This is my first post. Please let me know if this is a wrong place to start this thread or if I make some mistake. Its a long post - just bear with my writing. I am not an expert writer

I have been such a fan of this forum and was just reading the posts all this while - so thought of adding my 2 cents.

This happened quite a while back on 16th of May. I was on SFO-BLR via HKG in Y full-fare. SFO-HKG is a Cathay Operated CX 879 - the beautiful and lovely 74K typical 4 class configuration (I am sad that its going away ) It was a lovely first leg although it was a little over than 14hrs because of late departure in SFO and also slightly longer travel time ( Head winds may be?? ). The next leg is operated by Dragon Air KA 154 - CX 5154 which is an A330. The layover in HKG is little less than 3 hrs. Good enough time to have some rest and get to the gate. I have taken this leg several times and frankly never had any issue. I have traveled through a lot of Europe based/Gulf based hubs and frankly choose CX over them any day for travel from SFO-BLR. BLR is my home and SFO is where I have been working. All my trips are personal - so Y - all the way !! So all my opinions are based on a budget traveler.

So the scheduled departure of KA 154 was 9:20 PM local time. When I landed in HKG, there was no gate assigned to KA 154 - which is quite normal and I just waited in the common area for the screens to be updated. After a while it got assigned some gate with a 1hr 15min delay and new departure was 10:35. I just went to the gate and waited there for a while. No reason for the delay given - just usual operational requirement crap. Did not bother. After a while there was a gate change as well as additional delay. Now it said flight departs at 12:15 and the delay of a total of 2:55 with no sort of explanation given. Please note that it was already midnight in HKG local time and none of us were given with food-vouchers or anything for that matter. There was no one from CX/KA with authority who could tell us exactly what was the situation.

Now there was some tension and people got really anxious. Apparently this has been a trend for the KA 154 flight and frequent travelers at the gate were telling about how CX would delay flight for a while and then eventually cancel. The reason they gave was because of the less number of outgoing-incoming passengers which didn't make sense to run a full flight each day. Something like that. They had done this before and combined 2 day's flights. I doubt the credibility of that - lets just not worry about why would they do that. Its a debatable issue. So the passengers got furious and created a big issue at the gate. It was needed as CX/KA treated the passengers in a horrible-way possible. Lets all accept that if this was a US-bound flight the issue would have been handled in a totally different way. As even after complaining and people creating a big issue - still there was no response. Some time passed and another gate change was announced and the new departure time was 3:00 local time. So the total delay of 5hr 40mins. This was the tipping point for people to get furious and everyone really wanted some explanation from a person with authority. No one arrived - so people called HKG local police as well as airport police to intervene with the matter. This was something I never experienced and scared this s*** out of me. What if all of us would be arrested? stuff like that.

So people refused to move over to new gate which was quite far from where we were and it was already past 12 am now and we were not given with any refreshments. All the eateries closed at around 11 pm near our gate !! More tension and after creating a big issue - one manager from CX/KA came over at around 1.30 am and promised that the flight will leave at 3:00 am and tried to explain the situation to us - she failed miserably. There was something they didn't want us to know. As simple as that. The kind policeman who was like a mediator "requested" us to kindly wait until 3:00 am and move over to the new gate. At this time CX started distributing water bottles in a most un-organized way possible. Still nothing to eat. I was supposed to be in BLR by this time and left my home in SFO like 20 hrs ago !! So all of us decided to move to the new gate and wait there for some more time. Most of them were convinced that this flight will be cancelled. We all were at the new gate at around 2:00 am. All the ground staff moved with us as well. Then when all of us asked them about refreshments - they said its coming in some time. Then a ground staff appeared with 30-40 McD Fish Burgers which he got in a couple of paper bags!! Like seriously...Is this how you treat people? No offence - but its better not to give anything than give $1 burgers. If you are aware of where you are flying - you would know that most people in that part of the world are mostly vegetarian and would never even sit next to a person eating meat. I ate the burger as I was extremely hungry - but that's not the point. After a while they also got some muffins again in huge paper bags...I would say the scene was really comic to see. Most of them refused to have what they got - I can totally understand. It was a customer service epic fail !!

The CREW also got to the gate and this time we were sure that this flight is indeed leaving HKG for BLR and people started to cool down and prepare for the 5hr+ flight. Apart from the one CX manager and the kind police guy - there was no one else with authority to answer our queries. The boarding started at around 2:45 am and we left HKG just few mins past 3 and the journey was good and I reached home in one-piece.

I was extremely furious to experience this and got really mad. CX/KA not only legally flouted many rules - even on a humane basis they did really bad. I am a mid 20's single traveler - but the flight was full of home bound US-based families with kids. So I did some research and found that if there is a 3hr+ delay airlines are "SUPPOSED" to provide refreshments. The only exceptions are un-avoidable circumstances like weather,strike etc etc..but none of those applied for this KA 154 flight on the 16th May 2014. So I just used the airline feedback form and sent a complaint explaining the entire situation and forgot about that. Frankly speaking who gives any thing about Y. I never ever dreamed that I would get a response - forget anything more than that. It said in the automatic response that they would respond after 20 days.

I checked my e-mail after around 20 days of sending the complaint - voilą !!! A response and here what is said:

I am so sorry to learn of your recent flight experience with us, especially with the handling of the entire situation as you have described in your email.

Firstly, I would like to thank you for your understanding that flight delays do happen, and I completely agree with you that we could have handled the situation appropriately and in a better way, however, I am very sorry if we were unable to meet your expectations on this occasion.

As you have rightly mentioned we should make better arrangements for our passengers which helps reduce the impact of the delay. Nevertheless, we take this as a learning experience and your feedback regarding the lack of information and the refreshments shall surely be forwarded to the relevant team for their attention, most importantly to take steps to avoid such issues in future.

Mr XXXX YYYY , we never want to upset our passengers and considering you as our valued customer, we would like to offer you a goodwill gesture as an apology to encourage you to fly with us again.

In the view of the same, I have added 15000 Asia Miles to your membership account and this will be reflected on your next activity statement under the reference “Goodwill”.

May we take this opportunity to thank you for your loyal patronage of Cathay Pacific and hope that the next time you fly with us you will have a smoother and enjoyable experience.

Yes - 15000 Asia Miles. Frankly I thought it was quite generous of them. Who gives a thing about economy-pax. I really appreciate the response and if they can make sure to avoid things like this in future - I don't mind taking them again for my trips.