I have just made six reservations for autumn between HKG and 4 European cities. Here are my observations:

a) planes are very full. i had to rearrange my schedule because C class was fully booked on several dates in October, on the first september weekend i could only get Y seats. So much for the industry downturn.

b) I have one flight booked as a points upgrade Y-C. Because ugrade HKG-LHR on that day was only available on BA, I have to book the entire ticket with BA instead of CX (including rest of the journey inside Europe (LHR-VIE-LHR-LIS-CDG), and cannot fly back with CX from CDG (where an upgrade is available). Because it's booked with BA, I must fly back via LHR. So much for integration and cooperation in oneworld.

c) LHR-LIS-CDG as above cannot be booked on Iberia for shorter travel, no, i have to do LHR-LIS-LHR-CDG-LHR on BA, if not I have to pay that part as a separate itinerary (more than twice as costly). Again, so much for customer-oriented product integration in oneworld.

Disappointed,