alphaod

I am booked in PY. Wanted to save some money. Decided it might be important to arrive refreshed especially after a 16 hour flight.

I called reservations and inquired about upgrading to J. I made sure to tell them I intended to pay the difference.

I've been told they cannot let me upgrade, but I can cancel and rebook. I asked if they would waive the cancellation fee; I told them I was willing to book first if they could waive the fee. No dice. At least the agent was apologetic.

I'm confused with this whole Enhance thing going, so they don't want my money?

sxc

Enhance is only offered on particular routes and is not a guaranteed purchase until a few days before departure. It is a "bid for upgrade" not a set price for upgrade.

What you were asking for was a proper ticket in J after buying a Y+ ticket.

If the Y+ ticket you bought doesn't offer free refund, then you won't be able to "change" it into a J ticket without paying a refund fee, refunding the ticket and then repurchasing a J ticket.

QRC3288

You're confusing two separate issues.

The first is paying the fare difference. You can absolutely do this, and yes CX will (in my experience) waive any rebooking/cancellation fees that apply if you book and immediately ticket the higher class. I've done this before...if I remember correctly I was booked in K class to North America with a miles upgrade to J back in the days before PEY. Due to some circumstances, I ended up needing to buy a full-fare J ticket instead. CX understood the logic that it made a lot more sense for them to waive any rebooking/cancellation fees on the K+miles ticket and take my full fare J ticket, which costs a fine bundle. However, if I remember correctly CX actually had to cancel my original booking and make a whole new J booking for me. So the fact you can't just pay the difference instead of a refund/rebooking is sometimes a result of ticket terms. But the net result to your pocket is the same....Original ticket fare refunded plus full J ticket fare = the same as the fare difference. I'm not sure why you couldn't achieve this.

The second is Enhance. Enhance seems to be a program to get higher classes on the cheap. Let's just call it what it is - cheapo biz. It's obviously going to be cheaper than the upsell to the full fare class described above. In exchange for getting the chance at a cheapo biz ticket, you have the risk premium of a.) Enhance not being available or b.) your bid not winning. I think this ultimately will make a lot less people pay for J and significantly lower standards (not to mention taking away probably the best DM benefit out there....a reasonable shot at op-ups), but that's for another debate. I actually think if I had 0 shot at op-ups that'd probably be the kicker for me to switch to AA for my miles. Op-up is just such a great benefit. I don't care if it's "unpublished", the fact is it's there and is a huge reason I don't bank my miles elsewhere.

alphaod

My whole "Enhance" comment was with regard to the fact that CX wants money instead of free op-ups, so I was confused why they refused to waive the penalty so I can rebook it when I'm paying for a real J ticket (technically I fare, but still it's a business seat).

Guy Betsy

If you have not travelled, ie brand new ticket, then no, the entire ticket must be cancelled and reissued - and cancellation fees will apply. If you booked your ticket through a travel agent, then your travel agent must do all that for you. CX will not touch a travel agent issued ticket if the outbound has not been used.

alphaod

At this point I've decided I'll just retain my current seat. I was hoping to enjoy perhaps a lie-flat seat, but I'll survive.

As for the ticket, I bought it on CathayPacific.com


Thanks everyone.

haricharan

i've tried to switch to a biz class (I or D) ticket (wanting to pay the fare difference and change fee) from a PEY ticket (E) and they said can't because of fare rules, LOL. they didn't want my money. it was the first airline that i've encountered that situation.

Cathay Boy

It's not just about throwing money to a company. They have standards and rules and they are in place for a reason. They might lose out on some chump changes now, but the rules are in place so people can't take advantage of ticketing policies and procedures.

alphaod

Of course they have standards and rules, but you'd expect to have policies like:
Passenger wants to upgrade to J~
1) If fare is upgradeable, find difference and offer to customer.
3) If fare is not upgradeable, notify the customer, and tell them it can be rebooked at what price, the price differential from original ticket, and perhaps if needed, that the original ticket will be refunded and customer recharged for the entire amount of the new ticket. Waive cancellation charge!

It's about being flexible.

I'm not asking them to bend the rules for every other passenger. I'm asking them to be flexible and offer certain things proactively.

Admittingly one of the agents did offer to rebook it, but he made it extra clear I would need to pay the cancellation charge; it was like he was earning commissions on these charges or something. He never mentioned how much the new ticket is, or anything else. When I called I asked how much the difference is for a paid upgrade. At no point did I get the price difference back for that particular call.

peasant

It sound like you are asking for non upgradeable fares to be upgradeable with no penalty (waive the cancellation fee). That would make them - upgradeable fares...

I think it is a valid criticism that not all fares are upgradeable (with cash), and seems an odd decision.

But to ask that existing non upgradeable fares be upgradeable does seem to be nissing the point. That they are non-upgradeable

sxc

I might be wrong but I don't think there is such a thing as an upgradeable fare. If you buy a ticket in J class, it is for J class. There is no special upgrade mechanism inherent in the ticket to allow it to be upgraded except to cancel the ticket and buy a new ticket in F class (or A class).

So an "upgrade" which is from J to F will be the cancellation and refund of your initial ticket less any cancellation fees in the fare rules, and then a repurchase of a new F ticket.

I don't think that the company can offer discretionary cancellation fees. The reason a fare will have a cancellation fee is that you have bought a discounted ticket so it's a gamble on your behalf - Yes I want the cheaper ticket, but if I don't end up travelling, I need to compensate CX with some amount. The upside to CX is that they know with more certainty that you will travel in that class. If you then decide that you don't want to travel in J class, this creates more uncertainty for CX as they have an additional J seat to sell. I know you will say that they will have benefitted because you are now buying a F seat, but this is the way revenue management works - they don't want people to game the system.

MattNZ

I think these arguments largely come down to a subjective view of what people think is 'good business practice'.

As a related example, I am flying J return from AKL-LHR soon and 3 out of 4 legs have no F class. I rang CX to see if I was able to pay to upgrade the 1 leg where F was available. To some that may seem like a silly question to ask, but as some others say, if there is a seat available wouldn't they like to sell that as a single 'product'?

Short answer - no. I was told I would need to rebook the entire ticket as F (even though this would put me in the J cabin for 3/4 of legs) for a total price of $22,000 NZD. which is a marginal cost of over $10,000 just to fly F for one segment.

Surely there is some middle ground here?

Guy Betsy

Overall, that is the easiest and cheapest way to do it is to upgrade your entire ticket. Because that is how fares are priced..as a thru fare, your ticket works out cheaper than AKL-HKG-AKL as say one ticket, and HKG-LHR-HKG as one ticket. The HKG-LHR-HKG can be booked in oneway in F and J. If you upgrade one sector, then the full fare will be applied between HKG-LHR or v.v. instead of your discounted J class between AKL-LHR.

There is no way around this. Unless you have paid in full J which I doubt you did. Then the fare difference can be applied between J and F for that one sector.

QRC3288

Guy Betsy lays it out pretty clearly above. It sounds like you're on a discounted J ticket (?). If you're on full fare (F or J sub fareclasses) then you can do what you want, but obviously it's way more expensive.

The best way to do it is, if you're MPC, just use miles on one sector. I suppose that is another one of the benefits of being MPC - I frequently do what you're asking about. Booked in a lower J sub fareclass but use miles for a sector or two to upgrade to F.

alphaod

All is good, got op'd. ^