Originally Posted by
barracuda93
Ok, can't argue since never had such issue. But I have been offered by CX many times to move me to an earlier flight, for instance (I had been usually early at their lounge when departing HKG or TPE), on reward (mostly) and probably on paid bookings too. Never happened with other carriers, so I had an impression they are extremely flexible and do not discriminate if the booking is a reward one from a partner.
The problem here as someone else noted is that these bookings are done via BAEC so have a BA 125-... ticket. BA are effectively acting as a TA in this instance, and I understand that like a TA they "own" the booking until just before the flight. This means that whilst CX may be quite flexible with issues on their own bookings, it wouldn't be CX the OP would be dealing with and instead it would be BA.
If I can draw from my own experience when CX have downgraded me on a BA reward booking CX would only let BA rebook me in to F again on another flight of there was actually F reward availability. In my instance there was no other CX flight with F reward availability that day so I basically had to go with J or cancel.
In contrast for a BA reward booking on a BA flight generally if they do a change you can rebook to go back in F on another BA flight as long as there is some selling class availability - your revoking choice isn't limited to where there is F reward availability. This sounds like your experience for CX rests flights booked directly with CX.
Also note I was specifically talking about issues which were not "on the day" downgrades. If something does happen on the day then yes you deal with the operating carrier and you can try your luck for changes.