Originally Posted by
deadinabsentia
Because the nations some have tickets too have made it abundantly clear they will not be open or not open to citizens other than their own.
Cathay is knowingly being fraudulent.
It's a bit unfair on CX as they have no way of really knowing if the OP isn't a New Zealand citizen and therefore would be able to take the flight. Cathay have also been, in my experience, very good about providing cash refunds in a prompt manner when they do cancel their flights. In this case perhaps they will run one flight a week to NZ that you could get on, or perhaps none, impossible for us to predict.
Looking ahead you would imagine the flexibility waiver will come out 3-4 weeks before the flight allowing cancellations or refunds for Cathay credits (if the flight is still running). As for the flight cancellations, I've not noticed a real pattern to them, sometimes it is 4 to 8 weeks out, sometimes it is 2 weeks before, as such it will just be a waiting game for the OP - they do not cancel the flights on the day or anything cruel like that. Be confident that Cathay will be well behaved and will refund your money/miles, or let you change the flight to a later date in 2021. I appreciate that there is an opportunity cost here of course for the other booking, but probably not much you can do but wait.