The WHOLE reason why CX could price the direct flight SO MUCH HIGHER than those going further is because the US-HKG-US routes are Very Sellable over the more creative routes as you (and I) might opt to.
It is really market force at work - much like I mentioned several weeks earlier, people actually nestled a EU-HKG-EU CX tickets in US-LHR-US tickets, paying <$5000 versus >$8000 for a US-HKG-US route for June/Jul/Aug high demand months trips.
BUT, there are also plenty of people insist on the direct flights - my friend in SFO included, He ONLY wanted to fly CX on the SFO-HKG-SFO or the SQ when it flew that route. Not even UA even UA was $$$$ cheaper. It is this kind of people who are willing to shell out >$8K this year that support CX's current pricing structure, while people on this forum continue to hope for award seat releases...
Originally Posted by
Flying for Fun
I don't deny that. My point was that the seat map isn't indicative that everyone paid O/D pricing.
Here is an example:
On the same dates:
Some passengers are paying a premium to get off the plane in HKG as their destination. Many others are not terminating there.
If I wanted to go to HKG, I would fly to MNL and then do a nested MNL-HKG return and still save more than $2000 over the O/D pricing.
James