this and I just can't believe how hard it was to get the seat done. It is honestly pretty easy to get U class seats for diamond members, but this was just rediculous.

To already have a U class seat and then try to have it changed to I class giving them more revenue... I just find it strange that they don't want the additional revenue - especially since I was already booked on the same flight and same seat...

Anyway my hard work and patience was worth it - got the bump up to seat 4A which was wonderful!;)

Well you have to think about who these people are. They are basically clerks working within the confines of the rules they are given. One rule says, if a DM wants an award seat, then see if one can be released. This is standard operating procedure. The other rule says, you can only sell in sub classes that have availability.

To link the two scenarios is not standard and much more difficult for the screen monkeys with headsets to be able to fulfil. Yes it doesn't make sense, but standard operating procedures are SOPs in HK.

Actually the people on MPO hotline were pretty understanding - I think it was going back and forth between them and their revenue department... too much red tape involved and obviously they have flaws in their system. I guess its no big deal because I can't imagine too many people doing what I did but still they should be able to grab every extra penny without difficulty... at least thats what I would do if I was in charge...

Remember that CPLP is a separate company and that redeeming AsiaMiles involves a payment to CPA as well. So what CPA had to weigh up was whether the 60,000(?)AMs were worth HK$8,000. That would value AsiaMiles at 1.7 US cents, which might not be far off the accounting value they use.