I have recently arranged for an elder family of mine who is in her 70s to fly J from PEK to MEL on CX391/CX135. but due to an extended 4 hour delay, they arrived at HKG at 8pm, well past the departure time for CX135.

I have personally been on those connections and the standard drill is simply to change us to the following flight CX105 to MEL. but I was surprised when I learnt that they were rescheduled to the Qantas flight to MEL instead. but what was more outrageous is that their original BP was simply replaced by a QF boarding pass in economy!!! without any notice, apology, or explanation. and they were virtually dragged to the gate to make the connection.

during their delay at PEK I did go into MMB to find that they were rescheduled to the next CX105 flight to MEL with confirmed seats and there were indeed plenty of seats in J on that flight. I can totally understand the need of rescheduling someone onto a different airline or even downgrade them if necessary. But really? Dragging two elderly passengers and downgrading them to Y on a long haul flight without even saying a word?

Thank you for all your time in reading this long post and I'm really interested to hear if you guys have ever encountered something like this. And if so, what were the end result? should I send in a complaint to CX for compensation?