I see. If that's the case, I sympathize with her. CX sells a cash product it doesn't care to protect. I find this behavior similar to, but even more egregious than, CX swapping out regional F as done ever so often.

At least for the case of regional F, almost all the traffic is connecting partner awards. Few - if any - is cash F demand. Not saying the practice is ethical, but no matter how much hee hawing folks do about it, the fact remains partners vote with their award wallets and there is no shortage of partner members who line up to redeem for CX F awards that transit HKG - which the longhaul segment is the obvious attraction, and demand remains robust. CX can "get away" with swapping regional, non-Japan F.

Versus PEY: actively actively markets the regional PEY cash fares, including heavy marketing in Hong Kong, and I know heaps of HK-based folks who buy them for leisure for their families when traveling around Asia. I imagine outports as well - I recently saw CX PEY ads in Singapore. It is absolutely an impact on CX's brand when they don't deliver the product they offer on the "main" segments you pay cash for (in addition to treating the PEY soft product regionally almost no differently than EY class). For longhaul travel, the main segment is the longhaul. But when it's a weekend trip from HKG to SIN and you paid cash for PEY after lapping up CX's ads....well all that comes back to them. I think the inability to protect PEY again and again hurts them.