Originally Posted by
PaulC852
In general booking on Cathay is preferable. You don't have any problems of buck-passing if there are issues later.
But based on recent experience I would make one exception - if you're booking a Cathay flight starting in India then their payment processing is utterly broken (at least for credit cards not issued in India) to the extent that I have found it impossible to get a transaction to complete (the website says wait 72 hours for confirmation, even after 3DS verification on the credit card, then 3 days later CX says HSBC refused payment and HSBC say, no, we authorised it and we are waiting for the transaction to be posted). So in this case using a travel agent (whether online or physical) may be the only way to actualy succeed in making a booking.
I should follow up on this experience. Despite having CX's confirmation that the transaction did not complete, 16 days after my attempt (and 7 days after the flight I was trying to book) the charge for the ticket appeared on my HSBC credit card. CX has again confirmed that as far as they are concerned the transaction failed, they didn't issue a ticket, and they have not received any money. HSBC says that I authorised the transaction (which I did) so they sent the money (albeit 16 days later). I'm now stuck ~HK$3000 out of pocket in HSBC's chargeback/dispute process although I don't really have any dispute with CX. It isn't clear where the money actually went.
Again, I recommend not attempting to book tickets on the Cathay website for travel originating in India with a credit card issued outside India.