Originally Posted by
NWplatinum
I also find the whole scenario interesting and sort of odd. Why did they honor these fares if it’s taking up so much inventory? I just think it’s interrsting they let it fly (no pun intended). All your F inventory to NA is gone in a lot of cases.
Really? Look at the inventory. The more filled cabins are clustered around the U.S. holiday weekends (not exactly peak with biz travelers). SFO appears hardest hit of the markets (makes sense -- lots of money in SFO and only 1 CX flight with F per day, which concentrated bookings to 1 flight). For the most part, flights have 1-5 seats for sale in F. There are some days here or there (many around U.S. holidays) where it's F0 and potentially hurting them. Otherwise, they still have the 1-2 seats for sale that they usually sell.
Let's not forget how much space CX dumps to award closer to departure date. In many cases, they've essentially pre-sold those seats rather than waiting out for the last minute. And for cash rather than payment for partner miles. This is not the end of the world for them. Sure is screws up their models, and probably makes them a little less comfortable with the projections than they'd like to be. But the fact that only 1 of 3 flights a day has F from SFO to begin with gives you an idea that they don't really sell much of it. There are empty CX F seats flying in the next few days as a further indication they don't sell out. JFK has 4 flights with F, and most have seats for sale.
I'm not trying to trivialize it, and I'm certainly appreciative our bookings are honored, but the hit to them isn't as bad as it looks. There are some flights where they're going to take a revenue beating since we've filled up the cabin. There are other cases where they're going to make a few thousand extra bucks on extra sales to fly people in seats that would have otherwise gone empty. In the end, that mitigates some of the hit.
Originally Posted by
NWplatinum
I agree. I hope everybody acts this way. But the bottom line is they’re going to go from 2 to 3 person average cabin to a six person cabin full on every flight. It’s not going to be the personal experience you’re used to flying Cathay Pacific first class. And that’s OK given the fare we paid. Just a thought...
No way it goes 6 (or 8) full on every flight. They're flying empties tonight and the next few days. There are many flights showing F5. If you snagged this around a U.S. holiday, yeah, it's likely to be full. Otherwise, most flights still have space for sale.
Just go out a month for a sample week:
2/3 SFO-HKG F5; JFK-HKG F0, F2, F5, F4
2/4 SFO-HKG F4; JFK-HKG F5, F5, F3
2/5 SFO-HKG F5; JFK-HKG F2, F3, F5, F2
2/6 SFO-HKG F1; JFK-HKG F0, F5, F4, F4
2/7 SFO-HKG F1; JFK-HKG F4, F1, F2
2/8 SFO-HKG F3; JFK-HKG F3, F5, F3, F1
2/9 SFO-HKG F2; JFK-HKG F1, F2, F1, F0
What they should do is offer some incentive to cancel. A lot of folks booked this hastily, and if they offer a cancellation waiver if people cancel in the next week or so, I think some would do this, rather than tying up the inventory.