Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Resumption of limited F service to Auckland

For anyone booking RTW tickets through New Zealand, or who are simply interested in buying or upgrading to F on AKL-HKG, note that sporadic 34C service will shortly resume on both CX107/8 and CX117/8. You will need to check the schedules for the particular day you wish to fly as there does not appear to be a consistent rhyme or reason to the scheduling. It roughly looks like any four of ten weekly services will offer First. Before you ask, yes, First Class is available for sale on these services and it is not a case of a three-class aircraft operating a two-class flight.

The change is probably due to a combination of 34C airframes being freed from the reduction of CX262/3 and the movement of CX256/7 to 34B operation, and slackening Economy Class demand meaning that a 205 Y-seat aircraft can accept the market demand just as well as a 257 Y-seat aircraft. If Y loads are not exceeding 205 on a regular basis, even selling one First Class seat on a 34C will bring in some nice $ for CX it would not otherwise have had.

FAQs have been updated accordingly.

I will be travelling AKL-HKG on a ACIRC26 fare in early July.

I have chosen CX118 on 9 July, which has been booked in F.

What happens if this aircraft does not offer F?

The scheduling is a bit hit and miss.

What happens if this aircraft does not offer F?
Logic says you get carried in J and the ACIR26 fare specifically excludes any compensation for accommodation in business class on a flight that does not offer first class.

When I had a F award booking with CX and they removed F from the route I was rebooked into business class. As there were still other F segments in the itinerary, no adjustment was due for the cost of the award following the involuntary downgrade. I expect the same would be true for an ACIR26 fare.

Logic says you get carried in J and the ACIR26 fare specifically excludes any compensation for accommodation in business class on a flight that does not offer first class.

When I had a F award booking with CX and they removed F from the route I was rebooked into business class. As there were still other F segments in the itinerary, no adjustment was due for the cost of the award following the involuntary downgrade. I expect the same would be true for an ACIR26 fare.

CX tends to make a distinction albeit unofficial of when you are booked and ticketed in J vs booked and ticketed in F but invol downgraded at the last minute. Anecdotally compensation is given.

CX tends to make a distinction albeit unofficial of when you are booked and ticketed in J vs booked and ticketed in F but invol downgraded at the last minute. Anecdotally compensation is given.
Sadly not if its an award flight, as I recently found out the hard way. Hopefully they will "do the right thing" for a paid ACIR26 passenger.

Logic says you get carried in J and the ACIR26 fare specifically excludes any compensation for accommodation in business class on a flight that does not offer first class.

When I had a F award booking with CX and they removed F from the route I was rebooked into business class. As there were still other F segments in the itinerary, no adjustment was due for the cost of the award following the involuntary downgrade. I expect the same would be true for an ACIR26 fare.

But they refunded the miles, right?

But they refunded the miles, right?
Nope. This was an AA award flying CX. As there were still two remaining F segments (out of 7 flights) on the award, it was still an F award and so no refund was due. Changed from 70% of the journey in F per original ticket, to less than 40% in F after removal of F from the longest sector of the trip.

However, AA did resolve to me complete satisfaction ^ allowing me to re-route and change from a OneWorld award to 3 x one-way partner awards, reducing the miles cost, saving me 4 hours travel time and waiving the miles reinstatement fee. This would be the same as having a paid ticket refunded without penalty if the involuntary downgrade was not acceptable to the passenger.

But if I had stuck with the original routing there was no compensation due nor offered.