Excellent news for AC customers who are disgusted and annoyed by the ripoff practice of paying an inflated J fare but sitting in Y when using ANA or Thai when conecting to Thailand via TYO or HKG. The fares to BKK via ICN with Asiana and Thai are more expensive when sold as part of a connecting ticket on AC than if sold as a separate ticket.
I regularly flew the AC-HKG route connecting to BKK via CX. Unfortunately, it was not a codeshare and lost the credit. However, it was always a J class seat and a better schedule and cost than with the clueless and lacklustre Thai.
Also good news for those who wish to fly to Malaysia or the Phillipines as cathay will do the connection.
My takeaway is that this is a big middle finger to EVA, Singapore, Thai and ANA. On this I give AC credit for picking a quality partner. I just hope the airfares improve now.
This is my major route so I am delighted. EVA eally needs to change its schedule for Toronto and move everything up 1-4 hours, at least on the weekend. The arrival at 8:30 pm makes it difficult to connect and departure at 1 am is unpleasant. The route initially was bleeding business away from AC. However, as someone who has flown the YYZ-TPE-BKE 10+ times in the past few years, I am done with EVA. Too tiring. I like the AC-HKG option and will gladly come back to that route as my principal if the fare is competitive.